alpine precision achieving zero-paper drawings and reports ...9. alpine precision reducing...

(c) 2009. Lattice Technology, Inc.

9Alpine Precision

Achieving Zero-Paper Drawings and Reports in Mold Manufacturing By

Using 3D Data- Improving Lean Manufacturing Through 3D Data

by Dr Hiroshi Toriya

Manufacturing processes which use paper drawings to convey information are very slow. In aiming to eliminate all paper drawings and reports in its communica-tion, Alpine built an environment that al-lowed required information to be obtained accurately and instantaneously, thereby halving its mold-making lead times.

2(c) 2009. Lattice Technology, Inc.

9. Alpine Precision

Reducing Mold-making Lead Times Via Digital Information

ALPINE manufactures on-vehicle multi-media equipment such as car audio and navigation systems. It operates development, production, and sales divisions across the world, including Japan, U.S.A., Europe, and China. Serving as the central hub of the group’s production activities, Alpine Precision plays the role of ‘mother ship’ to the group’s overseas production bases and grows increasingly important as a leader in the launch and technical support of local production endeavors. In the company’s worldwide on-vehi-cle multi-media product lines, it remains critical to reduce the lead-time to product ship-ment in order to survive. Thus the reduction of lead times for Alpine, which is responsible for manufacturing the molds of these multi-media systems, is correspondingly urgent. In its efforts to tackle this challenge, the company developed a mold-making system code-named DM-T (Digital Manufacturing and Tooling), which halved its mold-making time

Using DM-T since May 2005, the company has successfully halved lead-time from design to measurement of test parts by building a process which fabricates molds us-ing digital data only, without relying on paper-based data. It has been four years since this practice was established on the company’s shop floor, and the system continues to evolve. Mitsuhisa Nakamura, the company’s Head of Production says; “The advantages of digital manufacturing lies in being able to visualize the progress of the manufacturing process at every stage. All our staff are now able to observe this, and, as a result, they now understand their responsibilities for completing their own tasks by a given deadline. This is the key factor for reducing lead time.” Nobuyoshi Mizuno and Shigeki Yoshihara of the company’s mold production department have been central to building the system for the shop floor. They succeeded in completing a zero-drawings and reports system that was accepted across the shop floor by clarifying system requirements from the perspec-tive of the people who would use the system. This chapter introduces the concepts, strategies and tactics that allowed Alpine Precision to succeed in its mission of halving mold-making lead time by using digital data.

Why Aim for Zero-Paper Drawings and Reports? Alpine Precision’s product lineup includes the mechanical units for car electronics,

external car audio parts, and their associated molds (Figure 9.1). The company started out using 3D in its design processes early — in 1994 — and by 2002 had completely digitalized its mold design. In 2003, it embarked on the challenge to realize zero-draw-ings and reports (Figure 9.2). Alpine’s enthusiasm in digitalization is said to have been driven by its then president, Mr. Mochizuki (currently an advisor to the company) who encountered an inspiring, if futuristic, cutting-edge example of digitalization of design and manufacturing. The system used in that case was, however, tremendously costly, and it was unrealistic for Alpine Precision to adopt the same system at that time. So Mochizuki asked his employees to construct a similar system as a joint company effort, based on the knowledge and experience of the shop floor staff, and this started the development of the DM-T system. This concept, spirit, and climate lives on today at Alpine Precision, encouraged by current president, Mr. Yokota.


