500 and Trumatic 2000 models from the German brand Trumpf, while the remaining machines come from the Salvagnini company, the S4 model. Due to the technical properties of these punching machines, they must work in the so-called singlepart mode. This supposes working with large batches of part multiples, which results in both a large quantity of stock in process (WIP) as well as a continuous distortion between needs and manufacturing programmes. The excessive RM formats, on the other hand, involve the purchasing and transportation of big quantities of stock, resulting in supply and materials management problems. This system also requires a large number of format changes to be made on the punching machinery. Thus, all this leads to very rigid production which requires highly complex management and excessive lead times.
It is worth stating at this point that growth, both in demand and catalogue, forces the Fagor management to take the decision to redesign the production system looking for lean flows by means of a reduction in waste. The process was led by Aitor Murgoitio, the steel sheet area manager, and Inaki Marinelarena, the industrial manager, who employed the Value Stream Mapping (VSM) technique as the first stage of analysis and planning of the improvement project. Therefore, two maps were produced. The initial map reflects the original situation presented above,while the future map shows the projected situation for July 2006. As these maps illustrate, the pivot of the productive system redesign lies in technological changes on the sheet metal cutting line
NEW PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY
Specifically, the technological change was based on substituting the previously cited seven Trumpf punching machines by four new laser technology machines from the same German brand, in addition to the acquisition of the latest generation software. The choice for the laser cutting machines were four Trumpf TCL-3050 models, while LANTEK-EXPERT was the selected model in terms of new software aimed at carrying out Nesting programs, as well as managing the production for laser technology. The main advantage for Fagor Industrial with respect to other products rested in the ability to adapt their programming to machines from different manufacturers of sheet metal cutting and punching technologies.
The improvement that is brought about by theintegration of specified software into the new laser technology rests in the possibility of creating multi-part programs, guaranteeing good use
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of sheet metal,which also gives the advantage of working with unitary batches of parts adjusting the production to the demand. Also, there is the opportunity of working in a kanban supply system,
owing to the reduction of format changes in the machines.
Finally, there is a gaining of freedom in the design process, as the dependency between the set of punches and the geometry of the part has been eliminated. The properties of these laser machines also allow an increase in cutting capacity and therefore also in resource productivity, along with the need for less workforce due to greater automation of the process. This increase in the level of automation comes from two different angles: on one side, a new robotised system, also from Trumpf, assigned to load the sheet metal and unload the cut pieces; and on the other hand, certain maintenance tasks, as well as the adjustment of all the cutting parameters depending on the material to be processed, are now carried out automatically by the Siemens 840D control.
In the future VSM map it can also be observed that there are still two Salvagnini S4 punching machines. There are several reasons behind the decision to retain these machines. In the first place, there are operations involving inlaying and threads that are impossible to run using laser technology; added to that, for high consumption parts and specific geometrical shapes, productivity is greater with these punches because of the efficient feeding and unloading systems. Furthermore, although with some limitations, the new software aimed at punching allows us to work with multi-part mode as well.
All this goes to show that process innovation has led to the company undergoing a complete change to achieve a Lean flow, also affecting the RM suppliers in an attempt to complete a better integration in the whole supply chain. Step by step
The project that was developed to transform the production was carefully controlled and managed at every stage by Murgoitio and Marinelarena. The first phase (from September 2005 to November 2005) consisted of the acquisition and adjustment of the new laser machinery along with deploying the new software and the whole associated information system. As far as operator and technician training in new laser technology and new programming software is concerned, such training was developed in two areas: firstly the technician from Trumpf
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responsible for assembly and commissioning of new machines gave a three-day course to four operators and six maintenance technicians; secondly these six technicians took part in a more advanced four-day course at the supplier’s headquarters in Stuttgart. Having reached this point, it should be mentioned that, due to the increase in productivity and automation brought about by the new resources, part of the personnel were relocated to other posts related to sheet metal, such as bending and pressing; thus, training requirements were minimal and adaptation fast.
The second phase (from November to December 2005) was based on the definition and assignation of part families to laser or punching technologies: high consumption parts and those with special operations would be manufactured by the punching machines,while the remainder of parts by laser technology. With this in mind the Information System’s database was programmed accordingly. There then followed the process to standardise the raw material formats as well as the introduction of the Kanban supply system (from November 2005 to January 2006). It should be mentioned at this stage that it still took some time for the stock of eliminated formats to be consumed, as this was quite a complex process.
