Subcontractor productivity gains with robot loader

BCW's operations director, Trevor Cassie, calculated that the Iemca billet loader paid for itself within 10 months. The significant savings prompted the subcontractor to invest in a second, identical automated production cell, which was installed in 2009. This time, the Biglia B565YS mill-turn centre and Iemca Automata 2.5 robot loader were supplied by Whitehouse Machine Tools as a turnkey facility. Keith Gordon, BCW's Smallshaw site director, explains: "We needed to increase the production rate of rotator components to meet growing demand from our customer, which would have meant buying another Biglia lathe, as the first was working flat out, 24/7. When we evaluated purchasing the first Iemca Automata 2.5, it was clear that it could boost output from the lathe we already had. In the case of rotator bodies, productivity has increased by 50%, while sleeves are produced 30% more efficiently. "We also realised that reducing attendance at the machine would lower labour costs by allowing the operator to perform other work. This is in stark contrast to having to employ an extra person to run a second manually-fed lathe. That would have doubled the labour overhead and involved more capital expenditure earlier. The higher costs would have made it more difficult for us to respond to requests for price reductions from our customer, which sells into a competitive global market and frequently has to drop its prices to win or keep contracts." A third cell is planned for 2011, which will mimic the original in that 1st MTA will supply the billet loader and retrofit it to a Biglia chucker already in use at BCW.