Control Phase

Control Phase

As part of the control phase an operational procedure was put in place to aid the design team in designing components which suit the EDM wire erosion process where possible. Part of the procedure was an additional design review with the production manager in-order to appraise the designs suitability for the EDM wire erosion process and to plan future process capacity for the wire EDM department. These design reviews will also be used as a method of evaluating the design teams ability to apply new design methods.

We put a control plan in place to show the strategy that would be used to control the improved process.

The average process hours and design and manufacture lead-time are measured using the Job management software. These metrics are taken after the completion of each job and analysed using a control chart in-order to ensure that the reductions in average process hours and design and manufacture lead-times achieved in the Improve phase is maintained in future projects.

Improve Phase

Improve Phase

During the analysis phase it was highlighted the negative effect the CNC milling had on the manufacturing process. EDM wire erosion was highlighted as a process which could potentially replace a lot of the CNC milling process hours having a positive effect on the total process hours. While being a less labour intensive process the EDM wire erosion process also reduces the requirement for finishing processes such as grinding/fitting and high speed milling. Therefore an increase in usage of the wire erosion process will reduce these process hours.

As part of the Improve Phase the Design process was changed to ensure components were designed in a manner which allowed as much of the machining to be carried out using the wire erosion process where possible and practical.

It was also decided to put an extra shift in place in the EDM wire erosion division in-order to provide the capacity required to cope with the extra process hours being directed through the division. The addition of the extra shift would have a positive effect on the project lead times therefore allowing the metrology division to offer customers reduced lead times to meet there project requirements.

It was decided to plan work going through the EDM division in such a way to allow jobs with high run times to be set up during the second shift therefore allowing them to run unmanned through the night.