Delivery times cut 50 percent with CAD/CAM

Modern Machine Shop, Nov, 1990

The A. J. Rose Mfg. Co., Cleveland, Ohio is a manufacturer of products for the automotive and truck industries. In an effort to better position itself in today's competitive automotive supplier environment, the company has undertaken a massive program of computerization to manage its data more effectively and drive down lead times.

The company chose Hewlett Packard, 19091 Pruneridge Ave., Cupertino, CA 95014, as the hardware vendor for both its general processing and CAD/CAM requirements. An HP 3000 Series 925 LX drives the data processing and information systems; four HP 9000 workstations are networked in a cluster to handle the CAD/CAM functions.

The results have impressed A.J. Rose. Data processing speed has been increased up to an order of magnitude of 12 on some jobs and many die delivery times have been cut by 50 percent. In addition, Rose has met its primary business objective: it can now react more quickly to its customers' orders and change requirements. Today, the company's general data processing requirements are handled by an HP 3000 Series 925LX, built around HP's Precision Architecture-a computer technology based on Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC).

Rose currently runs inventory control, purchasing management, general ledger and accounts payable software on the HP platform.

For the computer-aided design (CAD) end of the business, Rose has set up a four-station network consisting of HP 9000 series machines. An HP 9000 370 Turbo SRX Server hosts a 360 SRX Client, a 360 CH Client, and a 319 Client as nodes on the CAD cluster. The production process at A.J. Rose begins with a customer order. The company reports that most of the material releases come in over the phone line. Rose has established X. 12 Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) communications with a number of its customers, including General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, Caterpillar, and Cummins.

Rose technical personnel wrote order entry software-a release accounting program-to handle customer data.

The first step after receipt of the material release is an update routine that outputs required shipment dates, schedules work flow, and retrieves relevant manufacturing files. Manufacturing requirements are automatically compared against on-hand inventory to determine what is to be used.

The 925LX has the added horsepower to meet these requirements. Reports and batch updates that were taking 10-15 minutes to process are now being accomplished in 75 seconds. HP's Precision Architecture and its use of RISC technology is a key factor in achieving the processing speeds Rose now requires. As orders are processed at the computer, hard copy reports are provided to engineering to initiate design, development and detailing process. Rose is studying the implementation of an electronic link-up between the 925 LX and the workstations in the CAD cluster.

The CAD cluster replaced a manual design environment of drawing boards and slide rules. The company states that its initial goal for the computerized installation is to decrease die lead time by one-half, and that, according to initial measurements, is an achievable goal.

Already, project engineers say, the company has dramatically decreased the time it takes to make design changes. For example, when engineers need to change the size or location of a line, the system automatically updates all other related dimensions, much as a spreadsheet does for bookkeeping.

A.J. Rose also reports that the 3D solids capabilities of the McAuto/Hp software and hardware combination is enabling its engineers to conceptualize their designs so they can anticipate problems and possible interferences. Consequently, prototypes and die detailing are both developed more quickly.

The CAD workstation cluster has resulted in the quicker assembly of dies. Troubleshooting is accomplished up front, at the computer screen, so problems are identified and solved prior to the manufacturing process.

The HP workstations, with the Motorola 68000 chip, provide the needed graphic processing power. Real-time, fully-shaded, 3D solid modeling is facilitated by the system's high clock speeds.

Currently, die designs are output on an HP electrostatic plotter and passed along to the toolroom. NC programming of the machine tools that turn, mill, and grind the die sections is done at the CNC machine controllers.

A.J. Rose plans to purchase two additional HP stations for the CAD cluster so the toolroom programmers can boot up the McAuto NC programming system. This will link CAM directly to the CAD output so the flow of data from geometry creation to tool-path instruction is accomplished in a true CAD/ CAM mode. For more data circle 47 on Postpaid Card