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APRIL 2013
PROPLANNER IS GROWING!
DR. DAVE SLY , PRESIDENT
Proplanner is growing! We were just selected by the State of Iowa
to receive funding from an Innovation Acceleration fund that,
with matching investor funding, will allow the company to hire an
additional 6 full time programmers within the Ames, Iowa office. This
expanded development capability will allow us to accelerate our new
Cloud-based deployment server and also our new Virtual Assembly
environment.
In this issue
Latest News
Client Spotlight: CNH Fargo
Meet the Team
Proplanner Asia Update
Important Software Improvements
We are glad to announce that Proplanner has released the first Beta
version of our new Virtual Assembly module. Initially conceived in
1998 during our tenure at Engineering Animation Inc (EAI), but shelved
due to technology limitations, this new capability allows us to fully
integrate the 3D product model with the Process Plan and carry this
integration through the Line Balancing
and Work Instruction modules. Now
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engineers can automatically see a 3D
model of the product as it progresses
down the assembly line, and instantly
take snapshots which can be annotated in Assembly Planner and
linked to work instruction documents associated to the specific process
which generate that view. This integration removes over 5 manual
steps which were
previously required
to create 3D work
instruction views, and
simultaneously reduces
errors that often occur
when engineers try to
create their own 3D
assembly views.
We are also proud to
release the production version of our greatly enhanced Yamazumi
Charting capability within the ProBalance module of Assembly Planner.
With this version, users can now plot multiple models side-by-side for
the same operator and/or station. In addition, users can select option
groups to show, instead of showing all possible options in a model.
As with our prior Yamazumi feature, users can drag and drop tasks
between operators and stations, and instantly see the effects on the
individual station and operator cycle times.
Copyright 2013 Proplanner
PROPLANNER, INC
2321 North Loop Drive Suite 104
Ames, Iowa 50010
515.296.9914
info@proplanner.com
www.proplanner.com
Managing Part
Deliveries
at Case New
Holland Fargo
Abhishek Bandyopadhyay
Senior Accounts Manager
bandyo@proplanner.com
The Case New Holland plant in Fargo builds the
QUADTRAC series of tractors. They are hugely
complex assemblies with over 10,000 parts, and each
tractor is custom built to order. With this high volume
and variation of parts comes the need to efficiently
manage part deliveries to the line. The Assembly
Planner solution has been in use at CNH Fargo since
2008, with the initial focus being on Time Studies
Wi*3 (K/4b/5 /n6 (K789n:
66% reduction in
Kanban cycle time
84% reduction in
line side inventory
98% reduction in
part shortages
50% improvement in
kitting part accuracy
and Line Balancing, and gradually incorporating
Engineering Change Management. Mike Froemke,
Logistics Engineering Manager, then decided to add
the Plan for Every Part (PFEP) module to track kanban
bins and create part kits. At that point, Assembly
Planner had the relevant data necessary (up-to-date
BOM and Item data, part consumption locations, etc)
to develop accurate part plans and execute eKanban
and eKitting.
In 2009, as part of a corporate World Class
Manufacturing initiative, CNH Fargo began
implementing Just In Time (JIT) part deliveries with
the goal of reducing line side inventory. A two bin
Kanban system was implemented, where a work
station had two bins for a given part and when one
bin was empty, the operator would place it upside
down. This would signal the need for replenishment
of that part to the floor. Unit-based Kitting was
also implemented with carts. A cart was treated as
a device designed specifically for a station so as to
handle all parts used for assembly at that station.
Carts were loaded with parts based on the units
being built for the day and were delivered to the line
prior to the unit entering the line. These practices
were well designed but highly manual, and the plant
was having difficulty executing and managing.
With Proplanner, CNH Fargo’s entire Kanban and Kitting
systems are now online.
In the manual Kanban system, an employee,
commonly known as the water spider, was responsible
for keeping all stations supplied, and circled the floor
looking for empty containers to do so. “The problem
was that the water spider would make runs where
he would not collect any empties and by the next
run there would be part shortages on the floor, the
system was not demand driven and there was no
communication from the floor to the supermarket,”
said Vance Barta, Logistics Engineer. There was no
clear data to understand
and analyze the number of
Kanban bins in circulation,
the demand cycle of parts,
the time to replenish a
Kanban bin, the number of
handling shortages
or missing parts, or the
water spider’s efficiency.
