May 2008 Vol. 140 No. 5

Newsdesk

Small to Mid-Sized Manufacturers See Promising Future

More than 46% of respondents agreed that raw materials (including stainless, nickel, copper, and other metals and plastics) were a major concern in 2008. Energy costs were the second biggest concern, cited by 17.5% of the respondents, and logistics and supply-chain costs followed closely at 16.4%.

Inflation (8%), labor (4%), foreign competition (3.4%), overhead costs (2.8%), and healthcare costs (1.7%) were among the other concerns identified.

The survey also found that 66% of Prime Advantage members plan significant capital improvements in 2008, including equipment upgrades such as press brakes, turret punch presses, plus equipment for laser cutting, robotic welding, and stamping.

Also, 88% of respondents indicate planned goals in 2008, such as cost savings and efficiency measurements. Another 11% plan to address IT systems improvements, including investments in new applications, data visibility, and data accuracy, while just 2% plan investments in industry certifications or education.

The survey identified a positive outlook for revenue expectations and hiring, with 59% indicating a revenue boost in 2008, and just 1% indicated that job cuts could occur. New hires are planned by 23%, and 76% plan to keep their current employee base at the same level as in 2007.

Overseas Worker Wages Are Rising

For the first time in over a decade in 33 foreign economies, manufacturing wages averaged 82% of the US level in 2006, up from 79% in 2005. Average hourly compensation costs for US production workers in manufacturing were unchanged in 2006 at $23.82.

In the 33 countries BLS measures, wages rose an average of 2.6%, with a big portion of that increase accounted for by the value of foreign currencies rising by 2% against the US dollar. Fourteen of 20 European countries had higher hourly compensation costs than the US, with Germany's costs more than 40% higher than those in the US. Compensation costs in Europe, on average, continue to be almost $5 higher on a per-hour basis than in the US.

But, says BLS, there is a great deal of variation among European nations, with Poland's hourly cost at $4.99 versus Norway's at $41.05. Outside of Europe, only Canada and Australia had compensation costs higher than the US when measured against our dollar. In 2006, the lowest compensation costs relative to the US were in Mexico and the Philippines (12% and 4% of the US level respectively).

Based on other agency reports, China's average manufacturing worker compensation cost was 67 cents per hour, which is 3% of compensation paid to US workers in 2004. Buoyed by strong currency appreciation against the dollar, hourly compensation costs for manufacturing workers increased by 17.8% in China during 2006; in Korea wages increased by 15.5%; and in Singapore they were up by 17.1%.

Manufacturing Metrics

Manufacturing employment declines continue, led by "white collar" losses. Seasonally adjusted manufacturing employment was reported at 13.7 million by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Manufacturing employment continued its slow decline in February (down 52,000) and the industry has lost 299,000 positions or 2.1% of total jobs over the past year.

Within durable goods, total employment declined 40,000 in February. During the past year, production worker employment decreased 121,000 (2.0%) as compared to 82,000 (3.3%) for nonproduction "white collar" employment in durable goods.

Since 2004, durable goods losses have been led by "white collar" job losses (9.7%) as compared to 1.4% "blue collar" jobs gains. Since 1998, the durable goods sector has lost 20.5% in both white and blue collar jobs.

Durable manufacturing reports record profits but nondurable manufacturing declined 37%. Third quarter 2007 manufacturing profits fell to $50 billion (17%) as compared to record highs set in the second quarter 2007 as reported by the Bureau of Economic Analysis in February. Total corporate profits with inventory valuation and capital consumption adjustments were down 3% to $1.515 trillion.

The Institute for Supply Management (Tempe, AZ) also reported that manufacturers' order backlogs continue to erode, with the Inventories and Customer Inventories Indexes indicating that manufacturing inventories are at reasonable levels, the major concern is rising prices and falling volume.

Manufacturing production held steady in January, with a year-over-year increase of 2%.

