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Reference Zone > Industry Sectors | | |
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Manufacturing Computer Solutions's Reference Zone provides editorial features.
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Essential differential
Some striking developments in one of the main types of differential used in motor sport have caught the eye of Tom Shelley |
12/03/2008
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Who grasps virtual space
Everybody who’s anybody is saying it: even in quite small organisations IT managers would be well advised to investigate the potential for savings and efficiencies through consolidation and virtualisation – of their servers, storage, operating systems and whole IT networks. Virtualisation meaning decoupling the physical infrastructure hardware from the software and data it runs by means of an abstraction layer that provides for policy-based management of shared resources. The business case involves everything from reduced server real estate and complexity to simplified admin, improved utilisation, possibly also resilience and certainly flexibility – including with archiving and back-up. It’s about making the infrastructure cheaper to buy, own, run and manage, as well as better able to respond to changing business requirements, even on the fly. |
26/01/2007
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Built on blueprints
Akzo Nobel’s Marine and Protective Coatings Business Unit – International Paint to most of us – is approaching its next major ERP upgrade as anything but an IT project. Like an increasing number of more enlightened global manufacturers, it sees this very much as a business project predicated on clear prospects for significant business economies and improvements, all the result of new IT capabilities that substantially change what’s feasible. But what’s particularly intriguing is that its expectations are so high and so compelling despite the company having already taken what those in the know would describe as a model business-centric approach to IT that dates right back to the late ‘90s. |
20/01/2007
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Make collaboration scream for SMEs
Whereas large manufacturers can manage how things are done and with which systems, engineering SMEs have to be more flexible and resourceful, finding ways of tapping into and integrating with suppliers and customers that benefit all parties. Again, large companies often have their own initiatives and big ticket PLM (product lifecycle management) systems to manage changing engineering data and to accelerate development, but smaller companies facing the same challenges need a more modest approach – and one capable of protecting their intellectual property. But it can and is being done: today many products are the result of collaborations between teams in different countries, often on different sides of the world. |
19/01/2007
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What can go wrong when you give IT the large
The news that the Airbus A380 is two years behind schedule because its German and Spanish offices were using Catia V4 CAD/CAM software, while its French and UK offices used V5, and the German engineers in Hamburg could not add their electrical wiring design changes to the common 3D digital mock-up in France, should serve as a warning to us all. |
18/12/2006
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IT keys to mouth watering benefits
If you’re after a vision of how an ERP system implementation can become both driver and foundation of a total business transformation, look no further than Yorkshire Water. This one is extreme, and although the ERP system happens to be SAP, it’s the business objectives and how they were met that matter most here. |
11/12/2006
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Data hub gets global bearings group rolling
When automotive bearings firms Glacier Industrial Bearings, Glacier Vandervell and Garlock Bearings came together as GGB, the group found itself with 13 sites around the world, some manufacturing, some distribution, some sales offices – but all with different ERP and legacy systems and incompatible business processes and parts data. It needed to consolidate its IT, but it also needed to cut costs, reduce inventories and improve customer service by getting slick and lean internally, inter-site and in its supply chains. |
04/12/2006
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Sharp on scheduling
More efficient scheduling, much faster response to customer enquiries, better management reporting and simplified business visibility: those are top benefits cited by US-based contract pharmaceutical packaging company Sharp Corp since it introduced twin Preactor APS (advanced planning and scheduling) systems. |
28/11/2006
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Rexam revisits quality package
A shop floor quality system implementation recently completed at packaging giant Rexam’s 21 factories across Europe is doing much more than QA. In fact, it’s doing everything from automatically generating conformance certificates and production audit trails, to providing operator assistance and information for process improvement and business decision-making. |
16/11/2006
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Visualisation speeds paths to production
