Situation
German manufacturer Ziehl-Abegg produces ventilation equipment for hospitals, data centers, shipping facilities, and refrigeration trucks to ensure valuable goods – including vaccines and computer equipment – are stored and transported at the correct temperatures. When it opened a factory in Greensboro, North Carolina, Ziehl-Abegg turned to Haas machinery to help meet its production goals. However, shortly after the new equipment was installed, the factory’s Lead CNC Machinist realized there was a need to improve efficiency, so he reached out to Phillips Opto.
Strategy
To help Ziehl-Abegg improve the production time and throughput of its fans, Phillips Opto Engineer Chris Cave first talked with the team about their goals. Their main objective was to get parts off the machine more efficiently – ideally reducing the current time of six minutes to around a minute. They were also hoping to decrease the number of passes needed to cut each part, minimize scrap material and get more parts out the door. After assessing their goals, Chris got to work with the team. Together, they uncovered key insights and developed custom, hands-on solutions related to tooling, set up, programming and quality control to optimize productivity.
Result
Within a matter of hours, Chris was able to hit Ziehl-Abegg’s target production time by getting parts off the machine in one minute and 13 seconds. He also helped cut the number of passes down to one – over a 5x reduction in cycle time. The insights provided by Phillips Opto are helping Ziehl-Abegg hit its daily production goal of 600 pieces along with its target scrap rate. And now with a deeper understanding of Haas machine capabilities, the Ziehl-Abegg team is well-equipped to ensure the production process continues running smoothly.
This content was originally published on the Phillips Corp website.