The Fabricator - November 2013

48 The FABRICATOR November 2013
Technology Spotlight

By Dan Davis, Editor-in-Chief

CMP is a multinational, multimillion-dollar fabricating company based in Chateau- guay, Quebec, Canada, but it still shares the same production headaches that other metal fabricating companies share. In this instance, however, it’s internally developed pain reliever may also prove to be a remedy for other fabricators that struggle with properly communicating work instructions to shop floor employees or with fabricating quality parts.

About three years ago, CMP realized that it had the development muscle and the information technology architecture to begin working on software that would allow it to share work instructions with its shop floor via computers. Since then the virtual work instructions have moved beyond simply replicating word directions to now including pictures and video. ;e job details, called up when an employee scans a bar code, are delivered over the Internet.

To prove the concept, CMP implemented it in its
hardware insertion department at its Chateauguay
fabricating facility. As any metal fabricating com-
pany can attest, hardware insertion is a necessary,
but sometimes troubling, activity. In CMP’s case,
the di;culty was having the correct inserts placed
in the correct holes. Some of the more complex
hardware insertion jobs had as many as 20 di;er-
ent holes with a slightly di;erent piece of hardware
being inserted into each individual hole. Even com-
plete drawings were di;cult to understand with so
much insertion activity taking place.
;e first step in the quality improvement exer-
cise was building visual instructions for the most
challenging hardware insertion jobs. CMP person-
nel snapped photos of the correct sequence of
insertion actions and then included them on the
internally developed knowledge-sharing architec-
ture it had developed. ;e development team also
connected the software to the hardware insertion
equipment, which meant the machine operator
couldn’t progress until the right insert was placed
in the right hole.

For a more complete picture, imagine the operator beginning a new job at the hardware insertion machine (see Figure 1). He scans the bar code on the traveler document, and the job details appear on the touchscreen next to the equipment. ;e operator sees the first insertion and places the insert into the hole. ;e hardware insertion machine communicates to the software that the hardware

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Figure 1

Complex hardware insertion jobs with multiple inserts often resulted in plenty of rework at CMP, a fabricator in Chateauguay, Quebec, Canada, until the company developed a visual knowledge-sharing program that o;ers operators easy-to-understand, step-by-step instructions on how to complete the challenging jobs. Photos courtesy of VKS.