The manufacturer’s guide to successful automotive textile thermal processing
KEYS TO SEAMLESS AUTOMOTIVE TEXTILE OVEN INTEGRATION
If the perfect machine exists in automotive manufacturing facilities, it’s one that works as designed from the moment it’s switched on and then never breaks down.
In the crowded, competitive world of Tier 1, 2 and 3 automotive suppliers, profitability depends on coming as close to perfection as technology permits.
But equipment is only part of the equation.
The perfect machine wouldn’t amount to much if it wasn’t in the care of the right team of people from day one. Unfortunately, involving the operation team on automotive textile oven integration is most often overlooked by manufacturers.
Getting it right might mean rethinking the way operators and maintenance personnel are trained. We have some ideas.
Clarity and diligence in design development
When you boil it down, thermal process equipment for automotive textile manufacturing takes shape when these basic questions are answered:
- What type of product does our customer need?
- What target production rate must we meet?
- What space constraints will we confront in our facility?
- What is our customer’s target schedule?
- How much will a system cost, and how soon can we get it?
For many automotive suppliers, it stops there. They engage an equipment vendor and collaborate on design development solely focused on the quantitative benchmarks a machine must meet. This comes at the expense of thinking through operator interface or ease of maintenance—decidedly qualitative aspects that nonetheless make tangible impacts on production.
For example, when operators or engineers realize they don’t like a system’s HMI user experience after installation, it is likely too late. Either they tolerate a situation that’s not ideal, expend to fix it themselves or pay the vendor to come back out to make a change. None is an attractive option.
We advise engineers to think through both the “what” and the “how,” and be clear about those expectations before system design is finalized. Eliminating late-stage change orders preserves the cost certainty that automotive suppliers need to thrive.
People are essential, especially in the automation era
Even though production systems are increasingly automated, human interaction remains essential to their operation.
In fact, skilled operators and knowledgeable maintenance teams are
essential because of how sophisticated production equipment has
become. training, this creates
Taking the time to adequately train operators and maintenance teams—and even involving them in factory acceptance testing—is essential to successful equipment integration.
In-depth operator training is good risk management
When equipment is installed, automotive suppliers usually only accommodate for one or two key people to receive training. Knowledge filters down to the day-to-day labor force from there.
We’ve also observed training that occurs simultaneously with system assembly and factory acceptance testing.
It’s obviously faster and cheaper to take a minimal approach. We know that manufacturers are under pressure to keep costs in check and avoid prolonged down time. But this creates longer-term risks that outweigh the rewards of jumpstarting production.
For one thing, key information might be lost in translation when equipment suppliers “train the trainers” instead of training operators directly. For another, abbreviated training that coincides with installation and testing does not represent actual production conditions and can confuse operators and maintenance personnel.
Involving these individuals during design development acclimates them to new equipment sooner and ultimately shortens their learning curve.
It’s also worth noting that frequent operator turnover is common in the industry. Consider including more senior staff in training to ensure there’s always someone on hand who knows how a system works.
We believe training operators directly is ideal, and it’s even better
if training can occur separately from installation. Manufacturers get better long-term results with new heating systems when they create space for operators to learn from—and question—the team that built the system in the first place.
This risk is amplified for lower-volume, higher-variety manufacturers whose equipment must accommodate a dozen or more recipes instead of just two or three. Every changeover becomes a potential failure mode for operators not adequately trained.
Too often, process engineers call equipment providers with the complaint that production has stopped because a machine doesn’t work. Nine times out of ten, the machine is not the problem.
Empowered maintenance teams solve more problems and keep production going
Effective integration of new heating equipment is directly tied to how well maintenance teams are prepared to complete preventative maintenance or repairs.
These key people are often simply handed manuals and wiring diagrams and are considered “trained.” While we do our best to make those resources as detailed and intuitive as possible, we know that many maintenance technicians get a better grasp of the equipment in their care when they’re shown as well as told.
It’s ideal if maintenance personnel are made available to join operator training sessions.
It never hurts to get their input earlier, either. We love putting our heads together with the folks who will be most intimately involved with a system we built. No machine should be a black box that only a vendor knows how to fix.
In it together
As manufacturing systems become more complex, we recognize that training and maintenance resources need to work better for today’s workforce.
The training resources, manuals and diagrams that our engineers produce prioritize readability and ease of use. But there’s definitely room for improvement, and we’re always interested in learning more about what manufacturers think could help.
What has—or hasn’t—worked for your operators and maintenance teams? What ideas for improvement do you have? Let’s talk about them.
ENGINEERING TO ADD VALUE
Automotive manufacturers can distill capital equipment procurement to two main principles.
First, equipment must enable them to satisfy the terms of their contracts. Second, it must do so profitably.
When it’s that simple, it’s tempting to take a simplistic view when considering purchasing equipment for high-volume production. Crank out the parts and make a profit.
Sure, it works. At least, it’s worked well enough long enough that it’s practically the only play in the playbook.
But what if manufacturers widened their field of view? Is there room in today’s manufacturing environment to think about capital equipment in terms of how it provides value now and in the future? If capital equipment can be engineered for a longer life in service of current and future purposes, shouldn’t it be?
We believe is should. More opportunities are visible when you can see more of the horizon.
THE DAVRON PHILOSOPHY
Is there room in today’s manufacturing environment to think about capital equipment in terms of how it provides value now and in the future? If capital equipment can be engineered for a longer life in service of current and future purposes, shouldn’t it be?
