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Product category: Motor sports manufacturing: machining, software, CAM
News Release from: DLoG (UK) | Subject: DLoG DNC and shop floor information system
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial Team on 10 September 2002

DNC and info system shortens machining
lead-times

Motosport pressure leans heavily on the continual shortening of factory lead times, achieved by a DNC system and a shop floor manufacturing information system at Cosworth Racing.

'Time is money', as the old adage goes However, in the motorsport arena, time assumes even more importance - with fractions of a second making the difference between winners and 'also rans'

Its significance is by no means lost on Cosworth Racing, a name synonymous with success in all categories of motorsport.

With products that are invariably specified to extremely close tolerances; produced in small batches; required on the tightest of lead times; and subject to frequent modifications, it's no surprise that the company should always be looking at ways of streamlining its production methods.

Through its programme of continuous improvement, Cosworth Racing has recently extended the scope of its DLoG DNC and shop floor manufacturing information system to include machine tool monitoring and data collection, with dramatic results.

With experience spanning four decades, Cosworth Racing is a world leader in design, development and manufacture of ultra high performance engines for racing, rally and road car applications.

Cosworth Racing provides powerplant technology and design solutions for teams in Formula 1, World Rally, CART (USA) and Motorbike racing, as well as racing engine technology transfer to the Premier Automotive Group of Ford Motor Company.

The company's continuing success has seen turnover quadruple since 1990, to a figure in excess of 110 million (US) dollars.

Today, more than 20,000 pistons and almost 600 complete racing engines - 60 of which are destined for Formula One - are produced annually at its world-class manufacturing facilitates in Northampton, UK.

The company's 650 UK and 75 US employees, know that they can't afford to stand still if they are to maintain their leadership position.

It's this impetus to continually improve its methods that led Cosworth Racing to implement a DNC and shop floor manufacturing data system from DLoG some years ago.

According to the company's Machine Shop Manager, Paul Green, the system opened the way to productivity improvement by providing a wide range of manufacturing data - such as tool lists, machine offsets, product drawings and set up information - directly to the operators on the shop floor, via PCs located within the appropriate manufacturing cells.

"The system works extremely effectively, delivering accurate information to the shop floor.

But this is only part of the story," he explains.

"We recognised that up-to-the-moment information on the status of each machine tool in the shop could hold the key to maximising utilisation of our production resources, as well as optimising manufacturing throughput." At that time, set-up, delays and production periods were recorded on hand-written cards and subsequently entered on to Excel forms.

However, the shortcomings of this approach were all too clear.

"The situation was also compounded by the fact we were coming under pressure from customers to provide more detailed information regarding quality and delivery times," says Green.

"Manual data acquisition took up precious production time.

What's more, the information was sometimes inaccurate, incomplete and often difficult to read.

Moreover, one member of staff had to be allocated to collect the sheets and then enter the data into the computer." In order to address these issues, Cosworth Racing established a project team under the leadership of Mr Green.

Key requirements and selection criteria were quickly established.

High on the company's wish list was the need for the new system to be simple to operate.

Equally, it would have to be based on the proprietary Windows operating system and be easily integrated with existing shop floor applications.

"The proven reliability of our DNC system, backed by first class customer support meant we had already established an excellent relationship with DLoG," says Green.

"Through subsequent discussions, it became clear that they could not only fulfil our requirements, but also provide a protected path for future development of the system, if required." Even so, Green evaluated a number of other alternatives as part of a thorough market investigation before finally selecting the DLoG solution.

In order to minimise disruption to production, it was decided to phase the installation of the system over a period of time - with the company's connecting rod section earmarked as the first area for implementation.

In operation, the DLoG data collection system is largely automatic.

Information on machine status and stoppages is recorded through hardware signals, without the need for any manual input.

However, the system also allows quick and effective input of data that cannot be collected automatically - such as periods when operators are attending meetings or waiting for material.

The relevant data is stored on a central network and is processed by DLoG Prisma software to provide cell leaders with a real-time overview of production status, machine utilisation and any delays.

In parallel, the system automatically generates reports to provide production management, supervisors and the company's manufacturing director with the information they need.

These summaries can be easily modified on demand and presented in a variety of industry standard formats, such as Microsoft Excel.

During the three-month pilot phase, a reporting anomaly was identified with Cosworth Racing's multi-pallet machine tools.

It was discovered that if the 'pallet hold' button was depressed while the machine spindle was still rotating, an erroneous 'in production' signal would be generated.

This was easily overcome by the introduction of an additional hardware input, which now ensures that true production times are recorded.

A further feature of Cosworth's operations is that operators may be away from the manufacturing cell when individual machines complete their cycle.

To enable these occurrences to be recorded accurately, the system has been configured to automatically lock the machine tool after a pre-determined period; preventing it from being re-started until a reason for the delay has been entered.

Following the successful completion of the pilot phase, Cosworth Racing rolled out the system throughout the remaining six production areas at its Northampton site.

To ensure complete user acceptance and familiarity with the new system, DLoG tailored a series of on-site training sessions for operators on all three shifts.

"This induction programme was important to put employees' minds at ease," says Green.

"The system's clear screen dialogues enabled operators to become proficient within a short time.

This, in turn, promoted high acceptance of the new software environment.

We also held weekly meetings with staff to discuss the recorded data, highlight any issues and review any possible improvements." Today, the DLoG system is employed for real-time machine status and shop floor data collection.

It is also planned to utilise the software's ability to interface job booking information directly with the company's Preactor finite capacity scheduling system in the future.

Looking back, Green believes that the close relationship between Cosworth Racing and DLoG was one of the reasons that enabled the implementation to be completed so smoothly.

"It is reflected in the results we have achieved," he adds.

"The previous hand written time cards have now been totally eliminated.

We are not only working from more accurate data, but the time taken for its acquisition has been slashed.

Our team leaders have effectively gained an extra hour a day to devote to productive work.

As a result, we have optimised our production processes - with major time, cost and productivity benefits." And for the future? Well, such has been the system's success that plans are already in hand to extend it further - this time to enable all customer order and production requirements data to be transferred to the shop floor electronically as part of a drive to create a totally paperless production environment.

Based at Oldbury in the West Midlands, DLoG (UK) Ltd specialises in providing touch screen shopfloor solutions for users throughout manufacturing and service sectors.

With a UK user base exceeding 300 installed sites, the company has customers throughout the metalworking, manufacturing, assembly, warehousing and logistics sectors.

A Microsoft Certified Partner, DLoG (UK) also specialises in providing DNC and tool management systems, Work in Progress, Finite Capacity Scheduling and Barcode applications.

(This was Manufacturingtalk's Top Story on 9 September 2002).

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