In the words of Phil Sholl, managing director of AMTRI, formerly the Advanced Machine Tool Research Institute: “You cannot design a component without thinking about how you are going to make it.” At least you can, and engineers all too often do, but it’s extremely foolish. In short, it is not enough to design it, nor even to design it and then think about how it is going to be made. Engineers need to model the making of the part to see that it is feasible. Nothing new, and CAM (computer aided manufacturing) packages have had this facility for years, while wire frame simulation of machining has gradually given way to rendered solid models. However, such simulations all assume that everything is going to run perfectly, and there are many manufacturing processes that until now could not be modelled at all. |
07/11/2006
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Flexible ERP injects massive savings
Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP (Axapta as was) is doing sterling service at Danish food and cosmetics gums and pastes manufacturer Gumlink and its gum-based drugs business unit Fertin Pharma. The system proved flexible enough to link easily with its 100-plus other software packages across the company’s three production sites, and to enable rapid and economic essential custom code generation. And for its pharmaceuticals production site, the system was also developed and certified by Microsoft in accordance with GAMP (Good Automated Manufacturing Practice) and FDA (Food & Drug Agency) requirements. |
31/10/2006
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Scheduled for massive growth
A cool $70 million of additional annual revenues is being recorded by steel producer Companhia Siderúrgica de Tubarão (CST) in Espírito Santo, Brazil, thanks entirely to an advanced planning and scheduling system from Preactor, implemented by local reseller Tecmaran. Preactor schedules operations in line with several rules and strategies, using orders to be satisfied as the input. Some parameters are fixed while others can be modified – for example, availability of pig iron can modify speed of steel production. The rules adopted are primarily: balance orders to keep the casting machines working (with priorities); minimise WIP; and balance the converter machines with casting machines. |
31/10/2006
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Utilisation up and wastage slashed
Yorkshire plastics mouldings firm Fourfold Precision Mouldings’ use of Delmia Quest factory simulation software won it the coveted first prize for the huge results delivered just weeks after relocation to its new premises. Fourfold managing director Martin Wilson says that, for example, with a robot on the machines, production on each shift was increased by more than 40% while scrap levels reduced to less than 0.5%. |
04/10/2006
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BMP cuts manufacturing from months to minutes
BMP, a wholly owned subsidiary of multi-national Andrew Industries making printers and photocopiers, has been recognised for its use of Delmia manufacturing engineering software from Dassault Systèmes in developing a revolutionary production process for polyurethane components. The company’s Accrington plant, which is in operation 24/7, specialises in high-grade polyurethane blades for wiping toner from printer and photocopier machines’ transfer drums. Previously, only manual labour was able to cope with the complexity – meaning long set-up times and making production in China attractive. |
04/10/2006
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Production turnaround comes from auto-tracking
Automotive manufacturer TRW, which makes 20—30,000 electrically powered hydraulic steering motors per week mainly for other TRW sites supplying into the major automotive OEMs, achieved its success on the back of a tracking system implementation that bridged a gap between the company’s ERP system and its shop floor, enabling significant and ongoing improvement of production metrics. According to IS manager Malcolm Brown, who project managed the implementation with help from Wolf Consultancy, the initial focus was to validate TRW’s product welding process using traceability and prior step validation for a particular customer. But the benefits gained from the initial system were so good that it has now been rolled out throughout the site. |
04/10/2006
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Lean thinking flies on wireless technologies
Airbus UK’s materials management and logistics department in Filton was highly commended for its use of mobile technology to strip out vast amounts of waste and time. In fact, the company achieved full return on its IT investment within weeks of implementing the systems – and is now set to take a considerably wider wireless initiative even further. David Herbert, business improvement change agent, says this implementation was part of Airbus UK’s Route ’06 programme, looking for productivity gains and cost savings. He started with mobile technology in stock and WIP (work in progress) auditing, which used to be performed manually several times a year, taking 20 people and 100 man-hours at overtime rates. Peak Technologies supplied Symbol mobile handhelds, and the result of scanning and uploading data to the site SAP system was a transformation. |
04/10/2006
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Floored the competition with its real time data
Flooring manufacturer Amtico, which has two near identical sites in Coventry and another in Atlanta, merited our judges’ commendation for its transition from poor to excellent maintenance and production operations in one fell swoop, all on the back of a new plant data capture and analysis system. Not only did that system pay for itself in solving the very first long term plant problem it revealed, but since then it has opened the door to business understanding that no-one imagined. |
04/10/2006
