iProductivity: Turning Performance

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END USER: Holmatro USA, (410) 768-9662, www.holmatro-usa.com. CHALLENGE: Maximize productivity by facilitating tool acquisition and application. SOLUTION: Electronic tool catalog and application recommendation software. SOLUTION PROVIDERS: Iscar Metals Inc., (888) ISCAR88, www.iscar.com/ita or www.iscarmetals.com

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Founded in the Netherlands, Holmatro is a global company with three manufacturing operations, one in the U.S. and two in Europe. Holmatro supplies hydraulic tools and systems for rescue, industrial and marine applications. The tools range from spreading and cutting equipment used in vehicle rescues to massive leveling cylinders employed when constructing offshore wind power projects to sophisticated winches for racing yachts.

At the company’s Glen Burnie, Md., facility, manufacturing engineer Chuck Cain said products are manufactured from start to finish, excluding injection molding, welding, painting and plating operations. Typical parts include check valves, valve bodies and cylinders. Materials machined include nickel-chromoly steel, low-carbon steels and aluminum alloys. “We are about 60/40 in ferrous and nonferrous,” Cain said.

Courtesy of Chuck Cain

Hydraulic equipment maker Holmatro employs Iscar Tool Advisor (ITA) Web-based tool selection software to handle tool ordering and other tasks. The user enters a tool description, finds a part number and then orders parts through Iscar’s electronic catalog directly from an iPhone or other Web-enabled device.

Hydraulic components demand tight tolerances. “We are required to hold 1µm for true position,” Cain said about some parts.

Cain estimates the facility machines about 5,400 different part numbers, with typical production runs of only 50 or so units. Inventory of completed parts is kept to a minimum. “Every tool and pump being produced in our facility has a customer attached to it,” he said.

One key to maximizing efficiency is having most of the shop’s 12 machine tools in production 21 hours a day, with the remaining 3 hours used for setup, Cain noted. Seven machine tools can run unattended.