By Donald B. Dobbins,
Editor
State of the Metalforming Industry, Part One, which appeared in the February 1997 issue, presented comments from a number of industry experts on topics ranging from controls to training. This feature provides additional data as well as supporting and contrasting viewpoints offered by other experts in metalforming technology.
If you have been working in or around the metalworking industry for any length of time (longer than two weeks), you no doubt realize that it’s an industry so broad in the markets it serves (and that serve it), that it touches, and is touched by, virtually everything on earth. Wannabe philosophers ask: "If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?" A better question might be, "If a tree falls in the woods, what effect will it have on the metalworking industry?"
"The bridge to the 21st century is under construction, and the only way we’re going to be able to build it quickly and correctly is if we understand the technological challenges ahead of us," says Stephen Millett, manager of Battelle’s Breakthrough Center and leader of Battelle’s technology forecasting. "If we ignore those challenges, we’ll likely end up in the river."
A team of top scientists and engineers at Battelle, a world-renowned research and development organization based in Columbus, OH, has compiled a list of the 10 most important technological challenges facing industry over the next decade. "These are market-driven challenges for industry, and anytime the marketplace challenges us, there’s tremendous opportunity for business growth and profitability," says Millett. "Global market forces are opening up new opportunities, and they’re driving the development of new technology and products."
According to William Kopp, co-author of the forecast, "When a market opportunity meets with a technological solution, the result often is a new product or service that leads directly to business growth." Here is Battelle’s list of the top 10 market-driven challenges for the next decade:
1) Affordable Home-Based Health Care. Market forces are shifting health care from hospitals and HMOs to private homes. Increasing home health care will help to contain rising costs while serving an ever-aging population. And, it will provide people with the convenience and privacy of taking care of themselves and their loved ones in their own homes. Home health monitors and treatments, and linkages to professional care centers, present a huge challenge, and an enormous business opportunity, for the health care industry.
"We see a great need for simple, user-friendly medical equipment for the home," says Richard Rosen, vice president of Battelle’s Product Development Group. "They’ll have to be effective and affordable to be successful. Technology developments already are leading to those products."
2) Personalized Consumer Products. Many mass-produced products will not be competitive in the 21st century. Consumers increasingly are better informed and harder to please. They will buy products that satisfy their own tastes rather than accept whatever stores present. Products in the future will have to be almost as varied as individual customers. This market driver will force companies to be even more consumer-driven in designing and marketing their products. It also will require the sensors, controls and computers to achieve highly flexible manufacturing of customized products.
"The mass production of identical products is being replaced by the flexible production of individualized products," says Millett. "Getting into the head of consumers - really understanding their motivations and behavior patterns, rather than just their expressed desires - is the great challenge of consumer product development for the next decade."
Brockway Standard, Dallas, TX, a manufacturer of
metal drums and pails, has installed a cut-to-length/blanking line supplied by Red Bud
Industries, Red Bud, IL. As with so many companies that are installing precision blanking
equipment, Brockway’s manufacturing process requires very accurate, square blanks to
produce a quality product.
3) Convergence of Technology in the Home. In the past, we separated our home life from work and from shopping. In the next 10 years, the home will be the place of convergence for private and public lives. Increasingly, the home will be a place to work, to shop, to get an education and to enjoy entertainment. But, that does not mean people will always stay at home.
We will continue to have offices and go to shopping malls, often for the social pleasures. We will have more choices to do what we want, when we want. Our work lives and our home lives will be more efficient, and more closely linked.
The biggest technological change occurring in our personal lives will be the convergence of telecommunications, entertainment, networking, education, information access and computing power into the home. The technology challenge is how to empower and protect individuals in their own homes.
"The home environment perhaps is the center of the greatest opportunities for consumer products in the next 10 years," says William Burke, vice president of Battelle’s Consumer Products Group. "Challenges involve new approaches to managing the total home environment with new products that will give residents better, simpler and more personalized service."
4) Protecting the Environment and Natural Resources. Much of the economic growth of the Industrial Revolution was fueled by the easy exploitation of our rich natural resources. Those easily accessible resources now are largely tapped out, so further growth will come from the smart management of remaining resources and our ability to use alternatives. We need the technologies to provide for the long-term sustainability of our natural environment, including air and water.
