Our Sites

Simplifying the hardware insertion process

Visualization of work instructions boosts productivity for fab shops

Figure 1
Visual work instructions not only tell the hardware insertion press operator the sequence in which to install fasteners into the fabrication, but also the different fastener types used for the job. Photo courtesy of Visual Knowledge Share Ltd.

It’s hardware insertion. What could go wrong?

The odds of a major screw-up are small if the job isn’t complicated. Asking a person to insert one type of fastener into two holes normally is not a threat to disrupt production.

However, as any operator who works in a job shop can tell you, simplicity is typically not the order of the day. In fact, a hardware insertion job is likely to involve multiple fasteners positioned in various locations over a fabrication. Sometimes the fabrication has holes that look similar but actually may be different in size.

That’s just the tale of one job. That same operator might be required to set up the equipment for multiple jobs during a shift—changing out tips and seeking new fasteners for each new task slated over the typical eight-hour span.

A lot can go wrong in the hardware insertion department, and mistakes can pile up quickly if quality control steps aren’t taken to ensure that first-piece production meets customer specifications. CMP Advanced Mechanical Solutions, Chateauguay, Que., recognized this almost a decade ago. It knew it needed a better way to reduce hardware insertion errors.

Continuous Improvement Path

CMP, which was founded in 1969, specializes in producing complex fabrications and enclosures. When the company committed to a continuous improvement campaign, it decided that its hardware insertion area was the most logical place to start.

“It’s not something that people necessarily go to school for, so they’re not really trained on using these types of machines and being in that environment,” said Ryan Zimmermann, who is currently director of business development for Visual Knowledge Share Ltd., but who also helped to commercialize this visual work instruction tool after fine-tuning it at CMP. “You could have people who look at these drawings, and they really don’t understand what’s going on. Also, the drawing is not going to help someone identify the sequence they should work in.”

Zimmermann added that management recognized the difficulty that these machine operators had working with several small jobs during a shift, which may have required new tools and jigs for each one. When a recurring job appeared on the schedule, operators couldn’t get too excited because that job likely was last done several months ago. For a job that required what seemed to be repetitive motions, operators never really enjoyed the benefit of familiarity with the work they were asked to perform.

When the fabricator decided to implement paper-based work instructions to assist operators with the setup and sequence of these hardware insertion jobs, it had a defect rate of 14,420 defects per million (DPM). After several months of being able to look at paper models and follow printed instructions, the DPM rate dropped to 11,943.

That was a nice improvement, Zimmermann said, but CMP recognized an opportunity to make even greater strides. Some operators still struggled even with drawings, trying to convert a 2-D image to 3-D reality. In addition, when an engineering change was made for a job, part designers had to make a mad scramble to the shop floor to intercept old job routers and ensure that fabricated parts were based on the most current plans.

Figure 1
The ubiquity of tablets helps to make the creation of visual work instructions easier than if operators had to rely on cameras and desktop computers. Photo courtesy of Invaware Corp.

About that time CMP committed to migrate to digital work instructions. Montreal is a hotbed of software development activity, so finding talent to help create these types of visual instructions wasn’t the hard part; having the parties come together to create these instructions was the challenge. Luckily, CMP had enacted an employee suggestion program where they could suggest continuous improvement ideas, collect points if they were accepted, and use those points for CMP-labeled gear or other prizes. With employees’ involvement and the commitment of supervisors and senior operators, the hardware insertion department made a quick transition from paper-based instructions to digital ones. They worked together to find the most efficient way to set up jobs, to sequence the insertion steps, and to stack finished parts. When they agreed upon the best approach, they made a video of the steps.

“At this point you had pictures and video on the computer screens and automatic version control. Also in this version you had the ability for operators to contact supervisors and send messages through the software,” Zimmermann said.

With this early version of the software up and running, CMP saw its DPM rate drop to 5,544. The evolution didn’t end there, however.

The software developers worked with Haeger, the manufacturer of CMP’s hardware insertion presses, to integrate the digital work instructions with the machines’ operations. With that integration, when an operator presses the foot pedal to put the fastener into the part, the machine sends a signal to the software for it to proceed to the next step.

“What this helped to do was it actually guaranteed that the operators were in sync with the work instructions all the time, without any real need for physical interaction to progress the instructions,” Zimmermann said. “This really helped to reduce the chance of them missing a fastener or putting one in the wrong hole.”

So now operators scan a bar code for the job, and that job comes up on the machine and the monitor dedicated to VKS software. They can review information related to which tips and fixtures are needed; setting the machine parameters; and any special notes, such as adding masking tape to the tool or stacking the parts a certain way. As they work through the job the first time, the sequence is clearly visualized for them as they go through each step (see Figure 1). When done, they can go back to the beginning until the job is complete.