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Figure 9.1 Products Developed by Alpine Precision

Figure 9.2 History of Digitalization at Alpine


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Figure 9.3 Construction of the DM-T 3D Mold Making System

Figure 9.3 demonstrates the problems addressed by the DM-T Project. The mold production process at Alpine Precision is focused mainly on actual mold manufactur-ing and mold design, and halving the time taken for these two processes will mean the overall lead time will also halve. The company’s success in achieving zero-drawings and reports contributed significantly to the reduction of lead times. When paper is used, information inevitably stops wherever the paper stops, making it very hard for the next process to start. However, with digital data, since information flows instantaneously, work does not pause nor stagnate, allowing mold production lead times to shorten dramatically. As a result, Alpine Precision successfully reduced, by 93%, the number of copies made for drawings and reports, which until then had exceeded 5,000 pieces of paper annually. Paper needs to be distributed, managed, and stored, and can also be easily lost, causing a multitude of other problems. Digital data eliminates these hassles. Simply by taking into account the manpower required for managing this amount of paper, the cost-effective-ness this process is huge.

How Alpine Precision Achieved Zero-Drawings and Reports

Using its DM-T system, Alpine Precision manages mold information in digital for-mats, delivering a parallel communication system in the manufacturing process from the receipt of mold orders through to inspections. By increasing communication speed, and automating process management to distribute staff workload, the company has been able to halve its mold production time. Figure 9.4 shows an outline of this process. When developing the DM-T system, the company held meetings with the mold management, mold design, CAM construction, mold manufacturing, and mold measurement depart-ments across three months, thoroughly investigating where needless work was occur-


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ring and which processes needed to be tackled. Mizuno and Yoshiwara discussed one interesting experience found during this process: In one test, they deliberately prepared complicated paper drawings to see how three employees would interpret them. All three interpreted the drawings differently, which means each one could build the molds differ-ently, depending on how they understood the drawings. When the staff were asked to do the same thing with 3D XVL models, they all interpreted the 3D model in the same way - and correctly. This showed the team that XVL quickly and accurately conveys mold-making information, and demonstrated that communicating information using 3D data radically enhances mold quality. These kinds of results encouraged Mizuno and Yoshi-wara to increase their efforts. Initially, their plans were to build a system based on 3D data and simple drawings. However they then discovered that most of the shop floor staff do not really look at drawings carefully, so they decided to completely eradicate paper drawings and reports, replacing them with XVL data instead. They introduced the DM-T system which allowed all the required attributes for mold manufacturing such as materi-als, and so on, to be input by mold designers using a CAD system and adding machining accuracy to models in 3D XVL on the DM-T system. This allowed the designers to avoid time-consuming paper drawing preparation.

Figure 9.4 Outline of the DM-T Mold Making System

Introducing the DM-T System to the Factory FloorWhile introducing DM-T to the manufacturing floor at Alpine Precision, the most dif-

ficult task turned out to be teaching the staff to use their PCs effectively. They first had to work out the best possible layout of PCs to minimize burdens on staff, and tried mixing both laptops and desktops at the shop floor. They repeated trials and errors to find out how the staff could work most efficiently using 3D data on PCs in place of paper draw-ings. Today, each member of staff at the company’s plants has access to PCs shared on


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the shop floor. Now, everyone is able to easily search the overall mold production sched-ules and work processes via 3D. And the only paper sheets circulating around the plants are work charts listing barcodes for each part.

The company says that the introduction of XVL at its plants was surprisingly smooth, attributing this success to the fact that the system was developed from the perspective of the shop floor. As it was implemented, everyone using it found that the information they needed was now very clear and visible: some even suggested enhancements such as adding manufacturing details to the XVL data and feeding it back to the design process, or using XVL more for communication. In the DM-T system, the 3D XVL data is used as the final mold manufacturing data and by increasingly adding manufacturing information to it, XVL, not CAD, is the final data used in the manufacturing process. Alpine’s future plan is to convert attribute information added to XVL back into the CAD data.