Technology’s environmental challenges will range from expanding and simplifying recycling programs to developing clean manufacturing processes. We also will have to find ways to increase the productivity of energy production and conversion.
5) Human Interfaces. Interfaces are the intermediaries between human and machine that allow us to more easily use technology - such as software menus that give us access to computer programs. The term "user friendly" describes a supposedly easy-to-use interface between the machine and the person.
As more complicated technology floods the home and workplace, consumers will demand interfaces that go the next step beyond "user friendly." Tomorrow’s successful technology-based products and services will be pleasing to our senses, more or less intuitively obvious, safe to use, and most of all, fun.
6) Nutritional Health. While people in the developed world are becoming more concerned about the nutritional quality of foods they eat, rapidly growing populations in many poor countries simply need more food with high enough nutritional quality to sustain a healthy life.
Technologies are being developed now to engineer natural foods that will be packed with more vitamins, protein and other nutrients. Other foods will have higher yields, longer shelf life and natural resistance to pests. Improved packaging methods will increase the shelf life of foods, allowing us to store them longer and transport them farther.
7) Mobile Energy. The automotive industry’s needs for alternative mobile power sources are obvious. In 10 years, many more cars, though not a majority, will operate on alternative fuel systems.
Further growth in electronics and information services also will require more efficient and mobile energy sources. People are becoming increasingly mobile in travel for business and pleasure. They want easy and rapid communications, which require highly mobile energy sources. Companies also need more flexible energy and power. Distributed electric generation is widely expected.
"We see great growth opportunities for packaged energy," says Henry Cialone, vice president of Battelle’s Energy Systems Group. "While there have been frustrations in the past, there also are reasons to expect exciting new developments in batteries, small power generators and fuel cells over the next 10 years. We’re seeing the convergence of technological advances and increasing economic incentives in the marketplace."
8) Micro-Security. The Cold War has all but ended, along with a great deal of the world’s fear of nuclear holocaust. Yet, in the wake of car-jackings, gang violence and terrorist bombings in New York, Oklahoma City and Atlanta, many people feel no safer than they did 10 to 15 years ago.
Technology’s security challenge will shift from national security to personal and community security. We will develop technology-based methods to keep ourselves protected from crime and terrorism.
"We won’t be looking for ‘Star Wars’ satellites to protect us from nuclear missiles, but instead, we may want those satellites to show us exactly where our children are as they walk home from school," says Kopp.
9) The Renewed Infrastructure. In developed countries, the public infrastructure that provides transportation, bridges, water and sewage disposal is deteriorating with age. Many developing countries are without advanced infrastructures. Costs of major projects today are huge. New materials and new construction methods will be required to renew the infrastructure with limited public funding.
Future infrastructure needs will include new traffic control and management systems that could reduce travel times, and clean, safe and practical mass transit systems.
10) Global Business Competition. Twenty years ago, the United States was, by far, the world’s leader in technological entrepreneurship. Today, however, technology has become a global commodity - developed, traded, sold and marketed in every corner of the world. Never has the world seen as much international trade and competition for global markets. This trend will continue.
To achieve business growth in this environment, companies will have to improve and expand their efforts at finding technology, acquiring it and putting it to work around the world. They must use this new technology to improve efficiency, reduce waste and energy needs, and create new products and services.
"The great challenge will be to use technology for growth and profitability," Millett says. "Controlling technology will be the competitive edge of the future."
"Control systems that assist in the safe operation of fabricating machines, such as mechanical power presses, hydraulic presses and press brakes, currently are available to meet OSHA regulations and ANSI standards," according to Larry Johnson, director of sales for Rockford Systems, Inc., Rockford, IL. "Machine safety requirements for controls used on part-revolution clutch machines include control reliability, and in some cases, brake monitoring.
"For many years. relay-logic-based controls have been provided to meet safety requirements. Recent advances in the control systems industry include microprocessor controls that employ the latest solid-state technology. A touchscreen operator interface allows the control to be easily programmed by the machine operator or setup personnel simply by touching appropriate positions on the screen. The operator can monitor the machine operation through the touchscreen display.
"Troubleshooting is easy because there are HELP screens incorporated into the control system," Johnson points out. "Messages displayed assist in determining exactly what types of faults have occurred and provide instructions on how to troubleshoot the problem. These features allow for quick and easy setup and help ensure minimum downtime in production.
