NEWS

www.engineeringnews.co.nz August 2009

8

This article summarises compelling advice from those engineers and manufacturers who have moved on to now use in-expensive PCs on their factory fl oor, to time

track jobs and staff and track the status of all jobs – which is all reported back to produc-tion management ‘live’. One simple system has gener-ated substantial increases in factory productivity for busi-nesses like these below.One point, however, is that time tracking software is not to be seen as a way to reduce staff numbers. It really has to be viewed as an enormous aid to enhanced productivity.Peter Edwards, productionmanager of Hydestore, Auck-land says: “There were sig-nifi cant limitations from the old manual paper time sheet system that factory staff fi lled in. Advancing to time tracking software has been very good for us in improving produc-tion planning and maximising

Is it time?By Sean O’Sullivan

Manual time sheets that factory staff fi ll in at the end of the day were used 100 years ago and are commonly known as ‘lie sheets’ and ‘cheat sheets’ for obvious reasons.

work fl ow and productivity.” Rob Coffey, production man-ager of Longveld Engineering Hamilton, believes that, “time sheets staff used to fi ll in at the end of the day are the old, hard time consuming, inac-curate way to track and report times on jobs and monitor

production.” “PCs on the factory fl oor and time tracking software now help factory staff and man-agement eliminate downtime and maximise throughput of jobs.” While Colin Hitchen, owner manager of Locheil Engi-neering Southland says his company proceeded with computers in the factory and a job time tracking system ten months ago, and are now pro-ducing the same number of trailers with a lot less factory staff. The company’s aim is to achieve the same amount of trailers with half the number of men. All factory staff are ‘focused’ and fi nally under-stand the concept that time is money. And Lochiel’s factory productivity ‘has gone through the roof’ as a result. MARS Transport of Riverland, (South Australia) has been in business for thirty years. Pro-ductivity and profi tability had been struggling for years and Peter Morelli the owner, was considering selling the busi-ness as he’d had enough. “We have been using the system for six months now and have turned our factory productiv-

ity on its ear, increasing it by an absolute minimum 30 per cent.” This factory produc-tivity increase has taken the

company from being in the red to signifi cantly – in the black. Alex Fougere, manager of Mid West Engineering Auckland be-lieves that manual time sheets were proving time consuming and horribly inaccurate; so the company moved forward into software based, accurate and detailed job management. By

budgeting hours, the workshop staff now have a far better un-derstanding of the time targets associated with each job, and management have the ability to pick up on areas that need improvement in a proactive manner.Rivet Sheetmetal of New Ply-mouth used time sheets and they advanced to PCs in the factory and time tracking. Factory staff are now totally accountable for the time spent on their job. “From years of experience we know that time sheets do NOT motivate staff to meet budgeted times. Whereas we have seen that with PCs and time tracking software factory staff see and know the time is ticking away on jobs. It certainly does motivate staff to meet times on jobs,” says Ash Cottam, production manager.The time tracking system at Stile Aluminium, Christchurch keeps factory staff totally aware of their productivity. The re-porting of actual and budgeted times on jobs is an invaluable database of times for costing and quoting managers to ana-lyse, prior to undertaking new quotations. The company pur-chased a system twelve months

Peter Edwards, production manager of Hydestore

ago and at that time had eight factory staff – now there are fi ve and improved production ratios. This is a 60 per cent increase in staff and factory productivity.And as a fi nal example, how about Phoenix Aluminium of Auckland whom you will have read about before in New Zea-land Engineering News?Jon Martin, managing director says that, “if we had not imple-mented time tracking software eleven years ago, I am pretty confi dent that we would not be in business today.” “Eleven years ago we had 26 factory staff and were strug-gling with being productive – and solely with the use of time tracking software we reduced staff down to 10.5 – at the same time increasing output. This saves us in excess of $40,000 a month in wage costs and the system has al-lowed us to build the company back up to 30 factory staff at this time last year.”

Ash Cottam

Delcam will launch the new version of its Fea-tureCAM feature-based machining software at the EMO exhibition in Milan from 5th to 10th October.

