Continuous improvement has been the goal of Tindle Construction Inc. (TCI) since 1994, and industry experience and implementation of efficiency improvement techniques have helped the company create high quality products.
Headquartered in Fredonia, Kansas, TCI is a diversified family business that is the nation’s leading structural steel fabricator and specialized industrial services company. TCI has 74 employees and manages two divisions, Industrial Services and Manufacturing, which work individually and together to produce quality products for a variety of customers. The company also provides design and planning services for the projects it manufactures.
“AWS certification and R-stamp welding, custom architectural component design, and custom high-quality finishes on copper, brass, stainless steel, and carbon displays are some of the factors that set us apart from our competitors,” said the CTO. Jesse McGinnis, Yes has been with TCI for 15 years.
Decorative and architectural metal products, signage and artwork, as well as sheet metal products such as wall panels, corner moldings and ceiling inserts, are among TCI’s diverse manufacturing capabilities. Sheet metal parts, weldments, structural steel, pressure vessels, and unique metal finishes are typical items found in the shop floor. Aluminium, carbon steel, stainless steel, brass and copper are the most commonly used TCI materials.
“We have a lot of different machines and a lot of different functions, and putting them together is like playing chess,” McGinnis said. “It was fun to see what we can come up with to get the job done and it’s definitely a challenge that I enjoy.”
TCI uses lasers, water jets, press brakes, bending machines, CNC lathes, CNC milling machines, and manual lathes and milling machines. Part of McGinnis’ job is to decide which combination of machines will work best for each unique job.
McGinnis was hired by TCI to specialize in the manufacturing side of the business and hand-program the new lasers the company acquired in September 2015. Eventually TCI invested in a CNC programming solution for lasers, but over time found that the efficiency and flexibility of the system were severely limited.
TCI switched to RADAN in 2015 after exploring all options for implementing a new sheet metal solution. “I think RADAN suits us better,” says McInnis, who also uses RADAN to program TCI water jets. “The vendor of our previous solution was going to provide us with updates and fixes for the new lasers, but when I saw how quickly RADAN was investing, it became clear how quickly we needed to move to the new solution.”
Prior to the introduction of RADAN, TCI staff would begin the nesting process and then perform other tasks on the shop floor as the nest was created, a process that typically took several hours.
“RADAN can build a one-day entryway in minutes,” says McGinnis. “In terms of man-hours, that’s a huge difference for us.”
He said that the company has one employee who spends half of the day on programming and the rest of the time on engineering projects. “With what we can do with RADAN, one person no longer needs to constantly build a nest.”
Unlike many other sheet metal solutions, RADAN also allows you to edit your automatically generated layouts, ensuring programming remains in the user’s hands.
“The ability to edit layouts is something our old software didn’t give us, and we can do it with RADAN – edit intros, intros, processing, or just edit for aesthetic reasons,” said McGinnis. “It was another high point for RADAN.”
For TCI, RADAN’s ability to use its manufacturing requirements planning (MRP) solution was just as important to efficiency as the solution’s layout capabilities. RADAN MRP Essentials is an MRP integration utility that can automatically generate nested projects from production plan files.
While several MRP systems offer the ability to generate reports from planning files, including manufacturing information such as part number, quantity, and material thickness, RADAN MRP Essentials can read planning files and automatically create layouts. Nests can also be sorted automatically by material type, size and specified CNC machine.
“RADAN’s ability to work with our MRP is critical to keeping track of many of the things we need to track every day,” McGinnis said, noting that the ERP system was in place before RADAN was implemented. The system tracks the purchase, receipt and transport of TCI. and manage timesheets and work schedules.
Once a potential client requests an estimate, the TCI estimator will work with the company’s engineering staff to provide a “budget” that reflects hours, materials, and other details of the job. If the work goes well, the engineers create models using computer-aided design (CAD) software.
“Once we design it the way it is built, the work will go to ERP and we will have a step plan for building every detail,” said McGinnis. “We are very efficient: ERP keeps track of each item and where it was purchased, and each item comes with an up-to-date drawing. When everything is ready, the dispatcher takes the order and checks the purchase.”
After checking the workpiece, a separate task is created for each manufactured part and for each assembly. Once materials are sorted, TCI’s RADAN operators receive a text-based laser and waterjet load summary that is uploaded to MRP Essentials.
“MRP Essentials will use this list to order parts and create jobs,” McGinnis said. “It contains basic information about the job, number of revisions, dates, and other important details. From here, RADAN will generate two lists, one for parts ready to be cut and one for jobs with missing information. That’s what we do not have to cut “.
Programs are then written based on parts from an “approved” list, which are sent to the shop along with the job number. Jobs with incomplete information will be edited and re-passed through the system until they are correct.
“We wouldn’t be as efficient as we are today without RADAN’s nesting and the system’s ability to do what we need,” McGinnis said. “RADAN provided extensive assistance in implementing MRP elements to meet our ERP needs. We have worked with customer support to create custom reports to provide performance information to laser operators and track changes to our RADAN symbol library levels. We are now able to track certification of materials for each part and mix different parts of the customer in one program depending on the type of material.”
TCI’s goal is to further increase efficiency and innovation, and RADAN has proven to be an integral part of TCI’s daily production.
Microprocessor controllers are designed for machines that allow you to create or modify parts. The programmed CNC activates the servos and spindle drives of the machine and controls various machining operations. See DNC, direct numerical control; NC, numerical control.
Sawing, milling, grinding, gear cutting, drilling, reaming, boring, threading, facing, chamfering, grooving, knurling, turning, parting off, necking, taper cutting, cam and eccentric cutting turning. Various forms, from manual to semi-automatic and fully automatic, the main types are lathes, lathes and profiling machines, turret lathes and CNC lathes. Lathes consist of a headstock and spindle, a tailstock, a bed, a carriage (with a skirt) and a cross slide. Features include shift (speed) and feed levers, tool holders, compound carriages, lead and reversible lead screws, threaded dials, and quick travel levers. Special types of lathes include machines with a through spindle, with a camshaft and crankshaft, with a brake drum and rotor, spinning and drum machines. Tool shops and lathes are used for precision work; the first for the processing of tools and dies and similar tasks, the second for small parts (tools, watches), often without electricity. Models are usually defined in terms of the part of the largest diameter they can “rock” or rotate, the length of the bed or distance between centers, and the power produced. See turn.
Mandrel for turning inside hollow workpieces. Available styles include extension, pin, and thread.
A machine tool designed to cut metal or other materials with a serrated blade. Comes in many styles, but takes one of four basic forms: a hacksaw (a simple, rugged machine that reciprocates to cut metal or other materials); cold saw or circular saw (disc blade that drives the structural material). band saws (with endless bands; the two main types are milling cutters and contour band saws, which cut complex contours and shapes) and abrasive cutting saws (similar in appearance to cold saws, but with a tall rather than serrated blade).
Post time: Dec-05-2022