"These controls are designed for use on part-revolution clutch power presses and press brakes. They comply with OSHA regulations 1910.217 and ANSI standards B11.1, B11.3 and B11.19," Johnson reports.
Mike Austin, president, reports that Atlas Technologies, Fenton, MI, has been working to develop some new products in the area of controls. "In particular," he says, "we’re looking at two new products, one being an HMI interface that’s been designed for press operations. It can be universally interfaced with a wide variety of different types of equipment. This allows a single-operator station or interface at each work cell, as opposed to multiple stations that are commonplace today. Also, by using visual basic and other programming techniques, we can simplify the operator’s station by combining it into one. We will still have the ability to connect with different equipment and integrate it without having to do a huge engineering effort for every application."
ASKO Automation Systems, Duquesne, PA, has developed the Oracle
XL™ system that combines machine vision and motion control technology to dramatically
improve side-trimmed edge quality.
Concerning programmable controls, Mike Austin continues, "The current state of the art involves a lot of add-ons for operator stations and controllers. There isn’t a lot of integration evolved. You still have many, many controllers on an advanced press application instead of only one. We’re switching over to soft PLCs and other systems that are PC-based systems.
"I think that single-operator stations and intelligent press controls, especially ones that will be adaptive with a press, will change things. We’re putting simulation packages on the press so that we can make adjustments and then download the program changes to the press control or to the automation control. This allows us to make some minor changes to the manufacturing process on the fly, with the operator doing the adjustments without having to get a maintenance person or engineer involved."
Deborah Blaisdell, executive vice president of The U.S. Baird Corporation, Stratford, CT: says it is of great interest to note that major manufacturers, such as Allen-Bradley, recently have started to offer press control "packages." She points out that these packages offer the full range of options including, programmable limit switch, die protection, tonnage monitoring and dual processor PLC control. In most cases the package is bundled with an operator interface to facilitate diagnostics and production information assessment.
"This type of production should prove to be of great value to the machine tool builder that does not have a large field support team," Deborah says. "Having a control with all the major components supplied by a vendor that itself has worldwide support must be seen as a value-added feature. This type of package also is more flexible than most of the presently marketed press controls in that the PLC logic is open to the machine tool builder. The control logic can be configured easily to match the actual needs of both the machine and the end user.
"One advancement that will go a long way toward increasing efficiency is development of a lower-cost variable-frequency motor drive that will be capable of regenerating back to the line. On most press applications," Blaisdell explains, "the flywheel used to do the actual work also tends to overdrive the motor. When used in conjunction with an inverter drive, this energy must be dissipated, most often in the form of heat."
According to Michael J. O’Brien, president of Signature Technologies, Dallas, TX, controls must be broken down into two categories - machine controls and process controls.
"Currently machine control offerings are adequate for the market," O’Brien says. "However, the individual black-box varieties or the proprietary systems, although quite functional, do not lend themselves to integration with other technologies. For example, a press control system requires that the controls meet certain standards, and also that the design be performed by someone quite knowledgeable of presses.
"The integration of die protection or tonnage monitoring into the press control is a desirable feature but it limits the quality of the end product and performance if the firm building the press controller does not have or acquire expertise in these two fields. Thus, what we have seen in the past few years has been the birth of the integrated system lacking robustness in areas beyond machine control.
"The need for more precision and integration with other plant-floor devices and information systems will require a migration to standard platform products, such as PCs. The first step in this direction was taken with the PLC or programmable logic controller. However, the latter, although facilitating user programmability, is still considered a proprietary device. We see that controls will move in the direction of PC-based devices that provide the user with an open choice of hardware for both processing and input/output devices. Thus, components need not be of the same manufacture and can be multi-sourced," O’Brien explains.
"Process controls," O’Brien says, "are all but non-existent in the metalforming industry. Process controls can be defined as devices that can measure, assure and optionally correct variations in the process in order to maintain consistency of part quality. The products and technology exist to perform process control, however, what is absent is the focus of the driving forces in our industry. In fact, most industry leaders do not even understand the term, process control.
"The most important advances have been in the areas of die protection and signature-based process control. The reason that these advances are so important is that they force the user to focus on the process. Die protection gets the user to identify problem areas in the tool in order to apply sensors to detect such problems. The real benefit here is that the user needs to understand the tool, and therefore gets exposed to a small part of the education process. Unfortunately, most current users of die protection systems do not apply in-die sensors and therefore fail to gain that process knowledge.