In the manual Kitting
system, the calculation
of parts per unit/cart was
based on an MRP to MS
Excel extract performed
once a day. Each part kit
list had to be manipulated
in Excel, printed, and
distributed to the part
pickers. The order data
was not live, which led to
errors in the part kits when
changes were made but
Fargo’s part delivery system. They have measured significant reduction in replenishment
not communicated. “There was
times, line side inventory, and part shortages and a significant increase in part accuracy.
no way of knowing if each part
on the pick sheet was picked
is replenished in the next water spider run.
and no way of knowing if the correct part (with Each step of this process is logged, from the time
the correct quantity) was placed on the kit,” shared the operators scan the request to the time it is
VerDale Herman, Manufacturing Engineer.
delivered to the station. If a part is not available,
there are reports that highlight the issue and warn
In addition, since the manual approach was so time the responsible engineers.
consuming, not all parts were included in the part
kit lists. “Some of the parts with low demand were For kitting, MRP sends the Proplanner system a
not kitted and were left on the manufacturing floor. daily order schedule of all units being built on a
They would be sitting line side gathering dirt and line. The system cross references the orders against
when the time came to install, the operator would the up-to-date bills of material to generate a kit
completely ignore this part as it was not on the kit for every unit in every station. Part pickers use
and this would almost always lead to rework on that handheld scanners to view the parts they need to
unit”, said Herman.
pick to build each kit. As they pick each part, they
scan a barcode to confirm they are picking from
For Kanban,
the correction location. If a part cannot be found,
there is a
the part picker marks the part as skipped on the
barcode
scanner. The kit can still be marked as complete,
scanner at
and a print out lists all parts picked and skipped.
each station The print out is placed on the cart carrying the
that the
parts, so the operators and supervisors know of any
operators
missing parts in the kit.
use when
a part bin
Anyone in the plant has access to a unit status
is almost
dashboard that indicates the status of every kit for
empty. Their every unit. From the time the part picker opens the
Barcode scanners at each station request
scan sends
parts.
kit to the time the kit is delivered to the station,
a request
the kit is tracked. Metrics such as time to pick
to the
parts by picker by cart, time to from kit completion
supermarket, to delivery, etc. are recorded and reported to
and the part supervisors and managers.
Did you know?
NAME: Christina Demuth
Tips & Tricks from Christina
Title: Regional Accounts Manager
· In Assembly Planner, you can now
define and edit station work zones in
the Plant editor and in a line balancing
scenario.
Education:
MBA, Iowa State University
BSIE, Iowa State University
Years at Proplanner: 2.5
· In Assembly Planner, you can save
archives of observed time studies in
the Activity Time tab.
PROPLANNER ASIA NEWS
· In Flow Planner, you can save and
compare calculation results from
multiple layouts to quickly determine
which best minimizes distance, time,
and cost.
M;e*+(
,e/<
Hobbies: Running and Cooking
Current Endeavor: Studying for the
CAPM exam through the Project
Management Institute.
Major Clients: GKN Aerospace,
Schneider Electric, Electro Motive
Diesels, Stewart & Stevenson, BAE
Systems, Electrolux, Nissan, SpaceX
Robin Owens
Robin@proplanner.com
In Asia, we’ve had an exciting quarter making progress in both
industry and academia. We’ve secured business with Samsung
in Korea for facility layout analysis. Samsung is investing $22.5
billion worldwide this year; a significant amount of which is
on constructing and improving new and existing facilities.
Samsung is planning to standardize each division on Flow
Planner. With Flow Planner, Samsung can move equipment,
storage locations, etc. and be sure that the new facility layout is
better than the current design (an ability not provided by just
using the AutoCAD drawing tool).
This quarter we also secured business with Intel in Viet Nam.
We’re very excited about working in Asia with the world’s
leading semiconductor manufacturer to perform video-based
time studies and Lean work content analysis. We’re also going
to be implementing our software at all Asian factories of
another large semiconductor manufacturer.
