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October 2006 Web: http://chapters.sme.org/026/E-mail: sme26toronto@yahoo.ca
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Landing Gear Manufacturing at Messier DowtyJoin us for a great tour on Thursday October 26, 2006 at 6:30 PMMessier Dowty 574 Monarch Ave. Ajax, Ontario Phone: 1-905-683-3100 ext. 3041 http://www.messier-dowty.com/
Person’s name as written on your passport, nationality and the company that you work for. Anyone not meeting these requirements will not be allowed in. People must have no open toed shoes and no shorts are to be worn. There is a limit to 30 people and people are required to stay with the tour group. RSVP event - Contact Loris Giuricich lgiurici@celestica.com or call (416) 448-2225 to sign up. Costs are as follows: $10 students, $15 members $20 for non-members.
Messier-Dowty design, manufacture, test and support landing gear for commercial and military aircraft and rotorcraft. Situated in Ajax, just east of Toronto, this 19,000m2 facility employs approximately 500 people. World wide they employ Approx. 4 000 people in 12 sites across the globe. They have Design offices in France, the UK, Canada and the USA and have Manufacturing sites in France, the UK, Canada (Ajax and Montreal) and China. Supplying more than 19,000 aircraft, their landing gear accounts for over 30,000 landings per day. That is one landing every three seconds. Like its sister facilities in France and the UK, Messier-Dowty Toronto has been manufacturing landing gear for over 50 years. Activities include a total capability from concept to in-service support including design, development, test, manufacture, assembly, sales, marketing and product support. Messier-Dowty’s engineering division includes over 400 engineers working at facilities in Europe and North America Core competencies at Toronto include the design and development of fully integrated landing gear systems that comprise not only the traditional main and nose landing gear components, but ancillary systems such as steering control, landing gear control & indication, emergency control, brake control, wheels, brakes, tires, door mechanisms and electrical harnesses. The manufacture of critical landing gear components remains one of Toronto’s principal activities and the facility also has a state-of-the-art final assembly area where landing gear systems for a variety of aircraft programs are fully assembled and tested prior to delivery to the customer. Messier-Dowty offers a systems approach to program development, providing airframes a single source for their needs, generating considerable time and cost savings in design, technical interface and supplier management. The tour is scheduled to include the Machine Shop, Final Assembly and Test & Development. |
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Upcoming Topics & Schedule 2006-07 Current EventsOct 19th , 2006 - SME regional meeting Oct 26 2006 - 6:30p SME - Tour Landing Gear Mfg - Messier Dowty a process engineer to do in an afternoon!” Nov 1 2006 – 7:00p SME Executive meeting - George Brown College Nov. 27, 2006 - STG On-Site Lean Workshop and Plant Tour on Monday. Nov. 30, 2006 - 6p SME - Talk\tour - Lean talk, dinner, Executive elections SME- 26
Special Tech Group Lean -Workshop: “Why it’s NOT Something you want a Process Engineer to do in an Afternoon!” by Glen Tolhurst, P.Eng, MBA Lean Management Consultant 4 M CONSULTING
Date: Monday, October 30, 2006 Time: 5:45 pm – 9:00 pm Type: Workshop, Reservation required Venue: Mississauga Valley Community Center / Program Room 4 Library (click for overview map) 1275 Mississauga Valley Blvd. / Mississauga, ON, (905) 615-4670
Directions Located one block south/east SE of “Square One”, from QEW take Hurontario Street north (N), from 401 or 403 take Hurontario Street south (S), turn east (E) on Burnhamthorpe Road E, for 1km than turn right (S) into Central Pkwy E, for 200m than turn right (W) into Mississauga Valley Blvd., turn left onto car park, take main entrance in corner of building. (Click here: For Map Details or for Satellite View)
Abstract Almost every feedback form of our STG events shows a high interest for more detailed information about Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma. Questions were raised such as: “What tools should be used?” and “What’s the best way to implement Lean on the shop floor?”. Following the Toyota Way and Listening to our Customers we decided to add more specific workshops into our STG schedule.
This workshop is the first of a series of Lean and Six Sigma workshops and you and your colleagues are very welcome to attend our events!
All too often a mid level manager “discovers” Lean after reading a book, attending a seminar, or grazing through a few articles on the web. He/she then gazes around the operation, be it in the office or the plant, and targets an area to “make” Lean.
