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Afterone OĂœ 2013-2014 Developments
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Tanel Joost Afterone OĂœ Equa OĂœ Co-owner tanel@equa.ee
Developments in production technology Afterone acquired advanced cnc-machining technology. The company invested into advanced machining centres which enables beside turning work perform also the milling operations. It helps to minimise the machining time cost and increase the accuracy.
In the context of the raise of salaries and other production cost the key for success is to work more efficiently and wizer. Skilled workers are the key factors in maintaining good service level of the company. In order to keep good workers the company has to maintain motivating salary level, but not on the expence of customers. In the recent years the Estonian metal industry have been challenged by increasing communal, electricity and salary cost. At the same time one cannot transfer these expensis onto customers. The only way how to maintain the competition edge is to increase the efficiency of the work process and develope the production technology. Afterone have searched the ways how to improve the production process in CNC-turning and made remarkable investments into new technology. The key aspect in efficiency is to make the parts in
one set up and in one machine. If parts needs beside turning work some milling or drilling operation the new CNC-lathes with live tooling can do it (live tooling picture above). Afterone have invested into CNC-turning centres with live toolings. There are 3 CNC-lathes out of seven with such capabilities. It enables to make the parts faster and more accurate.
EQUA OÜ Complete manufacturing solutions -
Manufacturing of medical devices From prototyping to OEM services Metal constructions and assemblies TIG, MIG and aluminium welding Stainless and mild steel processing Sheet metal processing Stamping Drilling and milling
Lembitu 8, Tartu 50406 Estonia tanel@equa.ee ; www.equa.ee/metall
Italinox Baltic oü
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Sheet metal Pipes and profiles Doors and trap-doors Ball valves, gate valves flanges and fittings Spare parts
Suur-Sőjamäe 10 11415, Tallinn, Estonia Tel.: +372 6101 134 Faks: + 372 6101 135 italinox@italinox.ee www.intalinox.ee “We highly value the cooperation with Italinox Baltic. Thanks to their on-time material deliveries we have been able to keep our promises to customers. ”
Argo Tõruke Afterone production manager
2014 plans How to improve our services? What changes has to be made? The evaluation of the previous years performance have provided answers to these questions. Two main issues have been delivery times and parts finishing/packing. The analysis showed that the “bottle neck” in the manufacturing process is a shortage of CNC-centres with live tooling. These machines were always overloaded which affected negatively the delivery times. In order to improve the situation investments have been made. The recent purchase is a reliable and powerful “work horse” Puma 240M with live toolings. Productivity increase and leadtimes stabilisation should be seen already in the end of 2013. Products finishing and packing plays crucial role in quality management process. Careless finishing or incorrect packing can ruin all the good work done in machining process. In order to improve this aspect special work area have been established and workers instructed. However, this is ongoing process which needs constant attention and evaluation. Proper working instructions has important role in this, however papers can never replace workers attention and “human touch”. Therefor lot training hours must be invested and additional inspection methods invented in 2014. Any feedback from our customers is appreciated.
Former CNC-turning
versus
contemporary CNC-machining
Y-axis
On the picture above there is a former CNC-turning machine inside view. The principle was simple - machined part on the left is rotating and cutting instruments cut the material according to the written program. If there was a need to drill a hole on the side or mill some opening other machines (drilling or milling machines) had to be used. Making additional set-ups and programs for it waisted lot of valuable time. In addition to time cost it caused number of problems if holes had to be positioned accurately. Most of the CNC-machining companies still using such technology and struggeling to achieve needed accuracy and price level.
Contemporary CNC-machining centres combine both turning and milling functions. Afterone has 3 machines with such capabilities, the most modern CNC-turning machine Okuma LB-3000 has 12 live tooling holders (with rotating drills or mills) which can successfully perform complicated milling operations. This technology enables to manufacture very complicated parts in a shortest possible time. On the photo above there is a sample product which is machined with rotating milling instruments and with Y-axis. On the photo on the right there is a product which was formerly manufactured in 3 different machines (lathe, tapping and milling machine) with total machining time of 60 min, now it is done in one set-up in one CNC-lathe with 30 min. Total saving is 50%.
Contemporary CNC-machining technology saves time and efforts, but most importantly it increases the accuracy of the work and surface finishing quality. However, machines itself cannot quarantee the quality, people in the production do.
Quality Management
Tanel Joost Board member Afterone Ltd. tanel@afterone.ee tel. +372 5659040
Afterone have worked out internal quality management system which uses most of the key procedures of ISO 9001:2008. The company constantly analysing existing system. The system must be reliable and well documented, but at the same time with minimum bureaucracy and time cost. The focus is on minimising human error therefor attention is put on workers performance. It is upmost importance to have proper quality system and instructions, but “at the end of the day� the quality depends very much on those people who are in the front line of manufacturing. How does Afterone assures good quality? There are number of procedures set in the production which implementation is mandatory for each worker. For example in technology charts are stored all information related to the parts set-up, complications and tools as well as machining program. It helps to save time on repeating works set-up and minimizes the occurance of repeating mistakes. Quality inspection reports are essential documents which forces workers to check every part measures and provide customers a proof that quality inspection procedures are followed. Beside general procedures every particular product could have its own specific instructions for final finishing, quality control or packing procedures worked out together with customer. As every work is unique for us, so are the approaches in manufacturing process. Quality of service Beside making products correctly it is also important how we serve our customers. Afterone service quality stands upon two simple principles - always keep the promise and keep customer informed. Informing the customer about the progress of orders or possible complications is crucial aspect of service quality. We value honest and straightforward communication. We are lucky that our customers share the same values.
Afterone Ltd. Lembitu 8 Tartu 50406, Estonia Tel. +372 56 59040 tanel@afterone.ee www.afterone.ee
Equa Ltd. Lembitu 8 Tartu 50406, Estonia Tel. +372 5659040 info@equa.ee www.equa.ee