"Signature-based process control is totally focused on the process. It’s sole purpose is to identify, measure and verify consistency as well as provide correction output to control the process. All variations in the process, tooling, equipment, environment, material, lubrication, etc., that change a signature, have an effect on the process, and therefore, can be analyzed and their effect on the process can be determined. Aside from the obvious benefits of process verification, the ability to ‘see’ the process, combined with human reasoning, opens the doors to major advancements in metalforming technology.
"An example of just how far we are behind is the level of automation and quality of product found in industries such as petro-chemical, water/waste water, pharmaceutical and automotive. Just look at what happened under the hood of an automobile once process control technology was applied by adding sensors, a processor(s) and software.
"Today, our automobile goes 100,000 miles without a tune-up. It starts reliably in all kinds of weather, and offers many features unheard of just 10 years ago. In the automotive industry, factors that forced these changes were non-U.S. competition, quality problems of trying to do complex functions mechanically instead of electronically and environmental regulations that required understanding and much closer control of the process.
"Where are these motivators in the metalforming industry?" O’Brien asks.
Shown is a signature-based process control system,
from Signature Technologies, installed on a Minster press at A.J. Rose Manufacturing Co.,
Avon, OH. A newer version of signature analysis, this system uses force transducers to
enable the machine to "feel" the parts as they are being formed.
The first international environmental management system standard, ISO 14001, has achieved worldwide recognition. Established in September 1996, it will help companies around the world manage their environmental affairs and demonstrate their commitment to continually improving their environmental management systems.
As one of the first accredited certification bodies, Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance (LRQA), UK, has played a significant role in the success of environmental standards, certifying international companies such as Epson, Ford, Hyundai, National Power, Volvo and BOC.
"ISO 14001 is expected to significantly increase the uptake of environmental management systems worldwide, building upon the interest shown since the launch of BS 7750," says LRQA’s environmental business manager, Frank Harmer. "It gives the international business community a consistent approach to continuous environmental improvement, and will help organizations to share in the commercial benefits of ISO 14001, whichever country they operate from. These benefits can include cost reductions, minimized environmental risk and improved corporate image."
Deborah Blaisdell remarks, "As a whole, left to its own devices, I don’t think that industry would provide as safe an environment as it does under OSHA regulations. The real damage is done as a result of litigation that follows most injury cases. Why not channel some of the funds generated from OSHA fines into a program designed to develop standard award amounts for particular injuries. Settlements could be determined through an arbitration committee, thus eliminating expensive legal processes and delays, while reducing insurance costs."
"I can state that OSHA regulations in the United States keep many foreign control companies from marketing in the United States because of their fear of the U.S. legal system," says Mike O’Brien.
"One major area of improvement would be if we adopted the European approach in product liability where the last party to add value is the one that assumes the total liability. This places the burden upon the final goods deliverer to ensure that all liability issues of prior suppliers have been addressed."
"The front runners or leaders in the production of drawn-metal components are using the most modern and up-to-date production machinery," observes Deborah Blaisdell. "These leaders, some of which produce components such as battery cans, cosmetic containers and electronic components, recognize that these components serve businesses that are in highly competitive market places. To continue to be leaders, they require the latest in state-of-the-art production machinery.
"The spillover of drawn-metal components often goes to those production facilities that, for whatever reasons, are unable to purchase new equipment or upgrade their existing machinery. The question of whether or not manufacturers can afford to update or replace their current equipment lies within each organization’s ability to operate in a profitable manner, so as to allow themselves newer production machinery.
"Product liability always is the ongoing responsibility of the manufacturer," Blaisdell asserts. "Manufacturers must pay close attention to information or feedback they receive from their customers or end-users of their products. This is one of the most important sources of information available to the manufacturer. Quite often the feedback pertains to safety matters, which in turn could reflect either in a positive or negative way on the manufacturers’ products liability record. The manufacturer must always make an effort to secure input from the end user of its products by means of a questionnaire and/or direct follow-up."
"There is a significant amount of obsolete equipment in U.S. manufacturing operations," observes Mike O’Brien. "The biggest problem with this equipment is not its age so much as its condition. I am continually amazed at the lack of understanding that exists within the operations department in regard to the dynamics of equipment and how it affects the process. A better understanding in the latter would significantly improve the ability to properly choose equipment to fit specific process needs; i.e., to know where the limits are in an old piece of equipment and what parts can be run that will not be affected by those limits.
