Manufacturing gets in gear
By Maria Varmazis -- Purchasing, 4/5/2007 2:00:00 AM
Bosch and Timken team up for improved steel
On paper it all looked good. Automotive supplier Robert Bosch North America was developing a fuel injector system for diesel engines and, as part of that process needed to machine steel for the part. Bosch wrote a spec for the low-alloy steel and steel supplier Timken Co. provided the steel as requested.
But it didn't work. The hot-rolled annealed steel was difficult to machine at the Bosch plant in Charleston, S.C., and was creating excessive metal buildup on the edges of the tool, impacting quality of the final product.
"Our specification was drawn up based on what appeared to be acceptable both from a machining and performance standpoint," says Wilt Staples, purchasing engineering at Bosch. "But as time went on, when the product was introduced to the higher volumes and higher speed machines and other equipment changes, it became apparent that our specification was too broad. Problems developed in machining."
The problems puzzled the supplier, Timken just as much as Bosch's team. "We were producing a soft annealed material for Bosch and we couldn't understand why they were having trouble machining it," recalls Dave Henderson, a metallurgical engineer with Timken. "But that's where the close relationship between buyer and supplier comes in. It's sometimes difficult to capture it all in the specification—they're difficult to write and interpret."
Rather than go back out to the market to put the project out to bid, Bosch focused on a deeper collaboration with Timken to help solve the problem. Staples presented the problem first to a team at Timken's plant in Canton, Ohio. Timken then assembled a team that visited Bosch's facility in Charleston to watch the process and ask a lot of questions.
A machine expert in Timken's technical services group helped determine that it was the high surface-to-core hardness gradient that made it difficult to machine. Timken actually needed to increase the hardness of this material to help Bosch improve its machining because it could be machined at a lower temperature, Henderson says. "Usually, you think if it's softer you can machine it better. We needed to increase the hardness to improve the machinability in this case. So that meant we had to change the process."
Timken presented Bosch with a product created through a hot-rolled temper process, which would produce steel that would machine more effectively during Bosch's heat-treatment process.
From there, a sample was developed and tested extensively in Bosch's production process. Staples and a team from Bosch visited Timken several times and vice versa. "The personal interactions and being able to see the processes at the other side is very important to developing ideas and strategies," says Henderson.
But before giving it the final green light, Bosch conferred with its primary customer on the project to ensure the new process and the end-product would meet their needs.
"Timken worked with us very closely through the entire process," Staples says. "The key to this project was their taking the time to understand our situation and our taking the time to explain in detail what our issue was and what we needed to achieve. There is rarely going to be a perfect relationship. To be able to make adjustments requires give and take on both ends. Sometimes it's a learning experience—we don't always have the best ideas."
—David Hannon
InStron emphasizes collaboration
When it came time to redesign a product at Norwood, Mass.-based InStron, Global Procurement Director Tom Murphy knew he had to pull all his available resources together to come up with the best solution. This meant purchasing sat down with both design engineers as well as external manufacturers to collaborate on all the details.
"We have a handset that controls the end product, and that's built by a contract manufacturer," says Murphy. "We're involving them with the design decisions of which switches we might use, how we might design the printed circuit boards and the skins. They're in there from start to finish."
This tactic of getting manufacturers involved in planning pays dividends. Murphy says the process allows for manufacturers and design engineers to give him the most cost-effective solution to a design issue, while the contract manufacturers improve their customer relationships and design engineers keep the product to specifications. If in-house manufacturers are making the product, they too are brought in to collaboration meetings. It's all part of the development process at InStron, which changed about four years ago, to make sure "the design is as good as it can be getting out of the gate," Murphy says.
When a product requirement comes in, Murphy calls the meeting with design and manufacturing to get the collaboration started as early as possible. If the manufacturer cannot make the product, purchasing knows ahead of time, avoiding later surprises. Most of the time, however, the meetings confirm that the manufacturer can make what engineering needs.
For the handset, purchasing, engineering and manufacturing are about halfway through their planning process for a new product. But already they've decided to change the switch technology and plastics in the component as well as add an organic LED display—all at the same cost as the old version.
It can take a bit of juggling to get all involved coordinated enough to come together to discuss design plans, even when the work is being done internally. And not everyone sees eye to eye when it comes time to critique design plans.
Despite the difficulties working together can bring to product design reviews, Murphy believes the change in corporate mindset from isolation to collaboration is worth it. "In the old days what used to happen is engineering would just design the parts, throw them over the fence and we would have to deal with it, and that doesn't happen here anymore," he says.
