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When “Efficiency” Demands “Efficiency”:
Federal Mandates for
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Manufacturers of HVAC products faced a tough challenge in 2006…new US Department of Energy efficiency ratings required the development of reengineered units. New product lines needed to be developed quickly…while current manufacturing operations continued. The production mix for many air conditioner manufacturers required a large final for older units before the 2005 end of year deadline.
This was exactly the challenge of First Operations, LP, Dallas, Texas. Simply put, company management needed to maximize production output to handle the large volume of orders for both older and newer air models. The key to keeping up with the increased volumes was reengineering elements of their manufacturing approach.
Metal stamping operations were typically performed by hand-fed operations and one-hit dies. The need to automate their press working operations by moving to more cost-efficient coil-fed methods was realized, but those principals had not yet been fully applied to their operations. Coe Press Equipment helped with their press feed challenges.
First Operations was founded in 1966 to provide the rapidly growing HVAC industry with an independent source of fan coils. Since then, they have earned an enviable reputation as a leader, innovator, and trusted supplier of a broad range of quality HVAC products. The manufacturing capabilities in their 400,000 sq. ft. / 600 employee facility range from short runs of specialized products built to customer specifications, to high volume production of standard 2-20 ton units. These standard products comprise First Company’s line of commercial and residential air handlers for markets such as college dormitories, apartment complexes, hotels, and many others.
“We’re a very basic manufacturer,” said Barry Buchanan, Director of Manufacturing and Operations at First Company. “We start out with copper and steel at one end of the plant, and ship out completed units at the other end. We fabricate most of the parts of the product except for items like motors, blower wheels, electrical components, and pumps. We pretty much make everything else ourselves. We’re self-sustained from metal forming operations…to powder coat processing…through final assembly.”
They operate ten stamping presses ranging from 60 to 220 tons. “We started our “retool to coil-feeding” initiative in 2003 with the first large press (a 220 ton hydraulic straightside) that we bought to produce door and cabinet blanks,” states Buchanan. “After this success, we decided to realign the entire flow of the factory, including the automation of our presses with coil handling/feeding operations. We moved all of the presses from one section of the building to another for better flow-through in the manufacturing process and improved floor space utilization. Through the years, we’ve continued to add servo feeds to our existing presses.
Whenever we buy a new press, we always order a new servo feed with it. It’s been a three year process and the transformation has gone smoothly.”
A total of ten press feed systems have been delivered by Coe to First Operations since 2003, including:
- A Coe ServoMaster Series 342 Servo Roll Feed with a pull-thru straightener capable of feeding .060” thick x 42” wide materials and a CPR-10042 motorized coil reel with 10,000# capacity
- A Coe ServoMaster Series 330 Servo Roll Feed with a pull-thru straightener capable of feeding .060” thick x 30” wide materials and a CPR-6030 motorized coil reel with 6,000# capacity
- A Coe ServoMaster Series 218 Servo Roll Feed with a pull-thru straightener capable of feeding .060” thick x 18” wide materials and a CPR-6018 motorized coil reel 6,000# capacity
Previously, door and cabinet production required a blanking operation followed by CNC turret punch press operations and then on to required forming. But coil-fed operations and new tooling helped them to improve productivity in a dramatic way. “We were getting a cabinet every six minutes,” Buchanan says. “Once we went to coil feeding with the Coe feeds, we were getting a cabinet every six seconds. That 60X improvement has typified the productivity improvements we’ve been able to realize.” He adds that the productivity in the stamping department has lead to at least a 50% improvement throughout their press working operations, an elimination of their pressroom’s third shift, and reduced overtime in the department…all adding to their success.
First Company is not only switching the majority of jobs from hand-feeding to coil-fed operations, they are designing progressive-hit processes into their operations…but it is taking some time to modify their die sets. With over 20,000 different sheet metal parts stamped in-house, efficient changeovers and set-ups are an ongoing challenge. Their next focus is to convert as many jobs possible to “unattended” operations using effective coil feeding technologies.
The Effects of 13 SEER
The Department of Energy SEER (Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio) mandates drove the need for First Operations to be more productive across all parts of their manufacturing operations…and to do so quickly and seamlessly. (A simple explanation on the new SEER mandates: For several years, the minimum efficiency standard for newly-manufactured HVAC equipment has been 10 SEER. Upgrading to 13 SEER provides a 30 percent increase. In January 2006, the law required manufactures to stop producing air conditioning and heat pump equipment less than a 13 SEER.)
The coil feeding upgrades allowed them to serve the demand for the outgoing products, as well as being tooled up and ready to supply the newer energy-efficient units. They realized a 100% sales increase on the push for both older units and newer units. “The changeover to Coe feed systems enabled us to grow our business—and helped us to gain a big edge on the competition,” stated Greg Nation, Manager of Manufacturing and Operations.
We’ve built more equipment over the last couple of years than we ever have—in the range of more than 30-40% increase in product—and we owe a lot to the Coe press feeds,” he added.