Review of Mold-making Process with Introduction of DM-T

The DM-T system has changed Alpine Precision’s mold manufacturing process. Be-fore the system was in place, there were eight steps comprising the mold manufacturing process of the company. (Figure 9.5)

Figure 9.5 Overall Mold Making Work Flow

These are:• Receive mold order, and obtain 3D data of the product’s shape from the cus-

tomer• Decide the general mold-making schedule, and design the work process


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• Using the product data, design the mold using 3D CAD• Based on the data designed using CAD, generate cutter path and EDM data us-

ing CAM• Generate EDM data• Supply data generated using CAM to the grinding machine and build mold parts• Assemble the approximately 350 to 750 mold parts and complete the mold• Manufacture parts using the completed mold. They call this process “test”.• Measure the manufactured parts and compare with the dimensions of the CAD

data obtained from customers

During the DM-T Project, the company conducted user meetings to thoroughly eliminate all unnecessary work in each of the above steps, and simultaneously digitalized its manufacturing process. For instance, the team implemented a process management system to compare work throughput of each employee and redistribute the workload of the staff as necessary. This ensured thorough progress management and helped resolve workload problems and now that all the staff were able to track work schedules, their awareness of deadlines was significantly enhanced.

The company next worked to eliminate inconsistencies in designers’ skills in the mold design process, by using 3D data.

The company built a system which enabled designers of various skill levels to design molds with a consistent quality by giving them automatic cross section functions for cavi-ties and cores, and automatic division of undercuts on 3D CAD data. CAD designers were also able to reduce mistakes, for example losing reports or omission of required de-tails in reports, by entering parts attributes such as material, quality, and deadline into the CAD data and outputting them automatically. In addition, by converting CAD parts shape and attribute information to XVL, their staff got into the habit of checking shapes on their PCs, allowing them to completely do away with drawings. The improvements achieved with the CAM system include efficiency improvements with the 3D CAD data, better work time management, and the elimination of preparing manufacturing instructions. Now, the 3D CAD data can be directly read into the CAM system, and with the CAM system linked to the process management system, the company is more easily able to manage its ma-chining processes. So that the staff can easily share information on the web, all manufac-turing instructions are output in html. There are two types of manufacturing instructions used at Alpine; web-based documents describing setup and machining orders, and 3D instructions specifying EDM positions, made available on the XVL models. Using these two sets of manufacturing instructions, Alpine Precision is enhancing efficiency at the manufacturing floor.

Mold-making Based on Digital Information As shown in Figure 9.3, the mold manufacturing process makes up more than half

of the mold production work. At Alpine Precision, efforts to deliver zero paper drawings and reports contributed tremendously to shorter mold production processes. This is very clearly demonstrated in Mizuno’s reply when asked what changed as the DM-T system


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became increasingly used at the factory floor: “You don’t see staff folding their arms in deep thought at the site anymore”. Until the introduction of the system, you would often see staff staring at drawings with a blank look on their face. With 3D data, they now “get the picture” at a glance and are able to start on their tasks immediately.

In addition, as part of the new process in place, shapes of parts to be machined next, and details of machining methods, etc., are easily checked on a PC, helping eliminate down-time on the shop floor. With the abundant 3D information available, more and more staff are now able to start preparing for work earlier in the process and consider what needs to be done next. Mold quality has also increased as machining instructions be-come clearer.

To achieve these kinds of successes as Alpine Precision, there is an absolute need for work processes based on digital data to be established at the manufacturing floor. Mold parts must be processed while referring to digital information created in earlier stages, as well as work instructions, and the XVL data containing manufacturing informa-tion. Figure 9.6 shows the detailed flow of mold manufacturing now in place at Alpine. Using the PCs installed in the shop floor, staff carry out their work in the following order:

Figure 9.6 Construction of Manufacturing System using DM-T

• Staff confirms the work schedule and previous and next processes, as retrieved from the process management system.

• Staff carries in the parts scheduled for machining from their shelves• Staff enters data on the start of work in the process management system. The

staff, as well as the system administrator, check the overall progress using the process management system.

• Staff obtains parts information by XVL via the web, and check parts information and machining locations.


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• If necessary, the staff refers to both types of mold manufacturing instructions available on the web.

