Making the invisible visible: Inspection Efficiency

Courtesy of Fastenal

Fastenal has added a drawer unit to its FAST 10000SL series. The seven drawers have 168 total bins equipped with weight-based sensing technology.

The parts a job shop machines might be considered high industrial art—functional models of beauty—but its toolcrib can be a “messterpiece.” It’s often littered with sticky notes, cluttered with obsolete inventory and suffers from inefficiency, waste and manual, repetitive intervention without user accountability. Outside the crib, some machinists hoard cutting tools at their workstations to make sure they have an adequate supply or, in a worst-case scenario, take them to their garage shops for side jobs.

Many part manufacturers know they are working without structure and wasting money when searching for tools, according to Alexander Zoller, CEO of E. Zoller GmbH & Co. KG, Einstell- und Messgeräte, Germany, which offers TMS Tool Management Solutions. “The toolcrib is often one of the few areas where, [in many plants], no optimization has taken place so far.” (Zoller Inc., the company’s North American subsidiary, is based in Ann Arbor, Mich.)

Courtesy of Fastenal

A machine shop uses Fastenal vending machines as part of its inventory management system.

An effective tool inventory management system changes that scenario, enabling part manufacturers to see what they’ve been missing. “They can see who uses a specific product and for what purpose the product is being used for, such as a job number. Then, by utilizing the usage data, customers can chose to set machine-enforced limits on the products and quantities used for further consumption reduction,” said Tim Albrecht, technology solutions manager for Fastenal. The Winona, Minn., distributor of manufacturing products provides numerous services, including toolcrib inventory and industrial vending machine management.

He added that manufacturers using the system can have the tailored information automatically e-mailed to those who need it, telling them what’s happening even if they don’t generate reports. This level of automation includes alerts to indicate when specific events occur. For example, if a vending machine contains a first-aid kit, the person in charge of safety receives a text message when someone dispenses it. “You can set up certain conditions to proactively notify [the appropriate person] when they take place,” Albrecht said.

Shops can realize benefits from an inventory management system without even taking the time to review the information that’s automatically distributed. “At the end of the day, the mere presence of the machine, and the fact that somebody has to self-identify prior to taking something, sets the tone that, ‘listen, we want everybody to be accountable,’ ” Albrecht added. “We have customers who never look at reports. All they really try to do is make people accountable and reduce waste.”

Crib Crawl

The process of creating an effective tool management system begins with an assessment of an end user’s inventory management needs to find opportunities for improvement, often focusing on the top 20 percent of the most critical tooling at a facility. “It’s not just about putting a vending machine into a customer’s facility,” said Bill Welch, director of vending systems for MSC Industrial Supply Co., Wood Dale, Ill. “When we go through an assessment, we’re looking at every aspect of our customer’s supply chain to understand how we can help our customer apply a solution that will have the greatest impact.”

Next, Welch emphasized the importance of collaborating with customers to understand which cutting tools and related tooling are being used and which ones are the most critical to their production operations. “We work closely with them to develop the key information we need to help them put an inventory management solution in place and make it successful,” he said, adding that the information includes item descriptions and access privileges.

In addition, it’s critical that manufacturers view inventory management as an extension of their supply chain and buinsess. “It’s not just a service somebody else is providing them,” Welch said, noting that they must integrate it into their day-to-day operations.

Another equally important element, according to Welch, is that shops should work with a partner that understands cutting tools and employs experienced machinists to help optimize tool utilization beyond just managing inventory.

After conducting an on-site evaluation to determine an end user’s requirement. Zoller recommends a tool management system to optimize the workflow of tools and other toolcrib resources during their life cycles, which can be expanded. When selecting the specific modules available in tool management software, he emphasized the need to consider if a system can expand as business needs change.

In addition, Zoller noted the company’s system queries remaining life from the machine tools, generates tool demand for the next shift and communicates with tool dispensing systems to deliver information about needed tools. “The presetting and inspection machine is working on the same database and knows which tools have to be measured next,” Zoller said. “And the measurement itself is only a click of a button, after which tool data is be transferred to the machine tools.”

Time to Save

Once in place, a tool management system starts to realize savings for the parts manufacturer, with the biggest savings being time. In the TMS system, “CAM programmers don’t have to search for or draw tools,” Zoller said. “They just query the database and start working. Toolcrib employees don’t have to search for tools anymore. Instead, they get displays of where to go and their lift and cabinet systems are triggered to automatically check out tools.” The database also includes other items that would have previously required searches, such as fixtures, gages and NC programs.

Because many inventory management systems are near the point of use, time is saved by minimizing the number of footsteps to get a tool even when its location is known. A machinist no longer has to walk through a manufacturing facility to go to the toolcrib and collect a tool, MSC’s Welch said.

Courtesy of Zoller

With Zoller TMS Tool Management Solutions, consistent cutting tool data travels from the CAM system to the machine tool.

In addition, money is saved by reducing product consumption. According to Fastenal’s Albrecht, it’s not uncommon for usage to drop 30 percent over time when a manufacturer implements inventory management with vending machines. If hoarding has already taken place, he said Fastenal frequently sees little immediate usage because operators are consuming tools out of their individual stockpiles.

Manufacturers also save money by streamlining the purchasing process. It might cost $60 to $80 to cut a purchase order at a large manufacturer, for instance, and a tool management system provides a predictable inventory with minimum and maximum levels that the distributor monitors electronically, Albrecht said. “Rather than having an emergency purchase, we keep the machines full and customers are getting an invoice for whatever we bring out in a given timeframe.”

Albrecht emphasized, however, that although tool management systems reduce consumption, it’s in distributors’ long-term interest to implement these systems. “This is not an investment for us in next month’s sales,” he said. “It’s an investment in the relationship, which in turn builds loyalty back to us in terms of driving cost savings. People are looking for partners who can help with that versus just supplying products.”