This version of the digital work instructions also had an efficiency monitoring aspect. If the operator was lagging behind a predetermined cycle time for a certain job, he or she was automatically notified and a corresponding email was sent out to the team leader.

The latest software updates and the general buy-in from CMP’s hardware insertion department helped the company reduce its DPM rate to 952. Looking back over the journey, that was a 93 percent reduction in the department’s defect rate. It went from being the worst department regarding quality to the best-performing department.

“That department had strong leadership. They had operators who were very positive and engaged in these activities,” Zimmermann said.

Getting People to Participate

Mike Ulch, president, Invaware Corp., has seen the same positive impact with the use of visual work instructions. He began his career in manufacturing about six years ago when he was hired to create some human resources software tools for Hydra Dyne Technology, an Ingersoll, Ont.-based designer and manufacturer of custom hydraulic manifolds, cylinders, and swivels.

Figure 1
Software helps a user create visual work instructions in minutes. Visual Knowledge Share officials estimate a user might need a maximum of eight minutes to create instructions for a hardware insertion job that lasts two minutes. Photo courtesy of Visual Knowledge Share Ltd.

As an offshoot of work being done to modernize its human resources practices, the company decided to try a picture-based approach to work instructions for the shop floor (see Figure 2). What really spurred the idea, Ulch said, was a machine tool jammed up over a weekend and no maintenance personnel were available to respond. The owner had to come in and figure out how to get the machine running again. Eventually he did, but it also motivated him to find a way to turn helpless machine operators into machine experts with a little visual help.

“We started putting iPad®s on the shop floor so that the guys can take pictures of what they’re doing and how they are doing it,” Ulch said. “Those pictures then get stored as a page in a chapter of a book. You’re then creating this online manual for your entire company. And all of it is documented in pictures.

“It’s all searchable and indexed,” he continued. “From there, any employee can perform any task with almost no advanced training required.”

While the focus was not originally on hardware insertion with what is now known as the Mr. Narrative™ visual work instruction documentation tool, it was on a very intense manufacturing task. Hydra Dyne’s manufacturing mix calls for two to three machine tool setups per day on certain equipment, and the setups can take as long as four hours—if things go smoothly. In short, the work instructions provide the blueprint to minimize downtime between jobs.

So how does an employee go about creating these visual instructions? For the Mr. Narrative product, the individual provides basic job information, such as part number and model dimensions, and the software automatically creates titles and descriptions for the chapters. The operator then takes pictures of each step in the process with the tablet device to create the detailed how-to visual work instructions.

“We aim to make it so that a normal person that uses social media like Instagram does not lose any time while recording,” Ulch said. “Typically, they are doing this between jobs, when there is time to record the tasks.”

To get employees of all ages engaged in this visual work instruction creation process, Ulch recommended incentivizing the activity—perhaps offering a gift card or a cash stipend for employees who create a certain amount of content in a week.

“The goal is to see this ingrained in a company culture, so when a new job comes around, the machine operator’s not waiting for somebody to create the instructions. They can do it themselves, and they don’t have to wait on an approval process. That job could then be up and ready to go in a day or two,” Ulch said.

Time is of the essence in any manufacturing environment. That’s why the VKS digital work instruction software tool is designed for quick and easy use, Zimmermann said.

For example, if an actual production task takes about two minutes to complete, a work instruction author needs only about three minutes to take the pictures of each step (see Figure 3). Using the software, the author can pull the work instructions together quickly—maybe five minutes in this instance, Zimmermann explained. The operator might not need that long if the company is not using advanced software tools, such as productivity monitoring.

Technology Keeps Advancing

The best news for fabricators looking to boost the quality of their hardware insertion processes is that not only are visual work instructions becoming more prevalent and easier to use, but the actual presses are automating more tasks. Zimmermann noticed this as he was revisiting CMP’s hardware insertion area, where he saw presses updated with automated loading technology. Fasteners no longer were manually inserted into the tool; instead, the correct fasteners were automatically loaded into the turret for the operator.

“We’re definitely seeing a large amount of interest in digital work instructions for use in assembly areas. More and more companies are seeing the need for having such a solution,” Zimmermann said.

In hardware insertion, seeing is believing.

Invaware Corp., www.invaware.com

Visual Knowledge Share Ltd., www.vksapp.com

About the Author
The Fabricator

Dan Davis

Editor-in-Chief

2135 Point Blvd.

Elgin, IL 60123

815-227-8281

Dan Davis is editor-in-chief of The Fabricator, the industry's most widely circulated metal fabricating magazine, and its sister publications, The Tube & Pipe Journal and The Welder. He has been with the publications since April 2002.