In 2007, US exports to China increased 18.1% over 2006 ($10 billion) while imports increased 11.7% ($33.7 billion). The goods deficit with China averaged nearly $256 billion for the past 12 months, resulting in a 0.6% trade gap increase.

Overall, the US trade deficit increased 0.2% over last year. The US total goods deficit for the past 12 months averaged $790 billion, slightly down from the previous month.

Credit Error

Canadian Centers of Excellence

Dr. Joseph M. Juran Has Passed Away

He founded the Juran Institute, an organization that provides training and consulting services designed to improve business performance. Dr. Juran retired from the Institute in 1995 but remained Chairman Emeritus. At the time of his death he was working on another textbook, while caring for himself and Sadie, his wife of 81 years. Dr. Juran was honored by Manufacturing Engineering in our "Masters of Manufacturing" series in July 2005.

Acquisitions

Laird Technologies Inc. (St. Louis), a supplier of critical components and systems for advanced electronics and wireless products, acquired Ezurio, Ltd. (Woodburn Green, UK), a supplier of short-range wireless machine-to-machine solutions.

Trumpf Laser GmbH + Co. KG (Ditzingen Germany), acquired laser plastic welding and selective laser soldering segments of Fisba Optik AG (St.Gallen, Switzerland). This company specializes in microoptics for beam formation of laser diodes and custom laser modules, as well as the development of OEM assemblies.

Applied Manufacturing Technologies Inc. (Orion, MI), a supplier of factory automation design, engineering, and process consulting services acquired K-R Automation (Warren, MI). This company specializes in automation controls and engineering and panel manufacturing.

Rathgibson (Lincolnshire, IL), a manufacturer of welded, welded and drawn, and seamless stainless, nickel, and titanium tubing, acquired Mid-South Control Line Inc. (Marrero, LA), a global source for downhole control-line tubing for land-based subsea oil and gas wells.

IPG Photonics Corp. (Oxford, MA), a manufacturer of high-power fiber lasers and amplifiers, purchased more than 100 key US patents, and their foreign counterparts, by acquiring a photonics patent portfolio from British Telecom. This large portfolio includes patents relevant to both current and future photonics components and systems as well as devices and techniques that are commonly used throughout the photonics industry.

Fenner Precision (Manheim, PA), acquired Winfield Industries Inc. Fenner Precision specializes in design, development, and manufacture of belts, rollers, and pulleys for the paper propulsion industry. Winfield is a manufacturer of polyurethane and silicone rollers for digital imaging, medical, and diagnostic imaging applications.

Rockwell Automation Inc. (Milwaukee), acquired the Safety and Automation business of Cedes AG (Landquart, Switzerland). That company is a supplier of safety and measuring light curtains, as well as other safety and nonsafety optoelectronics, control units and related accessories for industrial applications.

Deals

Adept Technology Inc. (Livermore, CA), a provider of intelligent vision-guided robotics and global robotics services, announced the Han Shin Power Tech Co., Ltd. of Korea is now its exclusive Korean dealer. This company is the fourth largest robot marketer in the world, and specializes in supplying robotics for labor-intensive and quality-sensitive applications such as packaging, material handling, and assembly.

Single Source Technologies (Pine Brook, NJ), will now offer EDM consumables due to its merger with EDM Sales & Supplies (Pine Brook, NJ). Products will be sold under a new group of the Single Source Technologies company, SST Consumables Group. Single Source Technologies offers machine tools, consumables, service, repair parts, and applications.

Expansions & Openings

Quintiq Inc. ('s-Hertogenbosch, the Netherlands, and Philadelphia, PA), a provider of advanced planning and scheduling and supply-chain solutions, has opened a new office in Wayne, PA. The office will act as a local point of contact for project implementation and customer support.

ABP Induction LLC (Dortmund, Germany) and Pillar Induction Co., LLC, both manufacturers of induction melting and heating equipment, have combined their operations into ABP Induction, LLC.