Being conversant with some of the buzz words of Lean, he/she may wander through the targeted area, dig out some old process maps (if they exist), and then in an afternoon sit down at a computer and using a canned program grind out a Value Stream Map (VSM) of some product family. The manager will then seek support from a boss and want to impose his/her view of Lean via the newly minted VSM on the unsuspecting masses. Unless the manager has the ability to turn water into wine, a revolt or calamity is on the horizon. Why? He/she is focusing on the tools of Lean without involving the people whose buy-in is essential to making Lean a way of life and a success.
This is a unique opportunity to learn first hand about Lean implementations. It is a people centered strategy and add to your knowledge of the Human Side of Lean. Here are some benefits that you will get by attending:
About the Speaker Glen has over 30 years of experience in manufacturing operations and Lean management consulting. He is the principal of 4 M CONSULTING, specializing in Lean Management Consulting and operational improvement. He has been affiliated with other Lean consulting groups and has carried out assignments in Canada and the U.S. He is a graduate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Manitoba and registered Professional Engineer in Ontario. He holds an MBA from the University of Western Ontario.
Reservation Register today: Juergen Boenisch at Juergen.Boenisch@jbemc.com with your Name, SME Membership Number (if applicable), Company, Contact Information (phone number and email). Friends & colleagues are very welcome! $10 for members (CMTDMF -Canadian Machine
Tool, Die & Mold Federation- included), $15 for non-members, student
members $5. Includes Cookies, Soft Drink, Talk & Discussion. |
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Past SME Events: Sept 25th 2006 - SME - STG Improve Your Communication Skills effectively in only 60 Minutes Sept 28th 2006 - 6:30p SME – Integran Tour Nanotechnology Oct 5 2006 - 6:30p SME Executive meeting - George Brown College June 15th 2006 Canada Post Tour Canadian blue bird Dragon boat race |
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Overall supply chain excellence in Canada Post Canada Post Plant Tour on June 15
On June 15 2006, I was so lucky to visit South Central Letter Processing Plant (SCLPP) of Canada Post and listen to the presentation by Mr. Scott MacKinnon, the SCLPP Team Lead. This great plant tour was organized by Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) Toronto Chapter and it was a great learning experience.
Mr. Scott MacKinnon gave us a thorough presentation about the Lean transformation in Canada Post and showed us around the plant afterwards. His presentation addressed where Canada Post was, where it is now and how “Lean” helped that transformation. Generally, mail delivery system is composed of 5 steps: receive, transportation, sort, transportation and deliver. Several years ago in Canada Post, the process was congested, big batches were pushed into the system and most importantly, each part of the process owner worked individually to achieve what Mr. MacKinnon called “Silo excellence”.
The situation is completely changed after the lean transformation. When we visitors entered the plant, we found that the plant is very well organized and letters are flowed fluently. How could this happen? Mr. MacKinnon told us that the GTA regional Supply Chain Integration team, which consists of a cross-function team from each part of the mail delivery process, had designed an excellent scheduling system to make sure the system excellence rather than silo excellence is achieved. I remembered one employee in the receiving area told the visitors that he was more satisfied to work there since the excellent scheduling design changed the old situation and brought about the continuous flow of materials, more available space and organized environment. Specifically, the doors for trucks to come in were leaned from 12 to 5 in the receiving area and the trucks’ arrival window has been reduced to +/- 5 minutes. As a result, Canada Post can make to customers a “2 day mail delivery commitment within GTA area” and is able to achieve 95% of 1-day actual delivery performance.
I would say Canada Post’s lean transformation is a transformation from silo excellence to overall supply chain excellence, from big batch size to small batch size, from a congested value stream to a continuous flow value stream, from push to pull, from self focus to internal customer focus and finally to external customer satisfaction, from employees’ disengagement to employees’ involvement and satisfaction.
What is more, the things that impressed me most are the smiles in the front-line employees’ faces. Being a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, I have heard about and witnessed several companies implementing Lean Six Sigma, in which employees’ satisfaction is rarely the case. While in Canada Post, I can see the team dynamics is very healthy and morale is high.
Facing the new challenges, Canada Post continues to make efforts to achieve customer satisfaction, overall supply chain effectiveness and efficiency by crushing the leading time, engaging employees and implementing lean and Six Sigma.
Weijie (Albert) Yang, Schulich MBA, Lean Six Sigma Black Belt
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News
Games simulator transfers to manufacturing 12/10/2006
Tom Shelley reports on a low-cost development that could bring powerful graphical modeling techniques into engineering Hardware and software developed to make gaming more realistic has been adapted for manufacturing, helping to visualize processes such as metal forming, production of parts, robotics and the behavior of fluids. By inserting realistic variations in operating parameters, it is possible to simulate scenarios such as: a part being cut off, and landing somewhere it shouldn’t; or parts going through a machine or being moved along conveyors that sometimes fall off or get stuck. The software has already been applied to modeling variations in pressure die casting. Rather than generate graphs or numbers, it quickly produces realistic 3D simulations, so that engineers – whether engaged in design or manufacturing – can instantly see what may happen, without having to wade through masses of data. The breakthrough arises because Amtri, formerly the Advanced Machine Tool Research Institute, has combined the power of the Ageia PhysX accelerator board with the machine, production line and robot modeling capabilities of Visual Components.