"Are American plants modern?" asks O’Brien. "Not by European standards, but they probably are average for the world as a whole. Many Japanese plants are not modern, but their equipment is maintained in good condition and close to original specifications.
"I believe that manufacturers can afford to update and replace current equipment. Many who do, however, fail to make the proper investment in training so that they can obtain the return on investment (ROI), that makes the new purchase decision valid.
"The problem I see repeatedly is the purchase of modern equipment that is operated by an ‘old’ workforce, which gets training in operating the equipment but not in why the equipment was purchased, where the benefit is to the company and how the new equipment can benefit them or improve their own performance. Many times operators know how to operate the new equipment but don’t really understand what it does.
"Safety usually is an issue of training," says O’Brien, "but it also is an issue that involves proper design of machines—not allowing production management to have the capability to override systems. Many times permitted overrides around control logic by production result in safety overrides due to lack of knowledge on the part of those performing the override."
This five-axis gantry system is part of the Orchid
International line of automation and robotics products. The servo-driven system is used to
receive blanks from a blanking press and rotate them, as needed, for positioning on a pin
pallet before they are loaded into a forming press.
"In the 1990s, integrated steel producers increased their exports significantly and enhanced their competitiveness in international markets," says James R. Harpster, CEO and president, Cold Metal Products, Inc., Youngstown, OH. "This trend has resulted primarily from favorable shifts in currency exchange rates, coupled with significant capital investments that have enabled these producers to lower costs and improve quality. The high value-added nature of the integrated steel industry has played a critical role in bringing about this improvement in the steel trade balance.
"Intermediate steel processors, such as Cold Metal Products, Inc., and typical steel part manufacturers face a much bigger challenge when it comes to exporting, even though their efficiencies and quality levels may be fully competitive worldwide. These industries have raw material costs that are a high percentage of their total costs. The result is less value-added that can be improved to offset the transportation and other costs associated with shipping to markets such as Europe and Asia.
"Cold Metal does some exporting," Harpster says, "but it is a very small percentage of our total volume and involves only the very high end of our product mix.
"In today’s world economy, there is a constant threat of foreign producers using the U.S. market to absorb their excess production. The United States government must support and encourage fair trade, but it also has to remain vigilant and strongly enforce its laws against unfairly traded imports."
"It always will be difficult to compete with companies that have advantages such as low labor costs and little or no governmental regulations (i.e., OSHA, EPA, etc.), regardless of their geographical location," says Deborah Blaisdell. "I see the biggest opportunity to compete through reducing the amount of labor necessary to get product out the door. If we can continue to automate (without compromising quality), and reduce the amount of skilled personnel necessary, it should improve our position."We must not lose sight of the fact that eliminating skilled labor can be a double-edged sword. Emphasis also must be put on training and education of our labor force to allow for implementation and maintenance of automation equipment. If we aggressively pursue avenues to keep us competitive, it should not be necessary for government to intervene except in cases of human-rights violations, etc.
"Where government involvement is needed is right here at home," says Blaisdell, "with programs designed to help U.S. companies with the support they need, including tax incentives, training assistance, research and development funds, etc. What we need is a government that is more of a partner than a protector."
"I believe that North American companies do compete in international markets," exhorts Michael O’Brien. "Those who do it are succeeding because of the technology they can lever; i.e., they have the ability to use technology to overcome cheap manpower. However, I have noticed one very significant threat. The Asian market, which does not have the inventory of equipment and yet has the largest emerging market, currently is buying new equipment with the latest technology and options.
"In the U.S. market, the average metalformer finds that the cost of adding the same new technology and options to existing machines is in the price range of what was paid for the machine 20 or 30 years ago. This painful reality cools the desire to make the investment.
"Meanwhile the Asian competitors really have no choice since they have no equipment. The result is that the Asian company is investing in new technology and implementing it whereas the U.S. metalformer may wait until it’s too late. Also, the Asian company has to train its workforce on equipment that has new technology, thus the worker accepts this technology as part of the machine. The U.S. worker, who has been using a machine for years, can’t understand how this new box on the machine is going to help. This is a very significant issue.