• Staff carries out tool setup. Referring to XVL and work specifications, they set parts and tools.

• They execute the machining program to manufacture the parts• They check the shape and dimensions of the parts machined. • By writing the actual measured values in XVL, they record the measurement

results in the 3D data.• After machining has ended, the staff post the data into the process management

system. Both staff and manager are able to immediately confirm that the process has ended.

• Then they store the parts for the downstream process inventory. At the same time, they also store paper work tables with barcodes corresponding to the ma-chined parts.

Note how the teams “write actual data measured by the machine into XVL” in this process. Alpine Precision is currently developing a system of retaining measured data semi- automatically as property information in the XVL file. By looking at this XVL data, the staff can verify that both dimensions and allowances specified by the mold designer are in compliance, as well as have actual values on hand. On verifying the accuracy in place, final adjustments might be made before the molds are fully produced. By accumu-lating this data, any problems in the machining methods quickly become evident, en-abling further improvement and increased accuracy.

Mold-Making FactsThe authors visited Alpine’s mold-making plant to see the actual mold-making pro-

cesses in place, and this is outlined below. No paper is used inside the plant except for work tables with barcodes for identifying molds. Laptops are placed next to work tables, and staff carry out their work while looking at 3D models with manufacturing instructions.

• The staff in charge registers the work for the day using the barcodes listed. The work process is fixed in place for the following three days. Workload is calculated by the DM-T system.

• Staff check the manufacturing process beforehand using XVL Player and the XVL data.

• Staff check machining information on the webpage and start parts machining. They will place the information created by XVL Notebook on the web.

• In the process of finishing mold parts, staff acquire any machining information which has been added to the XVL data.

• In the mold assembly process, all assembly methods are added to the XVL data beforehand, and staff carry out assembly processes while referring to this infor-mation, using XVL Studio.

In the past, drawings were used to learn the assembly process, but this proved challenging, due to the differences in the data provided on paper drawings by the mold designer and the additional information required by the assembly staff at the shop floor.


9. Alpine Precision

XVL provides a far better process because it allows the configuration tree to be highlight-ed on-screen. This tree contains the attribute information of the assembled parts, and the required information can be immediately located.

As a result of this change, Alpine Precision reduced staffing by 25%, and shortened

mold-making time by half, delivering optimal performance with minimal staff.

Tools For Achieving Zero-Drawings and ReportsThis chapter has taken a close look at how Alpine Precision delivered zero paper

drawings and reports using the XVL software. Figure 9.7 shows the flow of information generated at the mold design department: At Alpine Precision, mold shapes are designed on 3D CAD systems, and product specifications and parts information required for mold manufacturing are input as attribute information to the CAD models at this stage. This information is automatically converted to XVL. Because XVL data is so lightweight, geo-metric and attribute information can be accessed via the web, in HTML, created using the XVL Web Master application. This software is able to automatically create mold assembly drawings and parts tables directly from XVL, and share the results on the web. By also using the XVL Studio applications, the teams can also check parts information and mold attribute information added inside the XVL file. Using the measurement and cross-section functions, accurate mold dimensions can be quickly calculated. As a result, all information required for the mold manufacturing processes can be immediately shared between the manufacturing and design departments as soon as the mold design is finished

Figure 9.7 Development of Mold Information from the Mold Design Department

Figure 9.8 shows the environment created at Alpine Precision for delivering zero


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paper drawings and reports. In every processes in manufacturing, XVL data is accessed across the web. No paper drawings are required since accurate information is now im-mediately available digitally. Since product specifications and parts attributes can be obtained for any process, there is no need for paper reports. In the manufacturing depart-ment, the shop floor staff often add required dimensions to the XVL data. In the mold assembly process, assembly information can also be added to the data. In this way, all the required information is ready, when it is needed, on the shop floor, and the completed XVL data is shared across the whole company. The benefits of circulating 3D information, not drawings, at the workplace are huge: At the manufacturing department, XVL data is useful for quickly and intuitively understanding the correlation of parts, allowing work to be carried out accurately and efficiently. Even staff who are not familiar with drawings say they are now able to decide what they need to do when they have 3D data at hand. When the authors visited the company’s plant, we saw young employees with only sev-eral months of work experience working busily referring to XVL.

