The sorry state of affairs: Chapter 20
Lack of innovations in the converting industry: continued...Auto makers spend millions of dollars at auto shows. Every year the media is abuzz with rumors and gossip about the upcoming new models. Hundreds of magazines are devoted to the auto industry. The reasons for this are obvious. There is a market out there that can support these million dollar advertizing blitzes.
In the converting industry, we do not have a big enough market to justify this kind of expense. The lack of R and D investment by the major manufacturers of converting equipment is the biggest stumbling block to innovation. And unlike the auto industry, converting companies do not routinely buy new models every year. First of all, there aren't any new models out there and secondly the costs associated in replacing machines is quite high.
Faced with this climate converting plants have 3 options:
1) To retrofit existing equipment to increase speed.
2) To buy brand new machines in hopes of increasing production.
3) Buy used equipment.
There is a fourth option. And that is to redesign a machine in-house.
Quad Graphics started out in Wisconsin. In no time at all they became the biggest and most profitable outfits in the country. The owner of the company realized that there weren't any machines out there that could do what needed to be done. So he had machines designed to meet his needs. These were one-of-kind custom built units. No one else in the World had these machines......and the rest is history.
Innovating new designs:
Take a 1,000 blocks of granite. Take a 1,000 guys and give them a hammer and a chisel each. Their mission? To carve out a human figure resembling "David". How many of these guys are going to produce anything that even resembles a human form?
This same principle applies to machine designers. I have seen companies waste tons of money designing "Rube Goldbergs". The task is given to some-one in the plant to design some contraption that will auto-mate some aspect of the production line. This is not fair to the plant guy in-charge of the mission. He has no idea what he is supposed to do, much less design a proto-type. If it's the owner who takes up this task...then there is nothing you can tell him..it's his money.
Designing machines is an art. If this is approached strictly from an engineering point of view then you end up with machines that looks like "Sherman tanks". What one needs is a lean, mean racing machine that leaves the competition in the dust..not a tank.
And just like on a racing car, careful thought has to be given to speed with which tires can be changed, spark plugs can be replaced, provisions for oil changes have to be made etc. The whole concept is to speed up every aspect of daily tasks that have to be performed to keep the car in top operating condition.
On the other hand, converting equipment is designed by the-seat-off one's pant mentality. No thought is given to the operator. The poor operator of these contraptions is the last thing on the designer's mind. If a car manufacturer followed these design rules, they wouldn't last too long.
Dr. Winder's rule no.1
The machine operator is the most important member of your staff. He can make the company millions of dollars in profit. I have seen slitter rewinders in operation , where the waste factor approached 12%! It wasn't the fault of the operator, it was a bad machine design. It all goes back to the guy sharpening drill bits by hand.
