Seco GTDA – the path to efficiency and productivity in machining production

Tool wear and deterioration analysis can do more than just optimize cutting tool selection. It can also increase the efficiency of the whole machining process and system.

These days, just about every machining production company has heard about Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing principles and understanding this new approach to automation and data management has the potential to improve efficiency. To reap the benefits of Industry 4.0, businesses need to firstly aim for operational excellence and, secondly, to apply modern digitalization techniques in intelligent or smart ways.

The accepted wisdom is that companies who want to achieve the highest possible levels of operational excellence need to meet three goals: eliminating or reducing waste (lean manufacturing principles); minimizing inflexibility (theory of constraints); and minimizing variability (Six Sigma thinking).

However, Seco has developed a more complete and more practical approach that adds a few extra elements to the equation. We call it the NEXT STEP in MACHINING PRODUCTION (NSMP) model. NSMP involves being in full control of the machining process, fully understanding the influence of the workpiece materials on the machining process, reducing the waste of resources and energy, and maximize the smart usage of human intelligence and expertise. It also involves employing production economy and first-time yield as effective measuring tools or KPIs and, finally, supporting all of this through a well-functioning personal leadership model.

The thinking behind this model is that the efficiency of any production plant is ultimately limited by bottlenecks in the machining process and system, or the production organization and system, and gaps in the knowledge, skills or mindset of the co-workers. The slowest ‘’step’’ in the full chain dictates the speed of the whole manufacturing process, regardless of how fast the others are.

Tool wear analysis has traditionally been a technique used for evaluating the functioning of a cutting tool by means of evaluating wear patterns on used tools. In the basic approach, it serves the purpose of optimizing the tool and cutting conditions selection for the application at hand. And, as such, it serves a rather narrow purpose, namely optimizing the cutting tool and, to some extent, the machining process.

However, over time we realized that there were much broader benefits to be gained from this analysis. We call this wider use of tool wear data by a ‘Global Tool Deterioration Analysis’ (GTDA).

What are the main advantages? Tools cost money and by linking the results of a GTDA to the analyses of the other production elements in the total cost of goods sold (COGS), we can more exactly quantify the impact of tooling cost on the total costs. Tool handling and manipulation costs time and adding e.g. ‘machine set-up time’ analysis (MST) to a GTDA, will help identify how significant the impact of tool manipulation really is. How the cutting are used has a clear impact on the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) of the plant and on system efficiency. Manufacturing Critical Path Times (MCT) mapping techniques will reveal how the tools contribute or detract on the total throughput times in the company. For example, when system efficiency is low, the optimization of tools will have only an arbitrary effect. But when system efficiency is high, it is critical to ensure that tools function in a very reliable way. However, regardless of the level of system efficiency, a tool that is broken or non-functioning for whatever reason will create a major bottleneck with the potential to destroy efficiency totally.

Seco’s GTDA involves a deep analysis of cutting tools in use. The results of this analysis are linked to other key elements such as COGS, OEE, MST and MCT analysis, to determine the real and total impact of cutting tools on the total production system, from both a technical and an economic perspective. The results form the basis of a number of simulations that can then done to see how certain actions would influence the different technical and economical KPI’s of the production company. A GTDA offers an overview of strengths, possibilities for improvement, and improvement levers. A GTDA is a platform on which concrete actions can be planned and implemented.

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