- EE Times: Car karma
- (2001-11-05)
- Car Karma - IN2TEC's Lean Manufacturing System
- By Chris Edwards, EE Times
- 5 November 2001 (9:51 a.m. GMT)
- How In2tec is adopting automotive manufacturing methods.
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- Paul Cavander, operations director at IN2TEC, apologised for the
smell of paint in the company's test room. "It's not because we've got
visitors today," he explained. "It's for me. I like the walls to be
painted, for the place to be clean and for everything to be in its place.
It's my background from the automotive industry: that's how the
automotive industry operates."
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- Cavander intends to model IN2TEC on the cell-based manufacturing techniques that have been used by automotive
manufacturers to let them build vehicles cheaply one at a time. He has used the Toyota model with its 5S mantra and
kanban systems to bring down the time it takes to get product out of the door once it has been ordered. At the same time,
he has managed to cut inventory to a little over a week.
- IN2TEC is the result of a management buyout of ITT Industries over the summer. The membrane keypad specialist, which
previously traded as part of C&K Switches, aims to carve out a niche in flexible circuits, especially where they can be
combined with front panels. The company reckons that, by replacing traditional PCB-backed panels, it can not only reduce
the amount of space they take up but cut costs into the bargain. In addition, the company has developed ways of
screen-printing electroluminescent inks to create segment LED-style displays.
- The company's new management team, led by MD Neil Armstrong, who had been with ITT for several years before the
buyout, is keen to keep manufacturing at the company's Kettering base. To do so, the team realised it would have to
introduce more flexible production methods as well as scaling up potentially lucrative operations such as flexible circuits.
- After the buyout, the company could turn around prototypes of membrane keypads within four weeks and rubber keymats
in six to eight weeks. "We are targeting seven days for both," said Armstrong. For rubber keymats, the company has signed
up a Far Eastern supplier to produce high volumes: "But we can iron out any problems very quickly."
- The flexible circuits and membranes will be produced in Kettering. "We see significant growth in flexible circuits," said
Armstrong. "We invested in pick-and-place machines that can work on flexible circuits. The circuits used to carry a price
premium but that is no longer the case."
- One unexpected driving force that could help the adoption of flexible circuits is environmental. "With surface-mount
components, you can't use solder on flexible substrates," said Armstrong. "But, because of that, the process is lead-free.
We have spent a lot of time focusing on conductive adhesives and epoxy."
- Alongside the development work, IN2TEC has focused on improving production efficiency. With low labour cost markets
continually threatening margins in the UK, it is one thing the company's directors know they have to do.
- "We take the non-value-added activities out of the workplace," said Armstrong.
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- The electronics sector has been oddly resistant to changes in production techniques that
have been forced on other sectors. Although electronics manufacturers have taken time
to adopt similar techniques to those at the car companies, Cavendar said: "Even
suppliers to the automotive business are behind [automotive]. But automotive is very
cost- driven so they are changing."
- As operations director, Cavander has introduced statistical process control techniques
together with the cell-based approach that lets workers move between jobs depending
on the kind of product that needs to be made. A spin-off of the automotive approach is
the insistence on a well-ordered shop floor. "People are proud of the fact they have a
clean area. They want to take the next step," said Cavander.
- When he took over, Cavander said the company was focused on continuous flow
production: "The company was designed to build into stock. We wanted to get away
from that and get a structure like an automotive plant."
- One part of the process was to get set-up times down. To cut the inventory build-up
caused by building to stock demands, a move was made to flows that can cope with a
small number of pieces, preferably one at a time. In circuits that may need 16 layers,
set-up times are critical. But, once down, inventories can come down quickly and the
company has adopted a 'traffic light' system to watch inventory build-ups.
- The move to iron production problems out of the process has been extended to faults
found in the field. For problem resolution, the company introduced the TOPS/8D
approach, which has become widely used in the automotive industry. It is a systematic
way of treating the causes of field failures and deals with customer complaints.
- "Since we became independent, we have got the response time down to two days. It
was 30," said Armstrong.
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