Software

Software and Controls Advances Boost Efficiencies for Composite Processes

Jay Hissett is engineering manager, MAG Cincinnati (Hebron, KY), a developer of machine tools a nd controls used in composites cutting and tape-layup solutions used in aerospac e and other industries.

Manufacturing Engineering: How critical is software to fast, accurate composites cutting and tape-laying processes?

Jay Hissett: Software plays a vital role in composites laminating and cutting processes. With rising production rates and demand for composite manufacturing capacity, the ability to increase throughput of automated equipment is a significant component of the overall equation. Offline and real-time software make best use of the laminating system hardware at higher speeds. Coordination of this software is key to higher productivity.

Laminate parts can contain tens of thousands of individual strips (courses) of material. Software tools and controls are used throughout the design and manufacturing process. Off-line programming and simulation are used to optimize part production. Real-time control software coordinates up to 32 machine motion axes with the material-processing head that cuts, compacts, and restarts up to 32 material positioning axes.

ME: What software do you offer to help manufacturers improve manufacturing productivity with composites?

Hissett: Our Advanced Composites Environment Suite [ACES] is a design-for-manufacture toolset used to simulate and optimize the machine layup process. ACES software produces part programs that are loaded directly into the Cincinnati Machine CM100 composites CNC. There are many composite-specific features in the CM100 control including material temperature, pressure, and tension control, as well as material processing speed and accuracy enhancements. A table of material spool/roll information is kept and remaining material length is monitored. The Observer feature records part production history, and has an option for operators to pick categories for time spent out of cycle which is used to study efficiencies in manufacturing flow. The CM100 also has an interface to Infimatic's Freedom eLog, which is a plant-wide production and machine-availability monitoring system.

ME: What other factors besides the control and related software affect composite manufacturing performance?

Hissett: Control systems must have sufficient capacity to provide smooth and fast motion while accurately coordinating cut and restart mechanisms via I/O. The Cincinnati Machine control system has utilized the speed of the SERCOS network. Other vital system components include the material processing head and servomotion axes. The B-stage material must be placed accurately and it must adhere well to underlying surfaces. Control of material and environmental conditions are key to a consistent, repeatable, and reliable process.

ME: How can manufacturers simulate composites processes?

Hissett: The CAD system most widely used today for structural composite parts is CATIA V5. ACES provides an interface to directly access laminate design information including tool surface and ply definitions. Paths to cover each layer are generated automatically. The machine lay-up process can be simulated and optimized. Software allows evaluation of part producibility by comparing process parameters with known limits; examples include path curvature, gap, fiber-orientation error, and minimum material length. Software performs collision-detection and automatic avoidance where possible. Part lay-up rate is estimated, and that information is used in cost models.

ME: What other technical hurdles do manufacturers encounter when working with composites?

Hissett: Not all preimpregnated composite materials have the same processing characteristics. Some material types are more challenging to process. And for a given type, there can be issues with quality and consistency from roll to roll. As production capacity has increased, our customers have added and trained additional machine operators. New and experienced operators utilize the CM100's color touch-screen graphical user interface and online diagnostics to manage these complex composites automation systems.

Design-for-manufacture can be used to great advantage in some cases. Better understanding of automation process strengths and capabilities can enable designers to have a more positive influence on overall composite part performance. ACES has been used by our customers to evaluate design variations for producibility and productivity. ACES has also been used to determine if parts are better fiberplacement or tape-laying candidates.

ME: What is the current outlook for manufacturers supplying composites for aerospace or other industries?

Hissett: The outlook is bright. There are many new aerospace programs with significantly increased composite usage including commercial passenger aircraft, military fighters/transports, and a wide variety of business jets and rotorcraft.

Auto Supplier Selects Delmia

Delmia's Body-in-White solution is scaleable, allowing users to plan joint sequences, design layouts, perform robot simulations, calculate cycle times, and manage off-line programming, all prior to production on the plant floor. This uniform continuity and virtual process verification saves money and time. The system will allow TMS to plan its production facilities while car manufacturers are still working on finalizing designs, according to Harald Ecker, manager of simulation and offline programming at TMS.

