Manufacturing Case Studies
Timken, Rail Bearing Service Division
The Rail Bearing Service Division of Timken reconditions rail bearings for the
rail industry. Timken recognized they needed to track and trace more data, but
were in fact, losing important information. Data loss was caused by three
factors, for which Soltus provided three solutions:
- First, we determined that the design of the collection process (software)
was flawed. We added additional interaction with the workers/operators to create
more safeguards and increase the likeliness that every production event was
captured into a database.
- Second, we saw that the physical process was “skipping a step.” By
changing the physical process of handling the individual components being
manufactured, we enabled enforcement of business logic that had been previously
lacking. One new rule, for example, required test results to be logged in a
database before the next manufacturing process could begin. It was this
improvement, also, that captured the operator’s name and component’s
identification at each work station.
- Third, we concluded that insufficient data was being collected. We
expanded the data contained in individual barcodes enabling each component to be
uniquely identified, which in turn enabled lifetime tracing of the component.
(Previous barcodes provided uniqueness for only a couple of months before
repeating.)
Soltus improvements made Timken’s data meaningful and accurate. Timken now
captures data at each production step. In-process and finished parts can be
tracked to specific operators, making problem resolution faster. Expanding the
data in the barcodes means that Timken can now keep its data for use in time and
process analysis.
Software Applied
-
MS SQL Server
- Intellution FIX32
- RSLinx
Hardware Utilized
Who We Worked With
-
Internal IT Department
-
Internal Engineering Department
- Production Department