5S +Safety - A power point presentation

Before we started

The team

Removal of clutter

This is what we don't need

Who left this here?

Start by setting in order

Clean and organize

Time to shine

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4th S - standardize

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For your compairison

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Before and after

Our new look

Added 6S for Safety

Short form SOP's

Standard operating procedures should be implemented for any process or operation that occurs in industry requiring multiple steps. Many companies publish over-sized binders and require third party contractors to meet the specifications outlined within them. This is an effective tool to ensure consistency across different suppliers. These giant books are confusing and cross-references are required from one chapter to another sub-chapter. The only way to implement them successfully is to practically memorize the whole document. Although a single document publication of a SOP is much simpler in the third party case, implementing such an all-encompassing approach internally for your processes will be quite an exhaustive task. Breaking this accepted practice down into smaller documents is more efficient, more easily understood and writers can place emphasis on important areas first. Stepping out of the writers box and implementing some visual tools can greatly improve interpretation and comprehension.

Use SOP’s to ensure that production processes are performed consistently and all regulations and requirements are always within compliance. An effective way to ensure nothing is forgotten or left out is to employ a checklist. Checklists are not meant to be a permanent part of the document but approved and turned in at job completion or scheduled intervals during the run. Complicated or multiple step processes benefit substantially by the use of checklists. 

Previously, I wrote an article about the benefits of pictures in operational documents. There is no exception here and the addition of diagrams with numbers and a subsequent legend takes understanding to the next level. 

To enhance process set up and in cycle time procedures the use of a process map can be invaluable. If a picture is a thousand words then a flow chart must be ten thousand in relationship to describing operations in words alone. This breaks the complexity down to single simple tasks that flow naturally. An operator no longer has to rely on memory to recall process details and order of operations. Set-ups now follow a previously well thought out structured path reducing time and errors.

 Skilled tradesman of any kind nowadays seem to be getting harder and harder to find. If you have one you pay to keep him, provide him with benefits and keep him happy. Your competitors are using the same tactics. The best philosophy is to start employees at the ground floor and train them upwards molding them into the ideal worker. This requires training and training can be considered a waste. Therefore it is a target for improvement. Well-written standard operating procedures can greatly reduce the learning curve.

I like to think of SOP’s as a cookbook for processes and the short form SOP implemented at every step in the process is a recipe for improved operations.

Superior surface finishes

Getting the right speed and feed to establish a required surface finish is sometimes a guessing game due to so many factors that are required to be “just right”. There are some general rules of thumb like: kick up the surface footage and turn down the feed. Parameters like surface footage, IPM feed and depth of cut are best set at the programming stage and not left for operators to experiment with. Learning the best guesses is very important for an efficient operation.

Tool pressure plays the most important role in a superior finish. The most important factor in increasing tool pressure is depth of cut. Getting this right should be first. We have all tried to sneak up on a close tolerance and missed it by one thousandth and had to take that little cut that made the dimensional tolerance but it totally blew the required finish. A sanding we will go.

A Cracker Jack machinist will calculate tool push off into the final offset and hit the tolerance and finish on the money every time. This comes with experience and a little knowledge about the machine tool that the part is running on. Depending on the hardness of the material a finish cut should be between .015 - .09 of an inch. A properly set finish cut will glaze the material causing it to shine.

Setting the correct RPM’s for the spindle should not be a difficult undertaking. If you are roughing efficiently with good insert life then the same grade of insert should finish well at about a ten percent increase in surface footage.

Tool nose radius plays a role in the final feed rate needed to return a desired finish. Smaller radius equals slower feed but there are limits to how slow you can feed with a given radius. The cutting insert gets to the point where it is no longer shearing the material and it begins to rub, negatively affecting surface finish. At this point a smaller nose radius should be used and the feed can be reduced again. Normally, a .015 nose radius tool at a .002 feed is the bottom of the barrel and different tactics need to be employed.  

By taking a CNMG that has a leading angle of five degrees and laying it down in the tool holder to cause this angle to be almost zero and then feeding inwards the flattened angle on the now trailing edge will “wipe out” the peak in the previous feed line causing an increase in surface finish. New inserts are now available that take advantage of this concept called wiper inserts and they work very well in most applications. Check with your insert supplier for these cutters that fit in standard holders.

Ceramics could be the answer. To get the most beautiful surface finish in a fraction of the time due to greatly increase surface footage employ ceramics in your turning operations. Seems like nowadays everybody knows about them but they just are not used to their potential. Many types and styles are available now. The newest ceramics are a hybrid called whispers and they can cut with coolant keeping the part cool and reduce the chance of fire.