Figure 9.8 Success in Achieving Zero Paper Drawings and Reports With The Introduction of XVL

Alpine Precision says that its use of 3D data allows them to complete training, which used to be six months in duration, in just one month.


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Figure 9.9 Developments of DM (Zero paper drawings and reports)

Further ChallengesWhenever a new system is launched, there will always be some complaining at the

workplace. Alpine has been working to evolve its DM-T system since 2006 and these continuous efforts in improvement from the perspective of their manufacturing floor staff have no doubt resulted in the success in establishing the system. By thoroughly respond-ing to all complaints from the manufacturing floor, the system has now become a stan-dard in the company’s manufacturing process. As shown in Figure 9.9, it is no longer an unusual sight to see staff of each manufacturing process carrying out work while looking at 3D data on their laptops. To achieve this, Alpine Precision undertook the following improvements;

• Made data referencing easy. Today, every employee in the manufacturing depart-ment can convert product or mold CAD data to XVL so that all departments can access 3D design data immediately. This means designers can check designs easily, while procurement staff can check product shapes when placing orders.

• Strengthened the mold parts information management system through manag-ing access control to any XVL data currently being edited, and data management by access logs. The teams also increased the XVL data search speed by three times, resulting in very high-speed searches of machining and dimensional infor-mation, thereby contributing to overall efficiency improvements.

• To enhance searchability of the data, they interlinked mold parts information and machining instructions on the web. This has dramatically reduced the time for finding machining specifications, as well as reducing errors such as extracting the wrong machining information. Different departments can also rapidly share the latest uploaded XVL data.


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Spreading the Benefits of Zero Paper Drawings and Re-ports Outside the Company

Alpine Precision is currently working earnestly on activities that will allow it to share its success with all other Alpine Group companies, by disseminating the information made at its mold production department outside the company. As shown in Figure 9.10, mold assembly information, parts information, and dimensional information is being sent to the overseas subsidiaries as well as partner companies. This data can be easily searched and read on the web. To maintain security, users have access only through passwords and other security measures. With this system, the 3D models of approved molds are processed using XVL Web Master and securely distributed around the worldwide bases. Already the comany’s Dalian subsidiary in China has introduced the same zero paper drawing and report system as Japan did in 2007. Requests for 3D information from local staff in China are said to be growing stronger. This is because abundant information is being communicated, overcoming language barriers.

As shown in Figure 9.11, since 2006, the company has been distributing informa-tion using digital data instead of drawings even at its external work bases. Drawings and reports that used to be circulated on paper are now converted to PDF so that they can be searched and referenced easily from anywhere in the world. Since 2008, they have also been able to create cross sections and measure data using the free XVL Player, which has led to more and more partner companies asking for 3D data. When the company was distributing paper drawings, their partner companies showed no response nor made any enquiries, but now, with the XVL data, their partners enthusiastically calculate distances or obtain cross-section using 3D XVL models. We asked the team at Alpine if they had met with any resistance in their attempts to promote zero paper drawings outside the company. They say that they conducted hearings and what they discovered was that drawings were not used outside the company as much as they thought. Still their efforts in supplying the required information in 3D to their counterparts has helped gradually deepen understanding of the usefulness of 3D data outside the realms of the company.

