The 2 Qs
Building quickly with quality, Signicast uses automated handling to make complex products in as few as 4 days instead of 4 weeks.
By Tom Feare, Senior Editor -- Modern Materials Handling, 6/1/2001
"We invented our own version of continuous-flow manufacturing," says Signicast president Terry Lutz. Work-in-process (WIP) units flow continuously through multiple manufacturing stages. Any pausing of WIP between work cells is minimized by this castings producer.
Nearly a million castings per month are now manufactured in Signicast's highly automated plant. The company makes individual castings in as short a time span as 4 days compared to 4 weeks or more by traditional job shop methods.
Supporting such high and rapid throughput in a facility in Hartford, Wisc. are automated storage and retrieval systems (AS/RS), robots, and several kinds of conveyor systems.
Central to this success is the AS/RS. It functions more as materials handling and transporting systems rather than as equipment that merely stages WIP.
The AS/RS units give Signicast the capability to route WIP to the right work stations at the right times, depending upon which step, among many production steps, is required for a particular casting.
Signicast's inventive, continuous-flow approach streamlines WIP movement under some tough conditions: It's a high-volume process made up of many individual jobs. But it's also a make-to-order environment. Turning out a wide range of complex products for many customers also is a requirement. Fast throughput has to be maintained. And the entire operation must be done cost effectively.
The key results to date from this continuous-flow process and its use of AS/RS technology (Swisslog, www.swisslognorthamerica.com) are several: The company can manufacture high-quality castings far quicker and at a significantly lower cost than its competitors can.
This newer facility in Hartford continues to expand, moreover. From three initial AS/RS units for manufacturing (see Modern Materials Handling, January 1996), Signicast added four more AS/RS in January 1998. Six additional AS/RS are under construction or planned, moreover, bringing the total to 13.
Indeed, Lutz believes his team has re-invented his corner of the castings industry. Consider the fact that another castings maker recently began installing similar, AS/RS-based automation. If, as is said, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," then this new project not only is a compliment to the genius of the Signicast team. It also lends support to Lutz's claim.
Beginning with boat transoms
When the firm started up 42 years ago in Milwaukee, it began rather small. It made castings, mainly boat names poured and shaped into metal signs for boat transoms – and thus, came the company name, "Sign-I-Cast."
For more than 30 years then, Signicast was a job shop like the rest of its industry. Its first, Milwaukee facility went through a number of expansions. Yet something else was needed.
In the late 1980s a Signicast team began the planning necessary to designing a make-to-order plant like a flow-through facility. By 1992 equipment and systems had been tested, sized, and purchased. In June 1993 the 66,000 square foot Hartford facility became operational with continuous flow manufacturing.
This facility was first expanded by over 30,000 square feet in 1995 and plant team members rose from 85 to 110. A second expansion in 1997 to create a new manufacturing module added over 76,000 square feet in area to the facility, while team members gained to 150. Currently, the team members' count at Hartford is at 314, Lutz says.
Continuous flow manufacturing is practiced in the original process area, module 1, and in module 2 (operational in November 1997). Module 5 will soon be operational, while planning is proceeding on module 3 and eventually a module 4.
Not being eaten alive
"If you don't do materials flow well," points out Lutz, "it eats you alive. It's one of those hidden costs."
Automating much of the multiple-stage casting process – and thereby controlling materials flow and its costs – is a big part of what Signicast has done well. Cross-training employees so they're flexible in the work they perform and move with the flow of materials has been another key accomplishment. Should a production bottleneck occur, people shift over to this area and eliminate it.
Signicast had to break tradition, however, to get to this point and to what has become its industry leadership position. Much like its competitors still do, Signicast had run a job shop, batch operation up until 1993. Its older facility in Milwaukee still functions as a batch plant in many respects.
In its greenfield Hartford facility northwest of Milwaukee, however, the castings producer developed and perfected its continuous flow manufacturing approach. This plant runs 24/7. Within the most recent 6 month period, it produced nearly 6 million castings. "We consistently achieve 98% to 100% on-time deliveries," adds Lutz.
AS/RS technology is crucial to the company's manufacturing strategy and flow process. "These systems give us a tremendous advantage," says Lutz. "We keep finding more uses for AS/RS."
This staging capability of the AS/RS also provides a very compact means of queuing WIP. "If we did this staging on conveyor," declares Lutz, "we would have to have a tremendous number of photoeyes as well as long conveyor spurs to queue, to divert, and sometimes to backtrack products."
When an AS/RS does serve in a storage role, however, it gives Signicast added flexibility, adds Lutz. The AS/RS delivers to the work cells the tools, dies, fixtures, gauges, and other things that employees need to do their jobs. The employees, moreover, don't need to move from their work stations; they stay focused on the tasks they must perform.
"Our operators are never looking around for the next job, never trying to figure out what to do next," says Lutz. In contrast, with a traditional job shop that's typically what happens, he adds.
Productivity per employee is high, too, giving Signicast one more competitive advantage. "Our labor costs are substantially lower than the industry average," says Lutz.
Said another way, output per employee is higher. Measured on the basis of dollars of sales per employee equivalent, Signicast's output figure is $13,000. The industry average is $7,800, or only 60% the output of what Signicast achieves.
Signicast now rings up $80 million in annual sales. The company invested $55 million in the Hartford plant, Lutz says, with some expansions already underway and more planned.
Click on this icon for more on this Signicast plant and how it has perfected automated casting over the last 8 years.
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