Over the next two years, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Spansion, currently the largest global supplier of NOR flash, will roll out a roadmap to reorganize operations and speed up information transfer along the supply chain. While still in the implementation stage of this rollout, executive vice president of operations Jose Mejia, and vice president of supply chain management Wilhelm Sterlin, both say that getting their manufacturers integrated in supply chain operations is a big part of Spansion’s operational overhaul that will take place in the next two years.
“We are revving up the ability of the manufacturing organization to move faster in providing supplies,” says Sterlin. “We’re connecting our applications areas with our final manufacturing organizations as well as connecting procurement in a much tighter manner with the needs of the manufacturing engines.” Sterlin and Mejia say this paradigm shift is all part of an effort to change the perception of the semiconductor fab as a time sink that the entire supply chain has to “plan around.”
With a wide global supply and customer base, Mejia believes increased communication between semiconductor fabrication nodes will allow for decreased leadtimes and greater flexibility in project prioritization. Part of the plan to get these nodes to exchange production information more quickly uses technology to the best possible advantage. Spansion is rolling out E2Open software, which will provide work-in-progress tracking as well as finished goods inventory. “Spansion expects to gain significant process efficiencies from implementing an integrated inventory management system across Spansion’s internal and external supply chain,” says vice president of business process integration Michael Lipsey.
Changes in the supply chain communications won’t just affect collaboration at the manufacturing level, but it’s one of the areas where the changes will have some of the greatest impact. Mejia says given the fluctuations in product demand for semiconductors, it’s a long-term cost-savings effort to get information to manufacturers more quickly so they can be more responsive to demand variations.
“The faster that information is sent the faster the collaboration takes place around where we should prioritize material or what kind of devices we might need,” says Mejia. “You need to have an infrastructure that can respond quickly, and the only way to get that is to allow my fabs to know what’s going on out in the field in a matter of minutes rather than days, weeks, or months later.”
Increasing flexibility and responsiveness in the supply chain is not a new strategy, says supply chain management vice president Sterlin, and leveraging new software is just one part of the two-year program Spansion is rolling out. The general roadmap is still in the fundamental stages, but Sterlin says it involves keeping his suppliers as close by as possible. Some of his global suppliers have offices in the same building, which aids in fast and regular collaborations. “I want to have my vendors at my fingertips. I’ll make sure they’re very close by,” says Sterlin.
Spansion steps up response times
over the next two years, Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Spansion, currently the largest global supplier of NOR flash, will roll out a roadmap to reorganize operations and speed up information transfer along the supply chain. While still in the implementation stage of this rollout, executive vice president of operations Jose Mejia, and vice president of supply chain management Wilhelm Sterlin, both say that getting their manufacturers integrated in supply chain operations is a big part of Spansion’s operational overhaul that will take place in the next two years.
“We are revving up the ability of the manufacturing organization to move faster in providing supplies,” says Sterlin. “We’re connecting our applications areas with our final manufacturing organizations as well as connecting procurement in a much tighter manner with the needs of the manufacturing engines.” Sterlin and Mejia say this paradigm shift is all part of an effort to change the perception of the semiconductor fab as a time sink that the entire supply chain has to “plan around.”
With a wide global supply and customer base, Mejia believes increased communication between semiconductor fabrication nodes will allow for decreased leadtimes and greater flexibility in project prioritization. Part of the plan to get these nodes to exchange production information more quickly uses technology to the best possible advantage. Spansion is rolling out E2Open software, which will provide work-in-progress tracking as well as finished goods inventory. “Spansion expects to gain significant process efficiencies from implementing an integrated inventory management system across Spansion’s internal and external supply chain,” says vice president of business process integration Michael Lipsey.
Changes in the supply chain communications won’t just affect collaboration at the manufacturing level, but it’s one of the areas where the changes will have some of the greatest impact. Mejia says given the fluctuations in product demand for semiconductors, it’s a long-term cost-savings effort to get information to manufacturers more quickly so they can be more responsive to demand variations.
“The faster that information is sent the faster the collaboration takes place around where we should prioritize material or what kind of devices we might need,” says Mejia. “You need to have an infrastructure that can respond quickly, and the only way to get that is to allow my fabs to know what’s going on out in the field in a matter of minutes rather than days, weeks, or months later.”
Increasing flexibility and responsiveness in the supply chain is not a new strategy, says supply chain management vice president Sterlin, and leveraging new software is just one part of the two-year program Spansion is rolling out. The general roadmap is still in the fundamental stages, but Sterlin says it involves keeping his suppliers as close by as possible. Some of his global suppliers have offices in the same building, which aids in fast and regular collaborations. “I want to have my vendors at my fingertips. I’ll make sure they’re very close by,” says Sterlin.
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