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Home Columns Innovation & Manufacturing Column Innovative manufacturing processes
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Innovative manufacturing processes
By implementing factory & material process development, your company can gain an
edge in manufacturing
American manufacturing faces many challenges. With so many
products being made overseas, U.S. manufacturing struggles with
the competitive environment and ability to participate in the high-tech
exports market. Innovative manufacturing involves more than making
high-tech products. It uses new, often cutting-edge machines and
processes to make products that are unique, more complex and competitively priced. Two
activities – factory and material development – innovate manufacturing using quick
integration of improvements, permitting changes in design and accommodating custom,
cost-effective production.
By understanding and implementing factory process and material process development,
your company can gain an edge in manufacturing. More specifically, by delivering instant
change management and progressive response, the end product will meet client
requirements and improve R&D development. Technical discoveries, new ideas and fresh
engineering approaches can be transformed quickly into the various stages of new
products. When you have a complex product, the more engineering oversight is required
during production. Involving engineers at the front-end of manufacturing allows for
adjustments to prototypes while working closely with the client and the product. Products
can be engineered, tested, built and engineered again in an iterative manner that enhances
design and adds production efficiencies. Once a product is verified through successful
prototype builds, it can then be produced in comparatively higher volumes more
inexpensively.
Factory process development includes infrastructure, records, forms and build guidelines.
The infrastructure of the manufacturing facility, the plant layout, employees and build
schedules are all essential in creating an efficient and collaborative work environment.
Good infrastructure communicates to the employees and clients confidence in the build
operations. Well organized infrastructure makes the product builds run smoothly.
Records and forms methods ensure that production is managed proficiently. Significant
pieces of the records and forms methods include serial label configurations, a build
deviation procedure, part records, build matrix, part rework procedure and defect records.
The use of records and forms is how an organization captures “learnings” for clients by
identifying a defect in process, contacting the responsible engineer and technician, and
providing key attributes of the issue to root cause. These critical steps allow clients to make
changes to the design to improve their product.
The build guidelines drive efficiency from concept design to production. Build guidelines
include buffer build limits, team structure, defect/observation escalation procedure, flow and
line stoppage criteria. These guidelines make sure changes to product designs are fully
reviewed and approved by all parties to maintain high quality and avoid downstream
production issues.
Material process development entails the tracking and control methods for all materials
included within the manufacturing process. Material processes track materials characters,
incoming materials, tooling and material movement. Good management of the materials
process gives insight into how materials changes affect production costs. Tracking materials
through assembly and testing of parts results in product optimization.
Innovative manufacturing takes a detailed and managed approach. By integrating factory
and material development processes into manufacturing, companies create a learning
environment that improves production. Factory and material development methods
streamline integration of process improvements, allow for changes in design, and
accommodate custom production.
Bill Huseby is the CEO of Sigma Design, a Vancouver-based product engineering firm. For
more information, visitwww.sigmadzn.com.