IIE students and professors at the main
campus of the University of the Phillippines
use Flow Planner to perform Systematic
Layout Planning (SLP)
One very exciting opportunity that is developing is an Assembly Planner implementation at a major
multinational remanufacturing company. We’re starting a pilot project implementation to improve process
and industrial engineering, and provide one system to perform engineering changes, BOM management,
process planning, time & motion study, assembly line balancing, and work instructions. Watch for an update
in a future newsletter.
Lastly, we’re always committed to improving engineering education in Asia. We’ve added a few more
university customers this quarter in the Philippines and Korea. A few weeks ago, we presented at the
national student conference for the Philippine Institute of Industrial Engineers. Our commitment to
academia benefits the next generation of engineers, and allows us an opportunity to perform community
service.
IMPORTANT ASSEMBLY PLANNER IMPROVEMENTS
FEATURE
DETAILS
USER BENEFITS
JT Import
Ability to view
JT files in the
Proplanner
application
Ability to show the manufacturing
engineers how the JT assembly comes
together based on the consumed parts
list.
Ability to inform
the user of all
checked out
entities
Users can now find all of the entities
that are currently checked out by a
user, and adminstrators can check
them all back in with this one simple
interface
Component Module:
Ability to view 3D models of Components from
within the Component Editor.
– Ability to visually compare eBOM to mBOM
Ability to filter JT assembly data by Consumption Workbench: View Assembly
drawings during Consumption mapping
models, options and effective dates. – Show parts already consumed makes it easier to
find those that must be consumed, and in which
process steps that consumption would occur.
Ability to take snapshots of the
– Allow selection of parts from the 3D model
assembly and use them in the SOP/ Process Precedence:
SOS documents.
Visual display of the product as it is assempled, via
the Precedence Graph
Work Instructions:
Ability to annotate and export snapshot images
for Work Instructions
Checked Out Entities
Users save a lot of time by no longer needing to
review and check in entities one at a time.
Routing Export
Ability to export This feature allows the user to export
Users can now quickly and easily move process
routing and all
process routings and related data from information between databases with one simple
related data.
the database.
interface. This is particularly useful for sites having
one database per plant.
Line Balancing
Yamazumi Chart Add “filter stations” as well as drag and Users can better see which tasks are assigned to
Improvements
drop feature to move tasks around in
what stations and operators, as well as drag and
Yamazumi Chart
drop these tasks to new stations and operators.
New calculation Automatically define options groups
logic of option and take rates for tasks directly from a
take rate in
Shop Floor orders list (build list).
Line Balancing
module
This feature will give a true picture of the take
rate or the probability of occurrence of a task. For
sites that have their order data (build list) loaded
in Proplanner, the users are no longer required
to define an option rule on a task. As long as
the option groups are defined and the orders
loaded, the system will define the option rule and
compute the take rate automatically.
Add “Operator
Filter” to all
reports
This feature will allow the user to print reports
(work instructions, process details, station
summary etc.) by station and then by operator.
Filter any report by station and also by
the operator within that station
Shop Floor Viewer
Show Sequence
Planner study
in Shop Floor
Viewer
Allows shop floor users to review
sequence planner data by unit and
station
The operators on the floor can now review
sequence planner data on the shop floor. This is
particularly helpful for supervisors on the assembly
line as they can now look at the work load for just
their stations for the rest of the day and determine
when relief work is required at which stations.
Supervisors simply log in to the Shop Floor Viewer,
go to the sequence planner, type in the unit serial
number and view the work load for their stations
for all the units that follow (for that day/shift).
IMPORTANT ASSEMBLY PLANNER IMPROVEMENTS
The new Yamazumi graph allows the user to view work content by model and to drag and drop work
across stations. Violations of precedence, resource and zone are also shown now.
Option groups in
Proplanner work well
for clients that have a
lot of mutually exclusive
options. The Yamazumi
view allows the viewer to
look at the worst option
group at station and then
further drill down into
the group to look at the
most complex option
within the group. As in
the model view, work can
be dragged and dropped
between stations in this
view as well.
Copyright 2013 Proplanner