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Magellan speeds up on collaborative IT
Aircraft equipment builder Magellan Aerospace (UK) has developed a collaborative system that enables its designers to work with production and suppliers all through new product development. The result is not only faster, better, more joined-up processes and faster time to market, but risk mitigation all round. |
04/10/2006
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Cosworth makes team working world class
Northampton-based race engine developer Cosworth has created a common information window for engineering, purchasing and suppliers that’s transformed its business operations. The firm implemented Documentum’s eRoom, initially for exchanging CAD information but is now enabling collaboration with customers and suppliers way beyond design. According to Cosworth head of business systems Jeremy Hill, the system, which has about 200 users internally and 100 customers and suppliers, is delivering huge benefits. “Things are so much more organised and clear. It would be a shock to see how much we’ve saved: for example, it’s probably more than doubled the effectiveness of our processes.” |
04/10/2006
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CAD and PDM transform Mitsubishi MotorSports
Mitsubishi MotorSports (MMSP) has cut development times for its Lancer Evolution World Rally Championship (WRC) cars by a full 30% while also improving design accuracy, product quality and manufacturing consistency – it was a clear front runner, said the judges. It’s achievements have come since standardising on PTC’s Pro/Engineer 3D solid modelling, Wildfire collaboration tools and Pro/Intralink CAD data management system. Chief designer Paul Doe says the MMSP development team now works entirely collaboratively. It uses PTC tools for everything from development and modification of complete surface design and car components, to CAE tasks including structural and thermal simulation and FEA (finite element analysis) of highly stressed and safety-critical parts. |
04/10/2006
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Roaming access is right formula for mobile work
Polymer products and chemicals manufacturer Chemtura was highly commended for its noteworthy competitive advantage and productivity improvements achieved by providing its 300 mobile workers with context-sensitive access to real-time information and applications via Citrix systems. The company was already using centralised server-based computing on Citrix Presentation Server for Windows to deploy applications like SAP BW (business intelligence), but wanted to extend this to deliver role-based access to information and applications through a web browser. |
04/10/2006
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Network accelerators solve WAN latency problems
Precision Disc Castings’ use of compression technology to solve group-wide network traffic problems led the Best of British panel to award it a Highly Commended honour. The firm, one of Europe’s leading producers of automotive brake discs and drums, has two foundries, one in Poole, Dorset, another in the Czech republic, plus two further finishing plants, one in Dudley and the other in Germany, as well as remote branches. Two and a half years ago, it implemented a Foxpro ERP system across all sites, with multiple instances served in a Citrix environment from the Poole data centre, covering around 20 users. But when that grew to around 50, it soon hit problems. |
04/10/2006
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Disk-to-disk-to-tape takes 80% off back-up times
Critical data back-up times reduced by 80%, greatly enhanced data protection, much faster disaster recovery times and better business continuity protection earned electronic and industrial products firm Premier Farnell a ‘Highly Commended’ award from our independent panel of judges. The improvements came after implementing new disk-to-disk-to-tape technology. The company had been running short of storage capacity on its 200-plus servers, but also needed to cut disaster recovery times so that it could restore critical data systems within four hours. |
04/10/2006
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Cut IT management time from months to days
MOD engineering supplier Weir Strachan & Henshaw was highly commended for its use of Computer Associates’ Unicenter, which cut software installation and project management times from months to just days. CA’s suite now covers IT asset management, remote control and software delivery, desktop DNA and service desk across WSH’s 500 employees. IT manager Glyn Barnett reckons it’s enabling his team to deliver better business value. “Before we implemented CA’s technology, we spent as much as an hour and a half on each desktop rolling out new software or program upgrades. Multiply this by the hundreds of PCs we have, and that’s a lot of man-hours. Since moving to CA’s Unicenter, we completed our latest software installation programme over the course of two evenings.” |
04/10/2006
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An ideal standard for Ideal Standard
Automated EDI transactions with customers now up 25% in Italy and 40% in the UK are among early benefits at bathroom and kitchen fixtures manufacturer Ideal Standard – as a result of implementing an integration server system aimed eventually at covering its entire global trading community. Not only is it shaving cost from what were previously inefficient manual processes, but it’s improving customer service, increasing order accuracy, speeding up problem resolution and driving business volumes. |
03/10/2006
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