Bell equipment had a workflow that consisted of two shifts of plate bending operations, followed by a third shift changing the tooling and setting up the machine for the next plate thickness and bending operation. Plate of a single size would be bent and stored as stock in large batches to minimize the number of tool changes that need to take place. Stock would then be assembled into components once all the various sizes had been bent, and were ready on the shop floor.
This type of workflow is typical in companies that use the same bending machine for multiple operations. Time spent changing tooling is time that could have been spent bending, so tool and setup changes are minimized.
Manrepco implemented the Any-V in their machine to replace the lower dies. The Any-V can change V size using computer numerical control, allowing setups to be changed in under a minute, rather than requiring the combined effort of an entire shift.
The workflow with the Any-V installed changed completely. Rather an bending parts in batches, one of each part could be bent, before changing to the next V size and bending the next one. The principles of single minute change of die, just in time manufacturing, and single part flow were now easily achievable.
Each part could now be bent, and a final product welded and assembled in a single flow. No stock needed to be collected on the shop floor, and downstream errors that resulted in rework being necessary could be quickly dealt with, rather than needing to wait until the correct batch was being produced to rework and replace a single damaged component.
Using the Any-V increased production by 24%, while eliminating the third shift entirely, resulting in cost of labour being reduced by 33%. Less value was tied up in stock waiting on the shop floor, and flexibility of manufacturing was vastly improved.