War Wagon
MC I have been working in R&D for the last 12 years. I came from field service where I did what ever needed done but controls and PLC programing is what I did most. I am also a tin knocker, started with the company installing duct in the mid 70's. With that said the CEO came down to the lab and ask me to take over the CNC center Wed. I don't know Jack about what they do but it looks cool but damm in am in a rock and a hard place. Our CNC center is a building that was built inside our plant for temp control, drilling is outside this building along with one CNC machine that is too big for the building. Here is a list of what we have.
Drilling Machines 1 6-station overhead drilling and tapping unit, 18' x 32' x 12'
1 Snow tapping machine, 0.0" to 0.38"
8 Heavy-duty drill presses, multiple spindle arrangement
3 Flexible arm drill and tapping machines Machine Shop
5 Alliant Series I mills, vertical with digital readout
1 Anayak production mill, horizontal or vertical
1 DoAll 3012 vertical band saw
2 Drill presses
1 Sunnen honing maching
1 Acer AGS-1632 HD 3 axis automatic Surface Grinder
CNC Machine Centers 1 Fadal Vertical 907-1, 3 axis, 60" x 30" x 25"
1 Fadal Vertical 907-1, 3 axis, 80" x 30" x 25"
1 Kitamura Vertical Bridge Center 8, 3 axis, 80" x 42" x 27"
1 Mitsui Seiki HR6A Horizontal, 4 axis, 51" x 39" x 33"
1 Mitsui Seiki HS5A Horizontal, 4 axis, 33" x 27" x 29"
1 Mori Seiki SV-500, 4 axis, 38" x 20" x 20"
1 Mori Seiki SV-50, 4 axis, 31" x 20" x 20"
1 Kiwa Vertical 4L, 3 axis, 31" x 18" x 18"
1 Kiwa 4L CNC machining center, 20" x 40"
1 Kiwa Vertical 1310 Mustang, 4 axis, 51" x 21" x 21"
1 Mitsubishi Vertical MPV55, 3 axis 39" x 21" x 24"
Turning Centers 1 Mori Seiki SL25 turning center
1 Mazak CNC Quick Turn 15
1 Harrison M350
1 Hardinge Tool Room Lathe w/ digital readout
1 Hardinge Secondary Lathe
1 Harrison lathe
Most of this equipment is old and am told won't hold tolerance and the program must be written to take this into account.
I start Monday and not sure how the guys are going to take this change, I do know most of them though which will help but I will still be the outsider. Any things I should be on the look out for?
Thanks,
War Wagon
jeepsr4ever
They want you to program or to fix the machines?
I would take that Fadal and that Mazak off their hands. :mrgreen:
War Wagon
They want me to be the supervisor over the whole machine shop. Now get this, I am to only spend 20% of my time there and 80% doing what I was doing in R&D. Thank goodness they have a good lead man that is a friend, for now anyway, he don't know yet, the change will take place Monday. They want someone to take a new look at how things are done. We do send a lot of parts outside to be made and that has to stop per what I was told. Now I did run the Service Department for almost 10 years so I know how to manage people. This will be the first time that I will be telling someone to do something that I can not do myself, for now anyway.
War Wagon
[quote=jeepsr4ever]I would take that Fadal and that Mazak off their hands. :mrgreen:[/quote]
That may happen, if this does not work out everthing will be sold. They and I am under the gun on this one. They did just put new spindle bearings on the Fadal this year but it hardley ever runs. I know that it did not even run for 6 months once, can't make money like that.
jeepsr4ever
First thing I would do is make sure eachmachine had its backlash perameters set or check them before you start to make good parts. This shouldnt take very long at all. You want to keep the lead man ontop of setups and making sure each employee is keeping sharp and a keen eye on what they are making and doing at all times. You shouldnt have a problem with a good lead man but you will have to have an initial meeting with him to get him to understand we are at a breaking point with the mfg of parts in house and that everything is on the line. This should get him to form an alliance.
I would also suggest a plant meeting with everyone from the machine shop and letting them know work is coming back and we are running on the line. Let them know that their performance coming up can make or break the machining end of the company and see if your superiors can offer a bonus for them based on time refferenced performance. If they will mention this to them at the meeting and if not then let them know that you are faced with this unprecedented responsibility and will need their help.
If your guys are worth their spit they should be able to handle most anything thrown at them in a good timeframe. Timeframe is EVERYTHING when it comes to machining and as you know time is money. Keep a log, journal and keep the communication lines completely open because like any transfer you will be faced with the unforseen issues you just want to make sure your laced up and may have a clue as to why, how this happened and a quick solution.
I am more than happy to help out any way I can witout disrupting the mfg here.
War Wagon
Thanks MC,
I guess if I can jump you mini bike and not crash like Zack did I can do this. Hay ya'll watch this. LOL
I will keep you posted on how things are going.
War Wagon
jeepsr4ever
Please do Jim I have ran a couple of ships in very stormy weather and came out very well. Mudrat is also very good at running management and if he has time he will chime in. If you need any specific programming info such as G code or mazak mazatrol dont hesitate to ask I am more than willing to help bud!