Productivity increases and meeting the market’s new product demands are just two of the successes of First Operation’s success with Coe press feeds. Other reasoning includes:
Reduced lead times: “We’ve reduced our lead times quite a bit,” states Nation. “You know when you’re quoting 10-12 weeks lead and your competitor offers about 8 weeks, you’ve got to find ways to get product out faster. The Coe servo feeds have helped us tremendously in the area of set-up time. We’re able to program the part one time and run it…then the next time we run that part, we just recall that program. It’s all ready set up. And that’s huge to us, especially with our large number of different parts produced.”
Reduced scrap rates: The company has realized a 30-45% reduction in scrap/material utilization. A big part of this success is found in their investment in their own slitting line. It gives them the ability to design a part and produce it with a specific coil width instead of buying a standard coil width and scrapping waste material. Plus, the servo feed’s ability to provide the exact feed length has helped to reduce scrap parts and over-usage of material.
Worker safety: “With the new automated feeding process, we don’t handle the material as much, so there’s obviously fewer cuts, nicks and scratches—and we’ve seen an improvement in our injury rate,” states Nation. “Our insurance company’s loss prevention expert recently brought us our loss rates over the past few years and they have been reduced each year since 2003 when we started keeping these records—or when we started adding the feeders. Our loss rates, loss time accidents, and total accidents have decreased every year since then.”
Reduced lot sizes: Prior to installing the automated feed lines, a typical minimum lot size would have been 10,000 stamped parts. A couple thousand parts would be used in the initial order, and the rest of the inventory would sit on a shelf. They now build assemblies and final units on demand. Key to their success is mastering the set up time for their stamping presses. “Everybody typically focuses on amortizing the set up cost across large lots,” states Buchanan. “If you look at it that way, you ought to be able to run 10,000 parts of everything, but you’re tying up valuable press time and building parts you might not need for a month, or a year. We’ve chosen to go the other way by focusing on reducing set up times and letting the lot sizes fall where they may. We rarely set up and run one of anything, but the fact is that we have a system that loads our plant to demand. We build to customer requirements and that’s it. We used to set up a coil and run out the whole coil. The philosophy was… “as long as you got it set up, you might as well run it out.” We don’t do that anymore…we run only what we need.”
Ease of operation: One of their big challenges was thinking “coil-fed vs. hand-fed”, as well as learning the press feed’s programming/operation system. Once there was sufficient user repetition (using it every day for a couple of weeks), it became second nature for the operators. As they’ve added feeders (a total of ten Coe servo feed lines have been installed), the company has realized an ease in cross-training people and getting to the point where operators can run every press line/feeder.
Nation added, “Our turnover is low. The good news is that we were able to take relatively unskilled labor as an initial employee hire and teach them how to use this type of equipment. Especially when considering the easy-to-operate Coe ServoMaster Control System with multi-language capabilities. It certainly was a challenge, but mainly because it was different from what they were used to. But once they learned, it was easy to program and recall the next job. It doesn’t take an electrical engineer to do that.”
“The one thing that Coe has helped with is the sophisticated control and communication links between our presses and servo feeders,” stated Buchanan. “Coe has worked with our press suppliers so that we can get them installed (interfacing between the press and feed controls) and running properly in minimal time. Every time we automate a previously hand-fed press, we’re taking a press down to install a new piece of equipment and we need to have that press up and running as quickly as possible. So, support from Coe and their Technical Service Group has been very good in that respect.”
Future Manufacturing Directions?
When asked about what will happen in the future with their manufacturing operations, Buchanan gave these final words: “We expect two things. One, our competition is going to increase significantly. There is the threat or perhaps the challenge of potential off shore competition. So competition is going to drive costs down, and it’s going to drive productivity and quality requirements up. On lead times, there continues to be pressure on lead times to shrink. I read somewhere, “that the biggest will not always eat the smallest, but the fastest will always eat the slowest.” I think that you can be small and be successful, but you’ve gotta be fast. If you aren’t, then the competition will catch and pass you. So I think there will continued pressure on lead times, I think there’s going to be continued pressure on pricing and productivity. As the competition continues to come in, we’re going to have to be light on our feet, as is everyone. Our direction to with automate our stamping operation servo press feeds from Coe Press Equipment will allow us to stay competitive.”
On The Companies
Coe Press Equipment Corporation, with headquarters in Sterling Heights, Michigan, is a leading producer of pressroom feed equipment including servo roll feeds, power straighteners, coil reels, and complete coil feed systems. They also design and engineer fully-integrated coil processing systems, blanking and cut-to-length lines, and space-saving compact coil lines for metal stamping and processing operations. For more information, contact Jim Ward at Coe Press Equipment Corporation, 40549 Brentwood, Sterling Heights, MI 48310, (586) 979-4400, fax (586) 979-2970, email: info@cpec.com, website: www.cpec.com.
For more information on First Company Products, contact them at 8273 Moberly Lane (PO Box 270969), Dallas, TX 75227. Phone: 214-388-5751. Email: sales@firstco.com. Web: www.firstco.com.
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