Bob Lloyd, who manages the software side of Amtri’s software business, told |
Eureka that Visual Components is a Finnish suite of software that is completely object oriented, and is a factory, robot and machine modeling package made up of “modules that are suited to what you commonly want to do”. He said that it fills the gap left vacant by the acquisition of most of the other factory modeling suites by CAD majors – which have incorporated them into expensive CAD and PLM software packages that contain CAD modeling facilities that most SMEs neither need nor can afford. Amtri, as the UK reseller of Visual Components and a licensed developer of PhysX applications, has combined the two within a Visual Components interface. Visual Components, in its conventional form, consists of three main parts. ‘3DCreate’ builds and publishes 3D equipment libraries and factory simulations based on engineering data contained in CAD files, brochures and technical specifications. It includes COM and Python interfaces that allow component objects to be easily connected to other component objects or anything else. ‘3DRealize’ allows users to view, build and test different factory layouts. It includes the unique ability to snap together conveyors or other pieces of equipment from libraries. ‘3DVideo is a lightweight viewer that can be downloaded from the Web. Visual component layout files are small in size and can be sent as email attachments. In a demonstration for Eureka a robot with a cutting tool had been set up using 3DCreate. The robot was set up to cut parts from a bar but with an obstacle beneath it onto which the cut off parts can fall.
On pressing “Initialise dynamics”, which starts the PhysX, it starts to make its cuts. Because the cut off blocks have a certain degree of uncertainty in the way they fall and bounce off the obstacle, they usually |
go in one direction, but sometimes go in another. Such behavior could be of great importance, in, for example, the decommissioning of a nuclear reactor, when parts dropping where they are not wanted could constitute a major problem. Another demonstration concerns the behavior of objects going down flexible chutes, leading to distortion effects that cause occasional items to become lodged. Similarly, the same approach can be used to model bottles going along a conveyor. Amtri managing director Philip Sholl said: “You can change the thickness of the glass, and model the bottles starting to drop off as a result of their increased, possible distortions.” Bob Lloyd describes the software library as “academically rigorous”, but emphasizes: “We are not offering it as an alternative to finite element analysis – because it is not set up to produce graphs and numbers – but as a way of visualizing processes and deformation. A lot of the time, if you can visualize a process, you can get a better handle on what is happening. There is nothing else out there that will do this in real time with such compelling results.” One of the functionalities already available in the library is the draping and tearing of fabrics. In Amtri’s eyes, this translates into the behavior of carbon and glass fiber lay-up in the manufacture of composite products, which is a field that Amtri has been heavily involved in for some time.
One of their ideas is to develop the technology to support production of functionally integrated components such as composite car bumpers that would possess not only structural strength and the ability to absorb a certain amount of impact without sustaining damage, but also incorporate LED arrays instead of conventional light clusters, sensors to activate air bags, and radar antennae for intelligent |
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cruise control and near object detection.
The PhysX library also includes the behavior of sprayed fluids, relevant to spraying fabric during composite manufacture and paint spraying. There is no conventional CAD or CADCAM package that we know of that will model spraying at such a low level and allow users to clearly see in real time whether sprayed paint will mostly land on a car or whether large portions of it will go elsewhere.
Microsoft has also shown interest in Ageia and PhysX, and has licensed the same library as Amtri for use in its Robotics initiative. The latest version of the Microsoft Robotics Studio includes a simulated model of the Kuka LBR3 robotic arm. From the website, the developers also appear to be targeting research oriented designers of single and multiple mobile robot systems for primarily surveillance and security applications.
The PhysX board sells for around £200 and 3DCreate for around E7000. Microsoft Robotics Studio is at the second beta stage. More than 60 software developers are currently
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using PhysX in 100+ games but Amtri is the first organization that we are aware of that is harnessing it for serious engineering applications.-- -------------------------------- SolFocus closes $32M funding, plans manufacturing in India
Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal - 9:13 AM PDT Tuesday
SolFocus Inc. said Tuesday it has signed a manufacturing and distribution agreement with an India-based company that will also invest $7 million in the solar power company.
