FABTECH 2010 – lean and green finishing systems?

With FABTECH 2010 in full swing, trendy industry buzzwords are being tossed around left and right. Everything is innovative or unprecedented or will revolutionize some part of the manufacturing process. The terms lean and green manufacturing dominate conversations and presentations and there’s even a Kaizen boot camp.

Efficient manufacturing practices has been my passion for many, many years, and I’m excited I have the honor of participating on a panel Wednesday morning entitled, “Make Green by Going Green: How Manufacturers Can Gain a Competitive Advantage”. Following, I get to delve even deeper into the subject when I speak on, “Is It Possible to be Lean and Green with Your Finishing System?” Why am I excited?

Finishing systems have never been thought of as lean … or green. In fact, some lean experts believe that paint is the one production area in today’s factories that cannot conform to the lean methodology. I’ll be sharing trade secrets that could make your finishing system lean with point-of-use access to your factory floor. Also, I’ll discuss how to decrease the amount of valuable floor space, while reducing energy and chemical costs compared to the traditional monument systems.

Many use the term ‘kaizen’ to refer to improving upon the process, but with the advances within the finishing world, I prefer the phrase ‘disruptive innovation.’ The concept permeates all of my thinking and I believe it’s the way companies need to think to grow for the future. It ultimately represents a positive change for the industry by displacing the current, outdated technology with, basically, a better mousetrap. Companies need to be lean and innovative to remain competitive.

I think FABTECH 2010 will be an excellent opportunity to educate the industry and speak with companies who are willing to look to the future and recognize the need to adopt more efficient finishing systems for their manufacturing processes.

The IntelliFinishing Story: Making Paint Lean

The ultimate engineering challenge in manufacturing is finding a better way to do something that just is not efficient. For years the buzz has been about being lean and green and case studies abound about companies who have raised the bar in efficiency and environmental sensitivity. Experts are setting standards regarding what are truly lean or green practices and challenging manufacturers to meet or exceed those standards.

James Womack with the Lean Institute is one of the foremost experts on the lean process. Womack commented in his book, Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth In Your Corporation, that traditional industrial paint (monument) systems could not be truly lean. We accepted the challenge to find a way to create a paint finishing system that would be considered lean. I knew the keys to creating a lean finishing system would be to find the right combination of controls, process equipment and conveyance, to avoid traditional costs and bottlenecks.

I studied various processes and conveyance systems to assess the pros and cons and considered ways to adapt the best of each to the structure of a finishing system. I then looked at what I call the Process DNA, and asked, what are the actual costs and what factors influence them, to determine maximum efficiency? This research helped unlock the solution to the paint bottleneck. To create a new result would require a new system.

The unique combination of components within a modular system allows for versatility and efficiency never before seen in the manufacturing world. Scalability allows for a system that can be expanded to meet changing needs, that requires a fraction of the time to install, and which retains substantially more of its asset value. Flexibility permits parts of various sizes and shapes to move independently through the line, allowing for special needs in the recipe, without disrupting progress. The advanced control system selects which sections need to be turned on at each points in the process as opposed to running all day. Varied controls determine the optimal number of washers, sprayers, or ovens that need to be running for the components on the line.

Less equipment usage equals lower energy costs and less waste, ultimately lowering the total capital cost. A modular system could easily save 40% over traditional costs and set a new baseline for the average cost of a quality, two-coat application. In the end, it’s all about a solution to help achieve the desired quality for the lowest total cost.