We believe it should.
The Davron philosophy on engineering delivers higher value and better return because it emphasizes superior quality and performance:
Our equipment is always custom-engineered to meet customers’ unique requirements over a longer period. This is worth the cost.
Our equipment is purposely versatile and robust so customers can do more with minimal intervention or changeover. This increases the pace of return on investment.
Our equipment is engineered for intuitive maintenance.
This reduces downtime and shortens the labor force learning curve.
Our philosophy also guides the support we provide after a system is built and installed. Our engineers provide one-on-one technical support if problems arise or if specifications change.
Finally, our philosophy demands that we conduct our business openly and honorably. Good-faith collaboration and forthright communication are instrumental in preserving and strengthening relationships among partners.
At Davron, the joke around the shop is that we build equipment that will outlive us all.
We’re only half kidding.
CASE STUDY: THE MAKING OF A LONG-TERM THERMAL PROCESSING PARTNERSHIP
Every successful business has that one customer.
The one whose challenges seem to fit the solutions you offer perfectly. The one who keeps coming back because with you, they can’t lose.
That’s the case with the customer in this case study, a major automotive supplier with facilities across North America.
What began as a single build for a single manufacturing line created additional opportunities to provide quality automotive thermal processing solutions that saved a lot of time and money.
Faster cycles & no part changeover delays
It started in 2006 when our customer won a huge job—production of components for one of the world’s all-time best-selling economy cars.
Among the high-volume parts they were assigned to manufacture were interior carpets for the model’s coupe and sedan body types. Manufacturing enough of these vehicle sets to meet OEM demand meant they would need to process a set every 30 seconds.
The OEM left it up to our customer to figure out how to make this happen.
At the time, almost all automotive textile manufacturers processed the individual layers of a carpet set separately. One oven would pre-heat the actual carpet layer (the finished surface we see in a vehicle interior). A second oven would pre-heat a cotton fiber sound-dampening layer that rests below the carpet. After separate pre-heating, the layers would be placed one atop the other and then pressed into shape by a mold.
To successfully deliver the required volume of parts, our customer determined that they would need to process both coupe- and sedan-sized parts on the same production line in any sequence of size or color, every 30 seconds.
The ability to process parts according to a sequence was critical. This customer utilized In-Line Vehicle Sequencing (ILVS), a system in which a supply chain produces parts in the sequence in which those parts will eventually be assembled in the OEM factory. These sequences are updated constantly—in some cases, every few hours.
Davron was brought in to help determine how a vehicle carpet production line could meet the customer’s production requirements and receive and interpret ILVS requests from the OEM factory.
We knew that switching parts or changing operational sequences from coupe to sedan was not an option because it would have caused significant delays. We proposed a system that required no changes during operation and featured a complex pick-and-place system that would load the correct size and color of material according to updated ILVS information.
We started by doing extensive product testing in our facility to help determine the ideal heating method for the individual products. Based on this data and the stated cycle time requirements, we developed a configuration for the overall system to operate at the proper cycle time in an automatic mode to meet any sequence requirements for part variables.
We then built the system—a three-zone forced-air convection oven stacked atop a two-zone infrared oven. The top oven pre-heated the cotton backing layer. The bottom pre-heated the carpet layer.
Our convection heating design included an air distribution system that provided the ability to heat either coupe or sedan blanks without the requirement to change any parts or operational settings. Operators needed only to press a button.
After pre-heating, both layers indexed out of their respective ovens with the backing layer laid precisely atop the carpet layer. The joined layers then proceeded to molding.
To say that the machine ran well is an understatement. It operated around the clock, often more than five days a week, for 12 years. Material changes for the products required new equipment for processing, but over its lifetime this system produced millions of vehicle sets.
A long-term partnership emerges
The first machine we built for this customer ran for over a decade, but it didn’t take near that long for them to realize the potential of a partnership with Davron.
The ability of that machine to process differently-sized vehicle sets without an equipment changeover was a game-changer. The benefits were clear right away:
- No changeover downtime immediately eliminated the cost of not running and accelerated ROI
- The customer would not have to pay operators during downtime for part changes
- The maintenance burden for this unit was lower
- Production schedules became much more flexible And that was just one machine on one manufacturing line. The customer knew they could multiply these effects if they adopted similar systems across their facilities.
Our first oven for this customer processed millions of parts over 12 years of round-the-clock service.
Today, multiple customer facilities across North America feature Davron production lines, each one meeting unique requirements that allow the customer to provide quality products to the OEM.
Back to the basics: quality equipment and great service
This partnership wasn’t built on quality machinery alone. It had just as much to do with the relationship that quickly formed between our team and theirs.
Our customer realized that Davron’s engineers understood manufacturing challenges and had a knack for solving problems with custom-designed equipment built to last.
And we knew that the opportunity to build for this customer would extend far beyond that first manufacturing line provided we kept listening, kept innovating and kept in touch.
So while the engineering required to solve automotive textile thermal processing challenges is quite complex, the key to keeping customers happy has always been simple.
Build quality equipment that does what customers need it to do. And when they call for help, pick up the phone.
Choose to thrive
Automotive manufacturers pour much time, money and energy into securing and organizing their work. The equipment responsible for their output must not let them down. It must be well-engineered and built to last. And it must empower operators and maintenance staff to reach their full potential.
If your customers’ changing needs might require new thermal processing equipment in your facility, a Davron engineer can help you think through the details and determine the solution that gets results.