Some of the parts manufactured at R&D Manco. Elevating overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) helps the manufacturer increase output and decrease downtime.
Haas CNCs on the shop floor. "The hard-working machinists at R&D Manco are a big part of the company's five plus decades of success," said a company spokesperson.
Predator MDC displayed on a shop floor RTV screen.
(l-r) Kevin Beach and Walter Cornelius, of R&D Manco, with an Okuma CNC. "Increasing machine utilization is now a concern to everyone at R&D Manco," said a company spokesperson.
R&D Manco is a major OEM supplier, using 5-axis and 7-axis CNC machines to make parts such as housings, oil jets, carriers, liners, shrouds, shafts and fittings. "The company specializes in taking casting platform designs to hog-out conversions (machining parts from solid bars or blocks rather than using castings), which reduces cost and lead time for our customers," said a company spokesperson. The company uses a variety of machine tools from Haas, Okuma, Mazak and Hardinge.
Kevin Beach, General Manager, is responsible for machine productivity and is tasked with optimizing utilization. He recently began looking for ways to implement an overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) solution with his existing equipment. Improved productivity and communication were the goals. "The operators just needed a boost to supplement their talents," said Beach. The company had already invested in hardware and Predator CNC Editor software from Shop Floor Automations (SFA) in 2016, which was helping to keep programs in check, but Beach wanted to further improve efficiencies.
In late 2017, the shop began a pilot program of Predator Machine Data Collection (MDC) on three machines. SFA, a Predator Software reseller and manufacturing integrator, implemented the machine monitoring system and was able to shed light on the company's current utilization rates.
"We were trying to identify problems with throughputs and flowing resources to where they were needed," Beach said. It was disappointing when utilization turned out to be lower than expected, but Beach got to work with the new MDC technology.
By studying utilization data gathered by the MDC software, the company found it was able to improve productivity. After the pilot program was over, Beach was convinced this software could help their shop floor improve utilization and allow the company to reduce lead times. MDC was then implemented for 29 machines on the shop floor.
Predator MDC is an on-premise machine monitoring solution specializing in real-time machine data collection. Utilization information and alerts to machine issues help those on the shop floor, or in the front office, increase machine productivity. It comes in two versions: MDC Standard and MDC Enterprise with OEE.
Data collected from machines can be organized via a variety of charts and reports that are easy to understand with 20 groupings using anytime historical time frame. The system automatically collects data from the machine, such as cycle time, idle time and stoppages.
Data can be accessed from shop floor computers, as well as viewed on dashboards throughout the production area. MDC is especially valuable in that it shows set-up time, evaluates downtime and more.
With the real-time data obtained from machines, it makes manual spreadsheets, dependencies on ERP systems, or whiteboards displaying machine status information no longer necessary. It works within multiple plants, and has the ability to collect data wirelessly, via Ethernet, RS232, and Parallel IO. Even legacy machines can collect data with the help of a hardware adapter plus protocols such as MTConnect, FANUC FOCAS, Okuma Thinc, ModBus and OPC UA.
The software also comes with additional benefits, such as the MDC Executive Dashboard. Executive is accessible via an internet browser (Microsoft or Apple-based) without having to install the software, which is convenient for those in the front office needing to quickly collect and view data. MDC also comes with Predator DNC/x, which helps to streamline NC program file transfers and manage machine programs.
All of these abilities were what attracted Beach to utilize MDC on his shop floor. After an adjustment period of learning to use all of the features, gains were quickly experienced by Beach and his team.
In January of 2018, SFA connected with the end user to confirm performance metrics and goals are being achieved as desired. After a span of just five months from this initial check-in, the machines were able to increase spindle uptime by 10%, with month over month gains, according to Beach.
"We have seen a positive change," Beach stated. "We are reaching out to people on the floor, sharing utilization data with them, and asking them for input back to us on what they need to increase their utilization rates. We are seeing communication go back and forth, which is great."
R&D Manco began in 1964 with owner Virgil Manion. It was then purchased by Chuck and Patricia Wyckoff in 1972. They started a sister company, R & D Specialty, in 1984. The two shops later merged, and in 2016 the company was named R & D Manco.
While ownership has changed over the years, it has remained family-owned and has thrived for over five decades, churning out American-made products. The company follows a longtime tradition of incorporating new technology to increase productivity. Chuck Wyckoff was an early adopter of CNC machines.
By 2013, a year shy of its 50th anniversary, the company expanded to 30,000 sq. ft. and staff has more than doubled.
Authored by Amanda Rosenblatt, Marketing Coordinator, Shop Floor Automations, Inc.
For more information contact:
R&D Manco
340 N. 51st Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85043
www.rdmanco.com
Shop Floor Automations, Inc.
5360 Jackson Drive, Suite #202
La Mesa, CA 91942
877-611-5825 / 619-461-4000
info@shopfloorautomations.com
www.shopfloorautomations.com