Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM)
(by Jaycen Rigger / Technical Support Manager)
Computer Integrated Manufacturing is a big term. Its implications are far-reaching and wide-ranging. It involves a lot more than simply installing a computerized front-end on your machine.
You can find a lot of different definitions of CIM based on what someone’s trying to sell, and I’ve even found a dictionary-style definition of the term: CIM “integrates production, administrative, and support functions in a manufacturing firm by tying together separate automated systems and minimizing administrative and manual functions.”
For my company CIM is benefits-driven. We break it down into 5 key benefits:
1. Mistake-proofing
2. Information Gathering
3. Increased Capacity
4. Flexibility
5. Policy Enforcement
The benefits of CIM are listed in descending order of implementation. In every case, the benefits build upon each other.
Mistake-proofing
Mistake-proofing is the starting point for Information Gathering. It doesn’t do much good to gather data if you can’t trust it. By digitally sending data (orders) from one system to another, and then down to your equipment you are paving the road to receiving better information regarding your day-to-day operations.
Eliminating mistakes equals eliminating waste – wasted material that was the wrong color or thickness, the wasted time of the original production run, then the subsequent corrected production run and all the time in between spent finding the mistake (figuring out how to correct it and then getting it corrected.) Usually, you gain extra time when you implement CIM as a nice side benefit of the Mistake-proofing aspects.
Mistake-proofing comes in the form of having a single-point for order entry into the system. Since one person enters the order and then it’s digitally transmitted afterward, you have less chance of someone making a mistake by hand-keying the wrong data. You also eliminate the time an employee would normally spend keying that data. If that information has to keyed and re-keyed several times at several different places, not only do you increase the chance of a mistake being made, but you are paying several employees to do exactly the same work, several different times. This is duplication of effort. If your employees weren’t duplicating effort, they could be processing more new data (new orders). This is an automatic capacity increase.
With Increased Capacity, you become more flexible with your customers. You can respond faster and more reliably (mistake-proofing). You also gain flexibility within your organization. Moving an order from one machine to another can be done from the office with a few mouse clicks. Decisions regarding which machines will run which orders, based on material and tooling, become very easy when presented with all the information in one place.
Policy Enforcement is possible within a digital system because some data manipulation can only take place within the rules of the software in the system. Because you digitized your order data to eliminate mistakes, you’ve now made it possible for a computer to decide, based on certain criteria, when it is or isn’t acceptable for employees to perform certain manipulations on that data.
Information Gathering
Even if you aren’t using Lean within your organization, you still want to know who’s your best operator, which machine has the highest throughput, and which vendor sends you coils with the highest percentage of scrap? These are basic concepts that every company needs to understand about its operations. Pulling that information directly from the computer that runs your machine is more efficient and trustworthy than relying on hand-written reports taken by operators and foremen.
Any company focused on Continuous Improvement (Six Sigma, Lean, Kaizen, etc) knows that you must collect information if you want to make improvements. You typically want to know what your current capabilities are before setting improvement goals.
When the company’s focus is to improve throughput and reduce scrap, even the most honest employee is encouraged to fudge the numbers so his boss is happy. There’s also resolution to consider; when an operator measures a part with a tape measure, he’s probably measuring to within ± 1/32”. A computer can typically measure down to 0.001” (1/1000”).
When it comes to time, an operator is going to write down the nearest minute, or so. The computer is tracking things to a second, or fractions of a second. The computer doesn’t care what an acceptable amount of downtime (or scrap) is. It’s simply going to report what’s actually happening.
In almost every case, a computer is going to be more precise when measuring than a human can be. If the computer is already running your machine and measuring the length of your product for you, why not use its measurements for your reports?
Information gathering is usually the beginning of operator incentive programs aimed at scrap reduction and throughput targets. When the company has a handle on its current numbers, it can set goals for the machine operators and everyone can see when those goals are achieved, and when shortfalls occur.
Increased Capacity
So you probably noticed a small capacity increase simply by having order data sent directly to the machine. In some cases, the capacity increase is quite large, because operators are also keying complicated part information (punching patterns, for instance) into the machine.
Major improvements can be made that can really impact capacity when you combine mistake-proofing with information gathering. Reports can be generated that give management a better grasp on where they need to expend efforts and limited company resources.
Scheduling usually becomes easier, and turnaround times begin to shorten. Orders are easier to schedule from a central point when all the orders can be viewed at one time. The computer allows schedulers and managers to filter information and sort it quickly. They can see what the result of adding another order of 500’ of galvanized product to one machine will do to the other orders in the system. Most systems will include some sort of time management with estimates on completion times based on historical throughput of a given machine. When setup and material change times are known and factored in, the system can be optimized to make the best use of a machine and operators’ time.
Flexibility
The system is really up and rolling now. Very few people are required to manipulate order data anymore, which means their efforts are being re-directed at improving processes or handling expansion. The shortened customer response times means you’re quoting bigger orders from more demanding customers, or taking maybe you’re taking on smaller orders from customers who need the faster response. Those are orders that will win customers from your competition.
Production has gotten a hand on scheduling. We usually know several hours ahead of time when tooling changes will need to occur. Maintenance can now consider a Preventative Maintenance (PM) program so unexpected machine breakdowns happen less, because we’re scheduling regular maintenance of high-use components in with tooling changes. The software we’re using for our CIM system might even support PM functionality; after all, the system knows which products (tooling) are being run, and how many hours of runtime have elapsed, how much linear footage has passed through the tooling, and how many times the cutoff press was fired.
Policy Enforcement
Now that everyone is trained on the system and comfortable with the new direction, we can begin to implement software policy enforcement.
When the operator manually cuts material, the system asks him why he made scrap.
If the system thinks it made scrap, but the operator knows it’s good material, there’s a way for him to notify the system of that, too.
When operators change material on a machine, sensors detect the change and demand the next coil’s data.
The operator is required to tell the system which coil he just loaded before he’s allowed to perform any operations on it.
When the machine sits idle too long, the operator must tell the machine why it wasn’t running.
As you can see, CIM isn’t just a front-end on a machine.
CIM isn’t just a piece of software that runs on your company’s server.
It’s really not even both of those things.
It’s an entire system, including the people who must use it every day and the policies and procedures they must follow to properly use the system.
It requires a certain amount of training for the hourly employees, and a serious commitment from management to successfully implement a CIM system.