The new release will include enhancements across the full range of FeatureCAM func-tionality, from 2D drilling and wire EDM, to fi ve-axis milling and mill-turn operations. This refl ects the increased invest-ment in development of the software since its acquisition by Delcam in 2005.FeatureCAM was the world’s fi rst feature-based program-ming system when it was introduced in 1995. Its high degree of automation gives faster programming than other CAM systems; a range of enhancements in the 2010 version will make the software even quicker. Most important of these developments is sup-port for multi-threading when generating 3D toolpaths, al-lowing calculations to be spread across multiple cores in dual- or quad-core comput-ers. Average time savings are around 25 per cent on a dual-core PC.Improved algorithms have been introduced within the user interface to speed up the editing of features and to reduce the time needed to switch between machine-tool set-ups. More effi cient handling of stock models will reduce the memory required and so enhance performance still further.

The most innovative new pro-gramming option is combined drilling and milling function-ality, that will allow more effi cient hole creation on ma-chines fi tted with automatic tool changing. It generates roughing and fi nishing tool-paths to produce any holes for which the appropriate drill is not loaded, using the existing tooling within the machine’s crib.The new option is much faster than having to change the tooling available to match the set of hole sizes in each job, especially for companies manufacturing prototypes or short-run components. It will allow complex parts to be produced more easily in cases where the range of hole sizes is larger than the number of po-sitions in the crib. In addition, the number of different tools that need to be stocked can be reduced and it will be much simpler to move jobs between different machine tools.Companies that do not have automatic tool changing on their machines can also ben-efi t. In some cases, it will be possible to use a combination of drilling and milling with a single cutter to generate all the holes in the part. This could then allow the complete sequence to be run without the machine needing to be manned.Other new options include a new spiral fi nishing option that gives faster machining and improved surface fi nish with no dwell marks, and automatic

rest roughing to minimise air cutting when applying a series of progressively-smaller rough-ing cutters. In addition, a 3D chamfer can be added to a part, even when this is not shown in the model, for de-burring and similar clean-up operations.Machining simulation has also been made faster and more accurate, in particular for simultaneous fi ve-axis ma-chining. In addition, a new dual-view option allows a part to be viewed from two-dif-ferent angles simultaneously. This will be most helpful when simulating the production of large or complex parts.The range of post-processors available with FeatureCAM has been further extended for both fi ve-axis and mill-turn equip-ment. New machines now supported include the DMG CTX and GMX, Doosan Puma MX and TT, Mazak Integrex ST, Nakamura NTX and NTJX, and Okuma Macturn.

For further information contact: Camplex NZ Ltd, Tel: 06 836 7487 or visit: www.camplex.co.nz

Delcam to launch new FeatureCAM at EMO

In times when every dollar counts, the Shuz Tung range of tube bending machines provides engi-neering workshops with an affordable alternative without any compromise

to precision or quality.Shuz Tung Machinery has built up an excellent reputa-tion around the world as being the experts when it comes to producing tube bending machines.The range is broadly divided between CNC, NC and manu-ally controlled machines, all incorporating a mandrel to prevent any distortion of the tube during the bending process.

The CNC series ranges from a single axis through to an eight axis machine. The eight axis machine can bend tubes from 16mm to 100mm in diameter. Operators can programme and run the machines via a user-friendly PC or an LCD touch screen.The NC series allows the op-erator to programme both the degree of the bend and the bending speed, again via an easy-to use PC and touch screen. The series can bend tubes from 25mm to 170mm in diameter, so it’s capable of a wide variety of applications including bike frames and furniture.Diversity is a key benefi t of

Part of the Shuz Tung range

Shuz Tung tube bending machines affordable

the Shuz Tung range. Various accessories are available for feeding and rotating the tubes and the bed of the machine can be tailored to suit the cus-tomer’s requirements. Shuz Tung are excellent to work with for addressing a customer’s specifi c needs. One example is the successful in-stallation of a NCB100 to bend light gauge aluminium tubing for a client in Hamilton. Chevpac Machinery is the sole New Zealand agent for the Shuz Tung range.

For further information contact: Chevpac Machinery, Tel: 0508 243 872 or visit: www.shuztung.com.tw

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