"We often begin the body-in-white planning even though we know full well that 80% of the components will be altered during the project," explains Ecker. "While we are planning the production facilities, the car manufacturer is still working out the final details. Product development and production planning are performed in tandem."

Software System Enhanced

New toolpath algorithms provide smoother transitions in WorkNC G3's automated cycles, while fiveaxis routines have been extended with extra options in Auto 5, which automatically translates three-axis movements into five-axis, and new cycles for impeller and blade machining.

In addition, Sescoi has added a new package, WorkXPlore 3D, which is designed for collaborative working, and lets users interrogate, mark up, analyse and share CAD data from multiple sources. By supporting 2-D and 3-D CAD data including CATIA V5, Unigraphics, Pro/E, Parasolid, ACIS, IGES, ISO toolpaths, DWG and HPGL, the software is said to enable working with very large models from multiple CAD systems simultaneously.

PLM Growth Strong in 2007

Manufacturers in varied industries are investing heavily in PLM as management recognizes the value of PLM for companies of all sizes, CIMdata notes. "Executive-level recognition of the significant business value of PLM is driving increased implementation of the approach," says Ed Miller, CIMdata president. "Increasingly, many of these far-reaching systems extend beyond engineering design to a broad range of activities—from early-stage product strategy development and planning, to product engineering and manufacturing engineering, and through to product maintenance and support.

CIMdata's forecast notes that PLM investments will continue a steady climb over the next five years, increasing at a compound annual growth rate of approximately 9.8%, and expanding the market size to nearly $40 billion by 2012.

Awards

Winner of the Replacement Part Category was Mark Horner of The Technology House Ltd. (Solon, OH), who submitted a discharge chute for a small ride-on tractor. "This was a part that would typically have been made from cast urethane, but Technology House was able to save a few steps by making it directly from DMX," says Horner. Runner-up in the Replacement Part Category was Chris Husmann, of Northrop Grumman Corp. (El Segundo, CA), who submitted a gear wheel to replace an injection-molded ABS/urethane part that kept breaking.

Acquisitions

Updates

The update includes new functionality for the automatic detection and repair of self-intersecting geometry, permitting sophisticated sequences of operations to be completed without intervention from the application or end-user, resulting in high integrity models produced in significantly less time. In addition, Parasolid V19.1 is the first release to support Apple's 64- bit Mac OS X Leopard, leveraging 64-bit technology to increase productivity.

An updated version of the Abaqus for CATIA V5 from Dassault Systèmes' (Paris) brand Simulia (Providence, RI) was recently announced with the latest release of Abaqus for CATIA V5 R18 SP4, providing improved usability and design analysis capabilities directly in CATIA V5 to accelerate the product development process.

Among the package's new or enhanced features, Simulia's Abaqus offers natural frequency analysis on the unloaded structure, or after any level of loading; enhanced precision in setting up models involving contact—nodal adjustments made by the Abaqus solver can be previewed in the user interface; improved CATIA Octree meshing to provide a higher level of element quality when working with Abaqus models; and element quality checks implemented in CATIA specifically for Abaqus users.

Using Abaqus for CATIA V5, analysts can define and deploy approved analysis workflows for use across the enterprise. This capability is said to enable design and engineering teams to improve collaboration while evaluating design performance through the use of common FEA models, technology, and methods that are synchronized with their CATIA V5 design.

New Releases

The package includes a comprehensive database audit log that is compatible with the requirements of 21 CFR Part 11 to provide compliance for regulated industries. It also offers reporting and analysis tools allow users to create reports quickly and easily with minimal training, and also an optional report scheduling feature ensures reports are delivered on time every time.

Deals

Under a memo of understanding signed by the companies, Dassault will contribute to Argentum Engineering's Center of Excellence at the company's facility located in Surajpur, near Greater Noida, India. The center will bring together Dassault's PLM and Argentum's powertrain expertise to deliver new powertrain solutions for the automotive and transportation industries.

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