No Naked
Machines!
Just as clothes make the man, accessories make the machine! They save labor, reduce waste, and increase the throughput of your factory; but, like anything else, they can be overdone. Wearing both a belt and suspenders to hold up your pants is analogous to having too much material handling equipment. It’s like wearing a watch on both arms; you'll waste a lot of time checking the time rather than being aware of the time being wasted.
Consultants often suppress a laugh when they see blatant examples of overindulgence, but more often they are driven to tears, by a factory's reluctance to put any accessories at all on machines. Going naked defeats the purpose of your equipment investment. The gains in throughput from new machinery are negated by bottlenecks in material handling, layout and systems. A good example is the front loading panelsaw:
-- Placing a scissors lift in front of the saw is obvious. It's a lot better than having a forklift sit there with its motor idling.
-- Better than one scissors lift are two. Use one to bring raw materials to the saw and the second to stack the cut parts.
-- A further refinement is to mount the raw materials scissors lift on a transfer car so it can rapidly bring full skid loads of different raw materials to the panel saw.
-- Roller conveyors to take the cut panels to the next operation are useful - but only if all the parts are going there... Otherwise sort the parts into job carts after cutting. Remember: use rollers to maintain a structured flow between ‘banked' operations.
--Punching in sizes and optimizing while the panelsaw waits is insane. Use a pc in the office to download your entire cutting list. Optimizing software is of value if volume and cut complexity justify it (i.e., you don't need it to cut 1 l-1/2” wide cabinet sides all day long).
-- A laser line light built into or parallel with the cutting line allows you to perfectly book-match veneered panels.
What have we gained? Each of the above suggestions costs about 5% of the panel saw's installed price:
-- The first scissors lift allows you to operate this machine with one operator rather than two and greatly reduces the potential for back injuries.
-- The second scissors lift can increase productivity about 20%.
-- Storage of commonly used raw materials on roller conveyors allows job shops to drastically reduce fork lift material handling, reducing waiting time and creating a structured storage area.
-- Roller conveyor delivery to the next process reduces floor space requirements, handling time and insures first-in, first-out process control. It's great for many production operations but often creates havoc in job shops. Don't overdo it!
-- Downloading cutting sizes and quantities from a personal computer could allow your saw to cut parts for another hour per day. However, just transferring the task to the office isn't the way to go. Use our CAMS manufacturing control system to automatically produce cut-lists from your customer orders.
-- Optimizing software isn't any smarter than a genius operator with plenty of time to think out his options. It really pays back (in time as well as material) under typical shop conditions when you have large quantities of many small parts. (It doesn't help the factory cutting one 1-3/16 maple ply x 38' x 84" top when all its other short term needs are for thinner material or other species.)
-- The laser line isn't for everyone but is mentioned as an example of the many special concepts and fixtures that can make stock equipment more productive. Check out the options and features carefully before placing your order for a machine. Sometimes the flexibility of ordering a larger capacity machine with plenty of 'whistles and bells' makes sense but if it's for a dedicated use such as cutting raw panels prior to pressing, the money you save by eliminating scoring and other features could be better applied to a back loader or other material handling equipment.
Operating a front loading panel saw with two operators doesn't double output and even if it did you would still have disproportionate productivity losses during setups and for material handling.
Focus on total time not just on operating time when considering process improvements. This can be observed at flow-through machines such as the abrasive planer or widebelt sander. The staffing and setup of these machines differ from job shops to production factories:
q In a custom shop the first accessory investment should be an exit roller conveyor section set at the machine outfeed height. One operator can run the machine when only a few pieces are required. (I hate the: “Hey Joe, drop what you're doing and tail this sander for a minute”, scenario.) The next investment is an infeed scissors lift. Its purpose is to reduce back strain and keep the machine a one person operation.
q Production environments may require scissor lifts, return conveyors, roll-overs, etc. It's difficult to generalize. Substantial labor savings may be realized from a long, powered, outfeed belt that allows operators to inspect and break edges prior to stacking. It's a good example of the most important concept of labor reduction---
Pick up a part
only once!
No Naked Machines was originally published in the June
1991 issue of Wood Works! Ten years later many shops are still running
naked -- why?.