Report from Europe:
Finding the sweet spot in
fabricating automation
The fab shops in Belgium strive for the same
efficiencies as their stateside counterparts
By Tim Heston, Senior Editor
alking a block north of the Leie River flanked
by the medieval Broel towers—two of the
few original structures left standing in Kortrijk after World War II—I noticed the trees. The Belgians
pruned them several years ago, leaving nubs where large
branches used to be. From those nubs emerge a spidery
cluster of new growth. Such pruned hardwoods dot the
countryside.
Those trees could be a living metaphor for modern
manufacturing. Years ago they had large, thick branches
(large-batch manufacturing). But recently they were cut
back only to grow again in a new way, with thin branches
(smaller batches) appearing in an intricate array (a diverse, large customer base providing many small-volume
jobs).
My mind kept straying to this metaphor as I toured
several metal fabricators in the region. Earlier this year I
took part in an international press tour organized by Belgian fabrication equipment-maker LVD Company n.v. and
its across-the-pond subsidiary Strippit Inc., based near
Buffalo, N. Y. During the first quarter, the company invited
the trade press from North America, South America, and
Europe to its headquarters in Gullegem, in the northwestern outskirts of Kortrijk and a little more than an
hour west of Brussels. In early March The FABRICATOR®
paid a visit.
In the area you’ll likely hear Flemish (a Dutch dialect),
French, and English, all spoken in one conversation between two Belgian citizens. LVD headquarters are on the
southern edge of the country’s Flemish-language region.
To the north of Kortrijk, most speak Flemish; to the south
and west, French. You hear a little German too. Business
conducted here has an international feel, mainly because
to grow significantly, most Belgian companies must do
business beyond the border.
According to Carl Dewulf, LVD’s president and managing director, company executives could brag about its
70 percent market share in Belgium, but they don’t. “Our
home market of Belgium is only a small part of our group
turnover. It’s only about 7 percent of our total sales.” The
rest happens outside Belgium. Half of LVD’s sales come
from Europe, the other half everywhere else, including
Asia and the U.S. The company employs more than 1,000
people who operate in 45 countries, but only several hundred call Belgium home.
This isn’t to say that Belgium’s metal fabricators aren’t
successful. Like LVD, their reach extends beyond Belgium,
W
and to compete they focus on the same things that metal
fabricators do stateside. Good quality and high on-time
delivery rates get companies to the table. To succeed and
grow, shops must shorten manufacturing time while minimizing debt and maximizing profits.
Layoffs are a last resort in Belgium, which by U.S. standards has a generous temporary unemployment program
for technical workers. If a fab shop has no work, it can put
employees on temporary unemployment, when the state
pays a portion of workers’ salaries. When the work returns, the shop can take them back. However, if a business has no choice but to lay off somebody permanently,
the business may be required to pay a portion of that
worker’s salary for several years.
“Our labor laws have made it so business owners
think twice before they hire a person,” Dewulf said, “and
it makes shop owners think differently when they’re mak-
ing a decision about automation.”
While differences likely will remain, the global reces-
sion has muted them, sources said. Shop owners in the
U.S., many weary of layoffs, may be taking a second look
at advanced equipment. Those with enough cash (im-
portant for today’s challenging lending environment) and
potential work may be looking at more automation,
which allows shops to respond quickly to customer de-
mand—an immutable fact regardless of labor laws. Per-
haps more important, the right level of automation
maximizes the value of each employee. The more valu-
able that employee is, the more stable his employment
becomes, in good times and bad.
Matthew Fowles, LVD’s group marketing manager, explained this phenomenon (see Figure 1).
“We’re aiming for the sweet spot, the crossover point
between the most labor-cost-per-part reduction and the
start of the expediential curve of [equipment] investment
cost per part.” The sweet spot depends on a shop’s cus-
What Parts Go Where?
Christophe Liégeois has a youthful, positive air about him,
one that exudes confidence and makes me think of those
managers who come onboard, turn the ship around, and
move on to the next company in need. Thing is, Liégeois
has been with the same metal fabricator for 19 years.
After attending university, the mechanical engineer
came onboard at P. Lemmens Air Movement Co. in Gem-bloux, an agricultural, French-speaking community in
south-central Belgium. Modern wind turbines and historic windmills dot the landscape. Inside on the shop
floor, sunshine streams in through skylights.
Now plant manager, Liégeois has seen the fabrication
shop transform from one press brake and one shear to
today’s advanced operation. The business has grown
tremendously, even through the economic downturn.
Lemmens generated about 21 million euros in revenue in
2009, and annual revenue has grown by 20 percent for
several years.
The company is in the enviable position of being at
the right place at the right time—offering the right product. Lemmens makes heating more efficient with a system that filters previously heated air and recirculates it,
increasing efficiency by a whopping 90 percent. The
product helps builders achieve newly enforced energy-efficiency mandates in Europe. Long story short, this
company is preparing for significant growth.
Managers haven’t wanted to hire more people, “but
they have wanted to keep delivery times as short as ever,
and the only way to do that was by investing in automation,” said Stefan Colle, LVD’s U.S.-based product manager of laser machinery.
Colle stood between two fabrication cells with robots. One was a punching center in which a KUKA robot
fed raw material and stacked galvanized steel blanks. (The
shop also processes a fair amount of prepainted material
and stainless steel.) The other was an LVD bending center with a KUKA robot that took blanks, bent them, and
stacked the formed parts.
The company’s airflow products call for material as
thin as 0.03 in. and various blank shapes. One operator
during our visit lifted a thin, oblong blank of galvanized
steel that bowed significantly, almost like a wet noodle. He placed it into a CNC press brake to form stiffening ribs.
No wonder that part was being bent manually. Such
thin blanks are notorious for giving bending robots difficulty. Wet noodles aren’t the easiest to grab, even for humans, right? After hearing the question, Liégeois paused,
shook his head, and pointed to the automated bending
cell, where the robot was picking up and bending thin
metal with little difficulty (see Figure 2).
Figure 1 Adopting the optimal level of automation involves finding the “sweet spot” where the red and black lines cross, balancing
labor cost reduction with equipment investment costs. Images courtesy of LVD.
