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Mikko
Lindström, President
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Passive
Spectator or
Proactive Participant?
Sheet Metal Fabricators
Have Choices
Finn-Power
recently sponsored an Open House at Nu-Way Industries,
Des Plaines, IL, a new customer that purchased a Night
Train FMS with a Shear Brilliance, an in-line Express Bender,
and a robotic press brake (full
story).
During the event, while Nu-Way president Steve Southwell
explained
his company’s
decision to invest in new fabrication technology to a trade
magazine editor, I couldn’t help but think of a line
from the movie The Shawshank Redemption: “Get
busy living, or get busy dying.”
After
extensive research, Nu-Way Industries
purchased
Finn-Power’s Night Train FMS with a Shear Brilliance,
an in-line Express Bender, and a robotic press brake.
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Basically, Steve’s logic was
that his company made the decision to purchase new technology
after extensive research
of these issues: Nu-Way’s markets; his domestic and
international competition; and the most advanced sheet
metal fabrication equipment and systems available on the
market.
Instead of merely complaining about the current weak economy
and being passive spectators unable to affect their own future,
Nu-Way became proactive. The company made the investment
in order to increase their productivity, quality, and profits…for
today and tomorrow.
This example highlights a new marketplace reality for sheet
metal fabricators of all sizes: Make the parts faster and
cheaper while delivering defect-free products on-time with
more features, and of course, at less cost. Translation:
Improve productivity, quality, and delivery…or someone
else will.
This new “marketplace reality” matches Finn-Power’s
product line perfectly. For years, Finn-Power has designed
versatility to individual work stages by integrating them
with automated material management and making automation
as flexible as possible. Our goal has always been to improve
our customers’ productivity.
Finn-Power Flexibility
Today, we have proven globally-acknowledged solutions for
any sheet metal fabrication need with a variety of work stages
and methods. In addition, we not only have the modules for
automating process material flow, but also the application
engineering knowledge to specify the optimum in each case.
The range is wide enough so that our customers do not have
to compromise to achieve Lean Manufacturing in their fabrication
facilities. Traditionally, automation has been seen as a “long-run”, “mass
production” solution. Today, however, automation
involves producing parts faster and more accurately while
completing
more operations in one step, small lot sizes, and with
less effort than 5-10 years ago.
Integrating machinery to work together seamlessly from part
to part and operation to operation has been resolved by Finn-Power’s
Night Train Flexible Manufacturing System. In addition
to punching, shearing and/or laser cutting, the Night Train
allows the addition of robotic press brakes or and in-line
automatic panel bender to automate the component bending
process. This system allows customers to bend only the
parts
that are needed today and to be able to bend parts in different
sequences than what they were punched in order to match
their assembly needs, thus eliminating extra work in process
while
increasing throughput.
The editor of TOOLING & PRODUCTION magazine,
Jim Lorincz, discusses this entire topic in his in-depth and educational
article “Sheet Metal Fabricators Have Choices” that
appears on pages 18-19 of the March issue of TOOLING & PRODUCTION.
Jim, a seasoned veteran of the metalworking industry, participated
in the Editor Technology Trip to
Finland and Italy in September 2002.
You may also be interested in checking out the review (see
below) of the recently-passed tax relief bill that provides
attractive incentives for new equipment orders.
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710
Remington Road 
Volume
13 Issue 1 -
July 2003