Title:
How Their First Robot Purchase Enabled a 70-year Old Company with 11 Facilities on 3 Continents to Profitably Expand their Domestic Manufacturing
Description:
World Wide Fittings, Inc. is a 70 year old company whichmanufactures steel and stainless steel hydraulics fittings in 11 facilities spanning 3 continents. When supply chain issues made getting parts from their Asian facilities impractical, Illinois-based manufacturer World Wide Fittings, Inc (WWF) needed to increase their domestic manufacturing capability while maintaining a high level of productivity and quality. Increasing domestic output would lessen the impact of the supply chain issues, but domestic production had to do more than just
shorten delivery times: The facilities had to achieve a high level of productivity and efficiency to stay competitive. Fortunately for them, the answer was just across from their parking lot. While there were numerous processes that they could start with, WWF started with a straight forward project to automate
the loading and unloading of one of their CNC lathes. They opted for a complete turn-key system including the robot, gripper/end effector, controls, an HMI and safety. The results exceeded expectations: in addition to the automation of the load/unload process, machine utilization increased from 70% to 95%. The system featured storage for 4 hours of incoming parts as well as the same amount for the storage of completed parts. This enabled the lathe to run unattended through breaks and beyond the end of the typical workday. WWF is expecting a Return on Investment of less than 24 months. Due to the success of this project, WWF is looking to automate similar processes within their facilities and increase their U.S. based manufacturing. Per Sean McCarthy, President/Owner of World Wide Fittings: “Bottom line, they’re helping us expand our domestic manufacturing and keep it at a competitive level. That’s good for us, good for our employees, and good for the
country.” This session will go through the process of how WWF, Mitsubishi Electric Automation and SCADAware worked together to identify and evaluate candidate applications, determine which one to start with and customize the design to meet the goals and ROI requirements that WWF needed in order to cost justify the project.
Type:
IMTS Conference
