EW Winter 06: Cardwell

	CUSTOMER STORY
	What Does it Take to Keep Manufacturing in the U.S.?

A railroad boxcar handbrake contains 50 components. It is much more complicated to manufacture than it looks.

One of the many steps in the intricate Handbrake cell.

Detailed process documentation is visible throughout all Cardwell Westinghouse cells.

Slack Adjuster Cell: It had 11 CNC machines. Four new CNC machines were added and the cell was reduced to a total of only 7 CNC machines.

This was the old slack adjuster process. Each front and rear jaw had to be locked into a heavy special fixture and then hand loaded into a lathe (for drilling, facing and threading). Each part then required another operation to drill the holes at the end.

by Joe Romanowski
Chairman & CEO
Machinery Systems, Inc.

Common manufacturing logic would dictate that a stable product design containing 50 different components with a volume of 30,000 per year would be a tempting off shore outsource. Why not try to capture the advantage of low off shore labor costs? Well, Cardwell Westinghouse an over 100 year old company in Chicago, IL, www.wabtec.com, has done an exceptional job of developing some extensively engineered cells to strip labor content out of the manufacturing process, and in my opinion, make it difficult to outsource the product.

When I walked into the Cardwell Westinghouse handbrake cell my first impressions were "nice, busy, but something is different here.” I witnessed a group of highly trained people interacting with many machines, operations and material handling equipment, producing a part designed 100 years ago that looked, quite frankly, old fashioned. We’ve all seen handbrakes on every boxcar we’ve ever watched as a train passed. It's that big chain hanging at the bottom that gives it that old fashioned look. I wondered why they still make this product in the U.S. However, as I stood in the cell and began to immerse myself in its numerous manufacturing steps, I found myself captivated by the complexity and detail designed into the cell. At that point, I was inspired! Seven men operate nine Mazak CNC machines, several stamping presses, along with punch and press (at least four bearings) operations, labeling, three welding stations, sub-assembly stations, a really unique threading station, riveting, all putting these 50 parts together into one final assembly every 2 or 3 minutes. They also test, wash and paint in the cell. This cell is set up in a deep horseshoe design and linked by an overhead conveying system. The cell process is well documented. There are laminated process sheets located throughout the cell including photographs and explanations. Each person is expected to execute each process exactly as it is documented. The productivity of the cell is astounding. There is substantial historical expertise and knowledge resident in this cell. It would be very very difficult for a low labor cost country to compete with this process.

Next, we moved on to the slack adjustor cell, a cell that I was familiar with before I entered the plant. We had been working with David Barajas (video link), Technology Engineer, a 33 year veteran with Cardwell to improve the process of an already astoundingly productive cell. The original cell had 11 CNC machines, operating two 10 hour shifts per day with 6 operators, five days a week. The new improved process includes adding 4 new CNC machines and reducing the cell total machines to just 7. With this streamlining, throughput has increased 48%! Eventually, they expect to go to 5 operators per shift. What makes this story worthy to be told is that Cardwell sells about 30,000 of these slack adjusters per year. Once again, it could be tempting to outsource this assembly. Dave Meyer, Vice President/General Manager stated, "We are committed to competing with the world on cost, quality, delivery, and overall performance. We believe that this investment is an important step in our continuing journey to do just that."

David Barajas described their operation as, “a JIT (Just-in-Time) made to order environment. We turn our slack adjuster inventory at least 14 times a year and our goal is to increase our turns to 18.”

David is responsible for programming, tooling, set-up, training and process improvement for Cardwell Westinghouse. He went on to explain, “throughput is very important to us. We look at everything. As an example, a big benefit for us as we improved the throughput of the slack adjuster cell is a big gain in floor space. Our slack adjuster uses 15 machined parts to complete an assembly. Raw material enters at one end of the cell and comes out as a complete assembly, painted and ready to ship. We have very little inventory. A primary reason we are at only 14 turns is because there has been a shortage on some of the metal commodities and we had to advance order to protect ourselves.”

So how did Machinery Systems help to improve this cell? We worked with David and his people to design a special rotary fixture to machine the front and rear jaws on a Mazak Nexus 510C/50 vertical machining center. We also worked together to integrate a Toellner automatic load/unload system on a Mazak Dual Turn 20 to machine the joining cone nut housing.

The new Slack Adjuster Process: A special rotary fixture was designed and built to machine complete in one set-up the front and rear jaws for the slack adjuster assembly.

David Barajas (video link) holds the completed cone nut housing just machined on the automated Mazak Dual Turn 20.

David Barajas (left), Engineering Technician, Cardwell Westinghouse holds one of the slack adjuster jaws machined on the Mazak Nexus VCN510C/50. David worked with Chad Fisher, Applications Engineer, Machinery Systems (MSI), and George (Cardwell electrical contractor) at MSI, Schaumburg, IL to finalize the process.

An interesting grease station in the Slack Adjuster Cell — very simple, designed by David Barajas. Extremely effective and productive!

Cell work can be mind numbing and boring.
David Barajas and David Meyer encourage their operators to study for advancement and personal growth. This young man is doing exactly that!

A Toellner load/unload system now automates the Cardwell Westinghouse Mazak Dual Turn 20 in the slack adjuster cell. Since an operator is no longer needs to load and unload the parts in this operation, labor content has been slashed.

Free MS"eye"Watch Subscription l MSI Homepage | More Customer Stories