"Asia poses the biggest threat to U.S. manufacturing because it is located locally to the largest emerging market - itself," O’Brien explains. "Asia has to build infrastructure in manufacturing technology and is investing both finances and its resources in technology, which it perceives as state-of-the-art. Yet, the same technology in the United States is perceived as leading edge. The United States is waiting for these new technologies to get away from an edge that does not exist. Europe does not appear to be a big issue other than its ability to compete with U.S. equipment manufacturers selling to metalformers."
Tom Wenner, vice president, manufacturing engineering, Orchid International, Advanced Manufacturing, Mt. Juliet, TN, believes that the effectiveness of all management information systems used today is dependent upon the management people who use them. Important questions that he says must be asked include:
"Many great systems exist with capabilities that are only touched upon," Wenner says. "Constant training on computers and updates or refresher courses on new technology are the major improvement paths to take."
High-power output and stable beam delivery of
Rofin-Sinar’s RS 850I 5 kW laser is incorporated into a dual-laser system by Protech
Lasers, Inc., Clinton Twp., MI. The system is said to ensure deep-weld penetration at high
processing speeds.
"One of the most important systems for a manufacturing organization is its inventory control system," says Jim Harpster. "Because inventory-carrying costs represent a significant expense, the ability to manage and efficiently control inventory is critical to the bottom line. Insufficient inventory results in lost sales, while adjustments to inventories can cause boom or bust production cycles that generate inefficiencies.
"Fortunately, inventory control systems have improved dramatically over the past decade," Harpster says. "Today, with sophisticated computer hardware and fine-tuned software programs, manufacturing firms can input forecasts from their sales and marketing organizations on a frequent basis and have the system quickly highlight needed changes in inventory levels and the necessary raw materials. Accurate forecasts are key to this process, but the tools generally are in place in the manufacturing industry to avoid large inventory corrections.
"From a macroeconomics perspective, this is important. Many of the recessions of the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s were significantly impacted by inventory corrections in the manufacturing sector. In the 1980s and ’90s, the amount of time between business slowdowns has increased. One factor helping this situation is the investment in inventory-control systems that lessen the chance for serious inventory corrections."
According to Deborah Blaisdell, there are at least five important management systems to be concerned about:
"Any quality management system is merely an organizational structure or philosophy for assigning responsibilities, establishing procedures and processes, and allocating resources to achieve the company’s quality policy," Deborah says. "Regardless of the quality management system used in a company, top management must drive it into all areas of the company, and continuously review and evaluate its effectiveness. Awareness, commitment and action always should be the continuing result of a sound management system."
Dennis Casey, president and CEO, AIDA-Dayton Technologies Corporation, Dayton, OH, confirms that steel quality still is a problem. "Stampers need new improved slitting with less distortion, reduced camber, less thickness variation, etc.," he says.
Tom Wenner says that material systems are being developed and improved at an adequate rate. "Gage control is becoming increasingly sophisticated to avoid lack of quality pitfalls," he explains. "This trend must continue. Hardness and metalurgical properties have everything to do with critical needs for consistent metalforming. A very small degree of inconsistency of properties can greatly affect results of quality and product levels, or can cause potential part failure in the field. Consistency of properties should be a number-one priority because of the dramatic effect it has on the complete metalforming process."
Mike O'Brien says there's a problem. "I believe that quality materials are a real issue and U.S. material suppliers have not kept up with their foreign competition, either in new materials or quality of materials. This could pose real problems in a world market since importing materials adds significant cost to U.S. metalformers who need these materials for what are usually high-technology products. The import costs are not felt by their foreign competitors, who usually reside in the country of origin of the materials.
"I also believe there are significant advances in materials coming and that the United States is not even in the running," O'Brien continues. "Ten years ago, I attended a conference in Japan given to corporate Japanese executives. The key focus of this presentation, hosted by a Japanese electronic company, was a total commitment to new exotic materials and fabrics that would change the future. The examples given, now reality, were clothing that came in one size and once worn would adjust its size, probably like thermal shrink tubing, to fit the wearer. I have to believe the Japanese have the same dedication to new metals development."
According to U.S. Baird's Deborah Blaisdell, "Quality systems, such as TQC (total quality control), JIT, zero defect or SPC (statistical process control) do not constitute a systematic management approach to quality. Understanding statistical concepts, such as variability, targeting, normal distribution, process capability, reliability and statistical problem solving, are only some of the tools available to management.