Added to the previous phase, fixed multi-part programs for the punching machines were created with the new software (January-March 2006). This task was easier to apply thanks to the help provided by the operators, who suggested appropriate parts combinations
Finally, changes in production scheduling determined the last stage of the project (March-June 2006). This was done in two ways; first by reducing periods and deadlines from weekly to a daily basis, and then by conducting WIP cleaning. The main problem occurred in attempts to reduce
machine preparations in the processes after cutting and before assembly; for this reason, part families were created which require common tools and operations in these processes. BRILLIANT RESULTS
As a result of the transformation process, by July 2006 a flexible and efficient production system had been implemented that delivered spectacular performance. By reducing the number of sheet metal formats from 160 to 40 (75%) and changing the average supply period from seven
to three days, Fagor managed to reduce the average RM stock by 37.5%.
The laser technology, along with the new pieces of programming software, allowed the
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company to increase the RM exploitation from 72% to over 80%. Taking into account the upward trend of the RM price and a greater consumption planned by Fagor for the years to come, the importance of these achievements has an even greater impact.
One important impact was the reduction of workforce from 21 to 12 operators owing to greater automation in the cutting process. The workers were relocated to other areas due to needs produced by the growth. This fact, along with a 14% greater capacity in cutting process (despite the reduction of equipment) led to an 80% increase in productivity.
The reduction of sheet metal formats has also derived on increasing the punching machine’s capacity by an extra 10%, owing to the reduction in the number of changeovers required.All this went to a WIP reduction from seven to two days average consumption, which helped to achieve a
reduction of approximately nine days in the Lead Time from dock to dock.
The information previously described is referred to the quantitative improvements, the qualitative ones included a simplification of supply and production management, full availability of needed RM stocks in the factory and the integration of machinery programming tasks into operators self management, providing a greater satisfaction from both, operators and technicians.
These improvements have led to a cultural change. A wheel of continuous improvement which will be reflected in the subsequent projects that are previewed on the short term; for instance, the lead time reduction must be reflected in a FG warehouse requirements’ cutback. Similarly, a gradual optimisation in the software employment should revert in a better RM and WIP yielding.
To sum up briefly, this experience has shown the path followed by a company to introduce and integrate efficiently an important technological innovation in the sheet metal cutting process; this project has been the basis for redesigning the whole productive system based on the
guidelines provided by the Lean Production methodology. The improvements obtained have been impressive and have motivated the executive team to continue along this way, both in terms of continuous improvement of the system and in the future adoption of innovations in the pursuit of the increasingly necessary competitivity in this type of industry.
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附录2：
精益成功之路
当西班牙制造企业升级其生产设备时，它借此机会，迈出了精益生产的第一步。
Ibon Serrano, Aitor Laca, Rodolfo de Castro
，有1100个工Fagor公司是一家巴斯克人创建的公司，属于蒙德拉贡合作社（MCC）
人分布于五个生产基地，西班牙、法国、波兰、墨西哥和土耳其。主要为酒店、餐饮市场和工业洗衣店生产工业电器、家用电器（洗衣机，电饭煲，烤箱，洗碗机，冰箱），它拥有超过1500个产品系列。
生产过程可以被描述为成熟：主要原料(RM)，钢板，转化为大约4500个组件运用在成品（FG）的总装线。虽然Fagor公司产品的主要附加值来自设计和发展一个新产品系列，但是公司在业务过程中给了极大的重视，因为其效率、经验和独立性更大程度上取决于供应商。
直到2005年9月，第一道工序切割金属片被用到冲压技术。这个过程的提高为在巴斯克地区的工厂开展新的创新目标提供了可能。两个重要的要素，尽可能多的原材料以及面临不同组成部分的汽车需求的变化，迫使九冲压机工作中使用多达160张的板材格式。厚度小于1毫米的设计包括80％的总消费，而另外20％是1毫米和3毫米之间。参照使用的材料类型，80％的消费是不锈钢（AISI304和AISI 430），15％是镀锌，其余5％是其他类型的金属。
至于对冲压机械式，七九机是来自德国的品牌型号通快Trumatic500和Trumatic 2000，而其余的来自萨瓦尼尼公司的S4模型。由于这些技术性能冲压机，他们必须在所谓的singlepart模式工作。这个假设必须大批量生产，从而导致大量的在制品（WIP）堆积以及需求与制造计划的连续失真。过度的原料格制度化，另一方面，在原料采购和大批量运输的过度格式化造成大量存货，从而导致物资供应和管理问题。该系统还需要在设计冲压机械上作出大量的形式改进。因此，这一切导致了要求非常严格的生产要求以及非常复杂的管理和过多的订货至交货的时间。
值得指出是增长这一点上，无论是在需求和产品系列，都促使Fagor公司在管理上采取决定，重新设计生产系统寻找减少浪费的办法既在精益流程。这个过程由Aitor Murgoitio钢板区域经理，和Inaki Marinelarena工业经理领导，Inaki Marinelarena采用的价值流图（VSM）在技术作为在分析和改进规划的第一阶段项目。因此，两个地图的制
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