Prototyping critical in manufacturing: Safety, Standards & Compliance

Robust continuous improvement activity is the only way manufacturers will survive. They must have an appetite for change if they are to develop and sustain such a program.

Changing manufacturing and business processes can present significant risk. Change too slowly and the market may leave you behind; change too quickly and risk creating catastrophic mistakes. It’s a delicate balance.

Prototyping is a critical element of effective change management inside a manufacturing organization.

Talk to toolmakers, machinists or engineers about prototyping and they will most likely think about making one-off parts in a lab-type environment. Building and testing prototypes allow a company to validate everything from functionality and durability to marketability. Prototyping is essential to new product design and validation, but it also plays an important role when implementing process changes to support continuous improvement.

Teamwork in Action

At Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas Inc., we regularly conduct weeklong continuous improvement projects in which a team works to improve a manufacturing facility or manufacturing or business process. Many times, to generate fresh ideas, we create a team of people who are unfamiliar with a department. We get so many innovative ideas from these teams, it can be difficult to determine the best direction. Prototyping is an excellent way to test new improvement ideas in the shop.

Parts wait for distribution to various manufacturing cells at Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americas’ combustion shop. The prototyped carts, floor location and MRP system are set up before deciding the arrangement. All images: C. Tate

For example, our combustion hardware is heavy. Loading it into welding fixtures requires the use of cranes. Eliminating crane moves is one of the initiatives we have in the combustion shop. Crane moves have become part of our culture; success will require developing a solution that is extremely robust.

One team came up with the idea of moving parts around with carts. After creating and reviewing some basic designs, we selected the best and built a prototype. It was built from erector set-type materials purchased out of a catalog. The materials were inexpensive and could be assembled with wrenches and screwdrivers, so making iterations was easy and fast. This process allowed us to quickly and cost-effectively move from idea to test so we could vet each iteration.

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