In this week's Fix or Friday, I'm
going to show you a gorgeous palette the guys came up with.
Now, not only does it look good, but we boosted production by over 50%.
That was made for this
This.
So as many of our subscribers
know by now, we want to be a resource to promote Lean manufacturing.
Lean has taken our company to new levels of production
while simultaneously reducing stress.
Now, keeping with Lean principles, we're always improving things
So this part I'm going to show you has actually been featured
previously in Fixture Friday Number eight, where we take
widely available round bar stock and turn it into rectangular parts.
Now, this particular part is made out of stainless steel, and it's the pad
that you see on the face of our pro palette and many palette systems
Now, the old pallet held eight parts.
The new palette holds 12.
Now, the old palette was great.
We did a quick op one in Vice, which gave us all the locating features.
And for the pallets top, we used what I call the knife makers
method of bolting through the pallet and into the bottom of the part.
Now, this gives us access to five out of the six sides
with no interference from clamps or vise jaws.
So the fact is that this second operation produced parts with great results.
But when I did a time study, the more parts we could fit on a pallet
extended the cycle time by 40%
but yielded 50% more parts.
So where did this mystery 10% free money come from?
Well, it came from reducing the number of unnecessary tool changes.
So time wise, my operator spent on average
only an extra 15 seconds
screwing down the extra four parts per pallet.
But their walkaway time went up by 6 minutes
because of the longer cycle time.
Now, this may not seem like a big deal, but letting the machine just run
allows the operator to create real value elsewhere, like loading and unloading
the next pallet, inspecting parts or tending other machines.
Now, from a lean perspective, small gains repeated multiple times
over leads to massive results in time and money
So let's take a closer look at the pallet itself.
Now, this is one of our standard off
the shelf, eight by six inch pallet sizes.
So my shop foreman, John, cut this pallet on our five axis machine,
meaning he made this pallet complete in one operation.
So John collaborated with Alex, my other machinist,
and Alex said that handles on the pallets would be a nice touch.
So we drilled in tapped handle holes around all four sides
so that we at least have the option of putting them where we wanted.
Now I dig the Pearson stickers on the side I think it just looks awesome.
But rounding the corners and using a radius mill along
the top are more than just for looks.
So rounded edges not only look good, but they're a lot easier on your hands
and your knuckles than chamfers are alone.
Finally, he added an orientation marker to aid with loading.
But what doesn't immediately jump out by looking at it alone
is that this pallet is completely symmetrical.
So even if it's loaded 180 degrees backwards,
it'll still create perfect parts.
Now, this is a lean term known as Poka
Yoke or mistake proofing, which works perfectly
with symmetrical parts on a symmetrical palette.
Now, keep in mind, you can always learn more about our products or buy online.
24/7 at PiersonWorkholding.com.
So until next time, subscribe and then go innovate your production.