"Top management must lead the establishment of a quality system regardless of whether the company is engaged in producing high-volume or low-volume products. Management must develop and implement a formal program to document problems, track corrective action, pin-point improvement opportunities and provide performance improvement feedback.
"Management must understand and support modern quality concepts and methods, train employees in its use and follow up - monitor the performance and repeat this step on an on-going, continuous quality-improvement basis."
"I am impressed to see that many metalformers have grasped and, in many cases, implemented SPC," says Mike O'Brien. "The value here is that they now have learned something about the process. There has been a definite trend from the quality department to empowering the operator to measure the quality of the process.
"What's missing is that the operator has not been a strong point of focus on identification of the sources of process variablity. There has been a significant investment in measurement tools, especially those that reduce the time to verify part conformance. I believe the real direction we must move in is to go beyond measuring what comes into and out of the machine and begin to measure what is going on in the machine. Only then can the true source of the process variability be determined and improvement made."
According to Tompkins Associates Inc., Raleigh, NC, Employee development is the key to energize the most important resource of an organization - its employees. However, it says, developing employees typically is not done well.
"Competency-based development," a monograph by Tompkins presents an overview of employee development and competency-based development, which can correct failed, past attempts at employee development.
According to the monograph, corporations are spending $40 billion annually on workplace training programs and roughly one in eight American workers attends a formal training course each year, yet 40 percent of American workers are not trained for job demands.
Competency-based development or skill/performance-based training, is based upon demonstrating capability. By defining job analysis, skill requirements, evaluation criteria, performance assessment, identified needs and specific training, individual and group weaknesses can be identified. Specific development to address these weaknesses then should take place until the employees reach the level of competency desired by management.
Comments by Deborah Blaisdell, The U.S. Baird Corporation, Stratford, CT: "A few years ago, we reintroduced the state-approved apprenticeship program. I feel very strongly that this is the only way to solve our 'help' problem.
"In my opinion, training should vest with industry, but it also should be supported by government. A certain percentage of an apprentice's time (perhaps 10 to 20 percent), should be spent in school to get the necessary theoretical knowledge needed. This school could be industry run or state run. Overall, a much stronger emphasis should be put on apprenticeship programs."
Michael O'Brien comments, "I have stated my case about training in many parts of this article. I do not see that industry or schools will properly address the training need because the industry usually is reactive in this area and the schools are focused on their biggest markets, which do not include metalforming workers."
"I believe we must have a certification program and that the program must focus strongly on the leading edge and not the status quo. If we are to lead the world, we must instill in our workers an expectation of a work environment that is beyond the status quo in order to move forward. We need to have metalformers competing for talent, not with money, but with the best facilities and tools, thereby establishing pride - instead of resignation - as the driver for working in this industry.
"I find many good candidates are turned off by the lack of perceived technology in metalforming, rather than the nature of the plant environment. What better way to attract such personnel than to put screens on our machines, whichmake them look like everything else that is modern, instead of assuming workers can't even understand such screens?"
Mike O'Brien feels that the most important issue impeding the future of the metalforming industry is the lack of commitment to education and training by business owners. "I believe the only way to resolve this problem will be to formalize training through a non-work-related process, such as a certification program," Mike says.
"The main reason it is critical is that the current decision makers tend to wait and see what others do, and 'the others' are doing the same. They also don't understand the new technologies that they need to bring into their operation to remain competitive in a world market, therefore, they don't believe their own employees can understand the new technologies either.
"Looking at the industry as a whole, a barrier to utilization of modern process control technology in metalforming is not its complexity, not its cost, not user unfriendliness of software, nor its suitability for the metalforming industry. On the contrary, it is the inability of industry to properly understand how to digest new technology and properly train employees - training not being limited to how to use it but more importantly why to use it; i.e., conveying to the user where the ROI is and empowering the user to harvest that ROI.
"We can't compete with emerging competitors on labor cost," O'Brien warns. "Shortly, we will not be able to compete on education - look at the nationality of most graduate students in leading engineering schools in the United States.
"Our only real area of strategic opportunity is one utilizing technology in order to overcome our competitive weaknesses and maintain a leadership position by being better at producing formed metal parts for technically demanding products.
"In order to accomplish this we need to have an education system that produces a workforce that is technologically ahead of the work environment they are about to enter."