Figure 9.10 External Spread of Zero Paper Drawings and Reports (1) Spread of Mold Information


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Figure 9.11 External Spread of Zero Paper Drawings and Reports (2) Parallel Spread of Information

Figure 9.12 Effects of Zero Paper Drawings and Reports

Figure 9.12 outlines the effects of zero paper drawings and reports. Work based on drawings means someone has to prepare the drawings, and shop floor staff need to have the skills required for reading drawings. In a world where the number of skilled engineers is slowly declining, work that does not depend on drawings is far more ideal. By com-municating information in 3D instead of drawings, the work load on designers is reduced, understanding of employees is enhanced, and speed to completion of products increas-es. Reports have been crucial in the mold manufacturing process because they clearly


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indicate manufacturing requirements. Since the information included in the reports is large, it can cause such problems as erroneous descriptions and listings. But automatical-ly prepared reports eradicate human errors and work efficiency can be increased. Since the mass amounts of information can be linked, this helps ensure that correct information is being communicated. Using the internet for the distribution of digital information means that flow of information can be centrally managed, enabling all bases to access the data they need. Furthermore, by having each team write down their mold-making records into XVL, knowledge of processes is being enhanced and archived.

Keys to Alpine Precision’s Success

The key to the company’s success in building its system lies in fact that the produc-tion activities start from the top down. Against this backdrop, Alpine spent time carefully building a system from the perspective of the manufacturing floor so it would be accepted. Mizuno and Yoshihara, who actually led in the construction of the system say they con-ducted hearings at the shop floor as well actively participating in the same work as the shop floor staff, compiling records of what staff did what work in each work process. By focusing on detailed analysis of the work performed, they found out how the shop floor could be improved from the perspective of shop floor staff. After gaining a full understand-ing of the manufacturing process, they reviewed system specifications: They believe that if their system had been built mainly by their IT department or IT vendors, their manufactur-ing staff would probably not have accepted the system so readily.

No matter what system is being implemented, problems are always encountered dur-ing launch. DM-T was supposed to halve the manufacturing lead time, but did not pro-duce any real effects in the initial stage of its use. However, since Mizuno and Yoshihara were strongly confident that the system was capable of halving manufacturing time, they decided to check it and discovered a system bug where the required parts were manufac-tured twice. Once they fixed this, the system started to produce the results they expected. Of course the excess products made were used later, not wasted. On the other hand, one of the executive managers of the parent company who came to see the zero paper draw-ings, zero-reports environment was quick to point out that since A1 size drawings were disappearing from the workplace, both the design and manufacturing departments would require only half their current workspace. When the two departments actually reduced their workspace, they indeed found that half the space was sufficient. Also, with oil-stained drawings now gone, the plant became far cleaner. This was another hidden advantage of the system. One interesting fact to note is that the executives remained continuously interested in the project. While the effort was led by people at the frontline, the focus by the executive management in enquiring about progress and results obtained were an important element to its success. In 2007, the contribution of the DM-T project to business innovation of the whole group including Alpine Precision, the parent company, was recog-nized and commended. Management had been watching closely from start to end.

It is important to however not to mistake a zero paper drawing, zero-report plant to be the ‘plant of the future’ but rather than plant of now. It is a very real plant which uses no paper to make clean molds, led by real manufacturing staff where young employees carry out their daily mold-making tasks while checking 3D images. The manufacturing floor staff


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at Alpine Precision are able to obtain any manufacturing information they want thanks to the PCs assigned to them. This plant is a fine example of IT born at the front line which has now been rooted deeply into the workplace.

About ‘Improving Lean Manufacturing Through 3D Data’ by Dr. Hiroshi Toriya.

This book, one of several published by author, Dr. Hiroshi Toriya, discusses how Japanese manu-facturers are addressing the critical need to continually improve manufacturing processes across the entire enterprise. In the cases highlighted in this book, manufacturers are turning to 3D data practices and processes to enable greater leanness of manufacturing. This book discusses why this is a necessity in the current economic conditions and discusses real world examples through in-depth interviews with manufacturers of all kinds.

Published in Japan in 2008, this book is available as an e-book from Lattice Technology, and is available at www.lattice3d.com

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