Yes and funny on the minibike :?:
rollen dean montoya
don't forget even this aircraft builder might know about building quality parts. none of my work has ever fallen out of the air.
good luck war wagon. if you can get everyone on board and
put out an excellent quality product they will find out that
making quality products equall lots of money. the quality is up
the more customers you get the more overtime you get to keep up with the demand.
War Wagon
Thanks guys, today just about blew my mind, info overlaod at the least. All the guy's were OK with the change so far. I see problems right off and out of the gate. The programer we have is good but he is having medical problems and is the only one who can program, I must fix this ASAP, we use G code. One machine must be programed at the OIU and the rs 232 connection will not work, was told that it lost it's bubble memory, what ever that is. I could go on but I am beat and going to bed. Hope tomorrow will be better, production meeting at 9:45, we will see how that goes.
War Wagon
War Wagon
Start of the third week and things are getting better. Being most of what we do is military the inspection process is a nightmare and we end up with alot of rework that upsets planning. Change orders while we are working on or just finishing an order don't help either. Yes we charge for it but again it upsets the flow in the shop. I am going to be runnng the 4L tomorrow after it is set up to take care of a change order as I can't pull others off their machines as we have deadlines to meet before the end of the month. I am sure MC that you have been here before. LOL
War Wagon
jeepsr4ever
:idea: :t:
Lifted79CJ7
Just be glad you don't have to program this thing....
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quN37YskoaM[/url]
Mudrat
Just got a chance to get through some posts. Everything going OK for you? How's the team building going?
War Wagon
[quote=Mudrat]Just got a chance to get through some posts. Everything going OK for you? How's the team building going?[/quote]
Sorry for the delay in replying but that place is turning into a nightmare and I have my hands full. The guys are working well together but the work load is up and down week by week. I had to lay off one guy two weeks ago (I would rather fire someone than to have to lay someone off) but was able to bring him back this week. Got called onto the carpet about running over machining hours on one job 1130%, yes 1130%.
I had to remind then that the NC punch will not hold tolerance (worn out ball screws) and all parts for that job now had to be machined instead. The work I have brought back into the shop is just now hitting the machines and the first parts are in the CMM as I type this, I hope to have good news in the morning.
Mudrat
[b][size=7]1130% ??? JEEZ!!!![/size][/b]
Has the 'upper level' realized the need to repair the punch machine to improve through-put without machining (the regular machine is increasing production time and manpower by being out of tolerance).
I might be able look back in our files and see if I can provide the repair to maintenance ratios, but I can guarantee it will be a hell-of-a-lot better than 1130% in cost!!
When I was working as a Reliability Engineer, one (Pharmaceutical) company I was analyzing considered a $10,000 motor “expendable” so they didn’t want to do any maintenance to double its life (simple oiling & greasing, with a vibe and alignment for the flex-coupling) more than 3 years (and they had 12 of these). Then consider the 'down-time' on those motors (air conditioning) that affected other areas ... I don’t know of any other company that would “throw away” more than $120,000.00 in material and effort (can't work without a fume-hood) every three years – business must be REAL good!!!! :shock:
So you have a good 'team' working the projects? :-|
jeepsr4ever
Ballscrews are cheap but installing them is not. I love the updates please keep them coming and let me know if you guys wat to move your 8030
War Wagon
All I can say is "all out cluster"
VP of MFG quit, read forced out.
Now run by numbers only guy.
We will see.
WW
War Wagon
Having problems machining 304 SS blocks.
The blocks came in way over size so we had to cut them down which added time to job. My machinest said the block were really hard because they had been flame cut. Blocks are 2.75"X4.5"X8" by the way. Next we have to drill a hole for the internal port and then weld the opening of the hole up with a plug. Then the plug welded surface is faced. Machinest said that made the surface harder and cost us more time. Now he did not want to do any more to these blocks until the were sent out to ne annealed but management said no. We went on with the drilling and porting (new tooling thank God) and finally got them done but what a nightmare. You could watch the load meter and it would really load up at times and other times the load was low and steady. Machinest said that it was soft and hard spots in the blocks. So what do you guys think?
1. I found some info that said that you can not harden 304 by heat treating.
2. Was this a bad batch of blocks (Material)?
3 I have always in the past found that to drill stainless you used slow speed and steady pressure. If you let the drill bit slip you work harden it and then it's a bitch. I have never worked with 304 SS before.
4. The machinest start the tapping of the ports in the HS5 but finished the tapping by hand and said that some ports tapped easy as pie then others were so tough that he could only turn the tap handle .125" at a time.
We lost our ass on these but we must figure out how to do these in the future.
jeepsr4ever
NEVER FLAME CUT 304!! It gets harder than hell! It is almost un anneallable. Once its hard you can only bring it down a little. 304 hardens VERY easily. I am suprised your machinist was able to muscle it out!! That stuff gets HARD and TOUGH to machine. Doable but the range of speed and feed are VERY narrow.
War Wagon
MC I think they will let the Mazak go, they had a used equipment guy look at it the other day. I will check on it tomorrow for you.