Palo Alto-based SolFocus said the investment by Moser Baer India Ltd. closes out its $32 million first round of funding. |
New Delhi-based Moser Baer (MBI) will become a volume manufacturer of SolFocus products and the exclusive distributor of SolFocus' panels in India and neighboring countries.
Pilot production and field tests at MBI are expected to begin in 2007. Commercial production is planned for 2008. SolFocus also has pilot production underway in Sunnyvale, where over 4,000 panels will be produced for extensive reliability and field testing. Other sites in the US are also being considered for a large manufacturing facility that will serve the North American market. SolFocus recently announced a volume purchase agreement for 600,000 high efficiency photovoltaic cells from Spectrolab, a wholly-owned Boeing subsidiary. –
(Editorial note: The reason this is important is these folk are trying to reduce the cost per watt by a factor of 9 which is huge. It does this by using less silicon and making it work harder. It does that by adding manufacturing complexity. This is the second reason for reading this article - it means manufacturing jobs.) |
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Our continuing thanks to Professor Mark Fox, U of T, for hosting the Chapter’s web site on his server at http://www.novator.com |
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Information and links at: http://chapters.sme.org/026/ Upcoming events: http://calendar.yahoo.ca/sme26toronto |
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Joseph R. Benedetto Scholarship The Application Form for the Joseph R. Benedetto Scholarship is available on the chapter web site at: http://chapters.sme.org/026/ $1000 dollars is to be awarded each spring to a Toronto area student member of SME who demonstrates potential and an intention of contributing to Canadian Manufacturing. This award is being given by Toronto Chapter 26 of The Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME). The purpose of SME is to promote excellence in manufacturing and to advance the profession of its sponsors and members. Questions? Please get in touch with Rick Marmei (416) 291-5866, |
Executive Meetings NOTE: Meetings will be held on the first Thursday of each month:
First Thursday , 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm, George Brown College Venue: George Brown College, Building E, Room E244, 146, Kendal Ave., Toronto ON
Oct 5 2006 – 7:00p SME Executive meeting – GB College Nov1 2006 – 7:00p SME Executive meeting - GB College |
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Call for Volunteers The Toronto Chapter would be delighted to welcome anyone willing to contribute towards the activities and events of the chapter. Please feel free to contact any of the executive members for more information. The Chapter executive meets several times per year to plan and organize Toronto Chapter events. The executive positions are listed below: * Vice-Chair * Secretary *Treasurer * Communication Chair * Program Chair * Education Chair * Executive Member-at-Large * Webmaster * bulletin editor If you would be interested in helping out next year as a member of the Toronto Chapter, please send your name, address, phone number and email address to one of the current members of the Chapter executive.
The SME Chapter 26 Bulletin The SME Chapter 26 Bulletin is published eight or nine times a season by the Toronto Chapter of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME). The SME provides support for people and industries in manufacturing by providing opportunities for networking, professional development and technical information. Headquarters of this 70-year-old professional society are in Dearborn, Michigan. For more information or to join, phone or email the Chapter 26 Chair, Rick Marmei, at (416) 291-5866 or rmarmei@axis-design.org or HQ at 1-800-733-4763. Talks and tours put on by the Chapter 26 are listed on the Chapter 26 web site at http://chapters.sme.org/026/ and SME Headquarters web site is at www.sme.org |
Your Company flyer - Enclosure Special Offer!! Chapter 26 is offering companies the opportunity to enclose their company flyer in our monthly Bulletin mailing, either as hard copy or by e-mail. We have a special offer for the coming year. Enclosure in one issue: $300, four issues: $1000, eight issues $1800 We mail Bulletins 8 times a year (Sept., Oct., Nov., Dec./ Jan., Feb., Mar, April, May) to nearly 500 manufacturing professionals in the GTA. For more information please get in touch with Ken Kogej, 416-274-2540 or ken.kogej@sympatico.ca
The piece to be included must meet the following criteria: • 250 folded flyers ready for stuffing into a #10 envelope supplied by 1 week after copy deadline. • Is of interest to our membership - is manufacturing oriented (we don’t want life insurance or travel brochures) • Weighs less than 3 sheets of 8.5 x 11 in 20 lb. bond paper. Larger items could be negotiated. • E-mail addresses or links to web sites must be fully checked and functional. • We reserve the right to reject pieces we do not feel to be consistent with our professional goals and objectives. • We reserve the right to change any of the above items without any notice. |
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Bulletin Copy Deadlines NOTE: Please send material for inclusion in the upcoming Chapter 26 Bulletin or Any feedback, suggestions regarding additions or improvements to the flyer would be greatly appreciated. Please feel free to email at: Rick Marmei at rmarmei@axis-design.org |
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