Dr.
Die
Cast
World Class, Brick and Mortar or Blood and Spirit?
One thing that has surprised me and procedures. There is an adage New machinery is nice but I am
every few years is the beautiful that “to err is human, but it takes a more concerned about the care and
state-of-the-art facilities that are computer to really mess things up.” maintenance of the equipment …
built with the best of everything I would take that one step further and the skill of the operators and
and then almost as quickly as and state that “operators don’t have support staff. One of my die casting
they appeared, they are listed in the authority to mess things up; customers was another die casting
a liquidation auction flyer! With only management has the authority plant. Their plant had the newest of
all that beautiful state-of-the-art to really mess things up.” everything. They had “outsourced”
machinery, building and equip- We all manage something. If we their new part numbers for the next
ment how could they fail, what are in engineering, sales, manufac- model year to me to run while they
happened?! Now I’m sure we could turing, maintenance or supervision, supported their current part num-
consume a lot of beverage into the you are a manager. Our machine bers. When they started running
wee hours of the night debating the operators live with our decisions the new dies in their machines, their
root causes but I would like to pose every day. Our decisions might seem scrap was so great they couldn’t keep
my thoughts. minor to us, but they can have far up and transferred the dies back
People make the difference, reaching consequences. Take for to me. They came to my plant to
but then so does leadership. A example, deciding where to place a observe and study the process that
number of years ago I was told water line in a die. Seems routine, we were using. They were amazed to
that the “people” (that is opera- but thermal control is critical to not find their dies running in very old
tors, set-up, maintenance etc.) of a only cycle time but part quality. machines. As one of their manag-
certain shop were incapable of ever How about specifying the height of ers exclaimed, “Those machines are
doing quality work. Even though a furnace? What difference could an older than I am!” The machines were
all the equipment in the shop was inch make? I was preparing to order very well maintained and some of the
less than eight years-old, it was a new remelt furnace and I wanted to systems had been updated in order
clear that the shop was certainly make sure it could be cleaned with- to achieve the necessary param-
performing poorly with high out requiring the furnace operator eters. The skill of the entire staff:
scrap (greater than 30% overall) to stand on a platform. The furnace operations, maintenance, operators,
and lots of machine downtime operator explained that one of his setup and tooling were all necessary
(30%+ downtime). Yet six months four furnaces, “hurt his shoulder ingredients in the success of that die
later, these very same people were when he cleaned it.” We measured casting plant. Take a look at your
producing at less than 5% scrap at the sill of the furnace and it was plant and the people in key positions.
79% utilization. What made the only 1 inch higher than the others. Chances are their skills and perfor-
difference? Unquestionably, there The difference of one inch made the mance has a far greater impact on
were mechanical repairs and main- difference not only in his efficiency your success than you realize.
tenance, but the majority of the but kept him from having to endure
improvements came from training shoulder surgery! ,
Who’s Dr. Die Cast? Bob McClintic & Associates rmcclintic@ameritech.net
Robert P. McClintic 2544 Almar St www.drdiecast.com
Die Casting Consultant Jenison, MI 49428-9108 (616) 669-2932
12/DIE CASTING ENGINEER 1January 2011 www.diecasting.org/dce
