Part Buyers Authority Issue #2

Automated Manufacturing Operations Deliver Better Parts at Reduced Costs Aluminum foundries are of special interest to automotive manufactures to lighten their vehicles. These foundries are now producing suspension and structural casting for most car & light truck platforms including electric vehicles. Automation has helped these foundries to be more efficient and thus more competitive. It enables foundries to deliver higher quality parts at an economical cost. What questions would an engineer or casting buyer ask to determine how automation has benefitted the foundry? You would be smart to visit the foundry and ask how many of the benefits listed below have been realized and to what extent. Today’s foundries can readily show you their continuous improvement plans, value stream maps, and other metrics to quantify and qualify the results from their increased automation. • Increased productivity: Metal casters report productivity increases of 10–300% because robots do not require coffee breaks, lunch periods, sick days and so on. • Reduced costs: Direct labor costs and labor overhead costs such as pensions, health care, safety equipment, etc., are saved. Also consumables costs such as saw blades are reduced as equipment is more productively run at the proper speeds & feed rates. • Reduced injuries and illnesses: Robots can replace a foundry employee working in dangerous and/or hazardous conditions. Many foundry tasks are very undesirable & people just won’t do them. • Improved casting quality: Properly installed and correctly programmed, a robot can perform the same production function repeatedly, rapidly, and consistently without the variations inherent in human handcraft. • High-speed precision: Robots can move and position grippers and attach tools at higher speeds and accuracies than any human operator. Repeatability accuracies for some robot applications approach 0.013 mm (0.0005 in.) and movement speeds of 1270 mm/s (50 in./s) are also possible. • Performance flexibility: Unlike hard automation, programmable robots can be retaught to handle varied and dissimilar tasks. • High uptime: Maximizing the use of capital equipment, robots can achieve uptime performance levels as high as 98% in long-run high- production situations. • Inflation resistance: The hourly rate for a robot installed today will be the same in 5 years, with no slowdowns or strikes. • Round-the-clock output: Robots can work two or three shifts a day, seven days a week given sufficient parts, materials, and maintenance support. • Improved worker morale: Robots have been shown to improve morale, especially when they are installed to perform unpopular foundry tasks. This allows employees the ability to focus on higher value tasks. JOHN KUHN Foundry Automation Specialist RIMROCK CORPORATION FOREWAR 4 PART BUYERS A U T H R I T Y