Since 1999 Anderson Employees annually pass the hat for both Thanksgiving and Christmas in order to help those in need in Muskegon County.  A social committee made up of both union and non union employees organizes the annual holiday campaigns that provides complete Thanksgiving meals for senior shut-ins and Christmas for several area families.

Each year organizers work with Muskegon’s Senior Resources to obtain a list of senior shut-ins in need at Thanksgiving.  The Social Committee’s goal has always been to help seniors who aren’t able to provide and prepare a traditional Thanksgiving meal on their own.  This year Anderson Employees raised $1,223.00 and delivered 24 meals to area seniors.

Meals are ordered from an area grocer and come with a whole precooked turkey and all the fixings:  potatoes, stuffing, gravy, green bean casserole, cranberries, rolls, and a pumpkin pie.  Plumbs Stores was selected the past several years to prepare the meals.  We thank Plumbs for giving us a significant discount, which in-turn allowed Anderson Employees  to help even more seniors.  Employees and their families deliver the meals the day before Thanksgiving.  Since 1999 employees have provided and delivered Thanksgiving dinners to 198 shut-ins and their families.

Each Christmas the Social Committee passes the hat and employee generosity allows the group to adopt several families with the help of Every Woman’s Place in Muskegon.  Employees and their families then donate their time by shopping for the adopted family members and wrapping all of the gifts they’ve purchased.  Other employees contribute by helping to deliver to our adopted families a few days before Christmas.   When all is said and done, each family we adopt receives gifts for each family member, a  filled stocking, and a complete Christmas dinner.  This year Anderson Employees raised $2,365.00 that provided Christmas for three families in need.   Since 1999 our group has raised a total of $29,940 and supplied Christmas for 24 Muskegon County families.

Another charity near and dear to Anderson Employees is the Muskegon Rescue Mission for Women & Children.  Any extra funds remaining after the Thanksgiving or Christmas campaigns is donated either by  a monetary gift to the mission or gifts for the children residing at the mission at Christmas.  This year Social Committee members went shopping and delivered over $440 worth of toys and gifts for the children a few days before Christmas.

Anderson Global employees are true giving champions.   Year after year they selflessly donate their money and time to support those in need in our community.

General Motors GM Uzbekistan General Director Juergen Spendel discusses powertrain components at the General Motors Powertrain-Uzbekistan, on October 23, 2011, with U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton.  She is viewing Cylinder Head castings produced from Anderson Global tooling for the 1.2-1.5 L semi permanent mold.

While it may be true that no North American company can compete with the lower wages paid to workers in the developing world, on many other levels, North American plastic injection mold manufacturers are prospering. There are many North American plastic injection mold manufacturers who have taken on the future very successfully. Their approach may vary, but the common theme is technology and lean manufacturing.

One successful method is to use the lower labor costs in developing countries, while maintaining control of the projects stateside. These manufacturers control the injection mold design and complex manufacturing and employ the skilled workforce abroad for other operations. One tactic is to specialize in an area of tooling not yet threatened by foreign companies. Highly complex parts, medical parts, proprietary parts, or otherwise specialized parts are all good candidates.

Many plant owners have benefited from the flexibility of using software to manage their business. Sticky notes, scratch pads, fly-away papers just don’t run a business today! Managing your operations in an integrated manner can have a huge impact on your business.

One thing is for sure, the need for flexibility in the workplace has never been greater. Those who refuse to change run a very real risk of simply watching their business disappear. There are a great many programs out there, such as 5S, Lean Management, Six Sigma and many more. These can be a large help, if followed closely.

The fact is that global tooling competition is here to stay. It is pointless to try and remain isolated and work with the old ways. Technology and communication just won’t stand still for anyone. Companies that take on the new marketplace and work with it, rather than against it, often discover that new opportunities present themselves; and hopefully the profits will follow! Of course, all new methods entail risks, but the rewards can be well worth it.

Some great feedback I recently received.

Hey Al,

Our instructor John told me yesterday that you guys have one of the best collection of users he’s trained in quite a while.  Delivering training to roughly 40—50 different customers a year and having been in this business for over 20 years, I’d say that’s a nice compliment.   He said specifically “these are some of the best users I’ve seen”.

Feel free to pass that along to your team and feel good about your users skill sets (you’d be amazed how poor a majority of our customers skill sets are in general, even at larger companies with giant training budgets).

There wouldn’t be much more to cover for these guys outside of some assemblies perhaps, according to John’s feedback, but I’ve asked him for more details there, – it was a quick email to me last night.  I’ll get back to you on that thought.

Have a great weekend and let us know when and  how we can be of service to you again in the future.

Eric Koder | Education Specialist
TATA Technologies
www.tatatechnologies.com/training

Very often, when somebody is trying to understand how the plastic injection molding process works, they are referred to a detailed explanation of the mechanics of an injection mould and molding machine. This is an interesting and fascinating topic, to be sure, but there is another aspect to this process that needs to be addressed.

Most people probably never really consider just how all the plastic products they use each and every day are manufactured. This is understandable, because few people have had an insider’s look at a mould making or molding facility.

Just consider for a moment how many professions are involved in for example, creating a cell phone. First, somebody had to come up with the idea, and then they had to find somebody to analyze the feasibility of pursuing the idea.

Marketing experts, industrial designers, artists, prototype mold makers, plastics engineers, molding technicians, injection mould makers, mould designers and process engineers are just some of the professionals that could get involved in these simple projects.

This does not include the electrical engineers, all the countless people involved in the electronic functions, the apps engineers, the commercial artists, and the quality engineers required to bring such a commonplace item to market.

On top of this, consider that this may be done on a global market scale. Parts are made anywhere these days, designs can be done in India and sent electronically to Michigan, the mould manufactured in China, molding done in Mexico, and the marketing done in New York.

It is the same with the injection molding process. Your injection molding machine could be from Canada, the plastic materials from the USA, the mould from Europe and the hot runner system from Brazil. There is just no way to escape globalization. The best way to compete is to meet it head on and find the ways to achieve the final result.

Plastic injection molding and mold making are two of the most challenging and rewarding professions there are. It is a fast paced world, always progressing and full of opportunity for the motivated person to keep up with.

Many obstacles and challenges appear, from the injection mold design, to the mold making, inspection and molding defects. And that’s one reason professional manufacturers are here to help you every step of the way!

Sharing.  For me, the word has been around a long time and my first memories of its use were because I had something my sister wanted.  I was asked to share what I had with her.  From my early memories of that experience, I don’t remember sharing making me feeling exceptionally good, rather it meant giving up something I had, so someone else could enjoy it instead. As a young lad, I don’t remember feeling like I wanted to share much of anything with my sister, unless of course it was her sharing half of her warm cinnamon roll with me.

Times have changed.  In recent years sharing has become an important word / icon on many computer screens.  In particular, the sharing of computer screens and voice conversations with others simultaneously has opened up channels of communication never dreamed possible by the lad who didn’t want to share with his sister back in the 50’s.  Sharing is a beneficial activity in today’s product and tooling design engineering world. It has become so convenient share that you simply want to do it.

Sharing can be accomplished in many ways. For example, asking a person from the neighboring cubicle to step over and see your latest creation on your computer screen is simple and effective.  Calling someone on the phone and sharing a conversation to discuss and resolve a particular issue is also simple and effective. There is nothing new about that, right?  In today’s world it is becoming common place to combine not only these two simple examples, but to add multiple computer screens and phone callers from anywhere on the globe into an online sharing session via the internet.  We call these “online meetings.”

For many of you, “online meetings” may be the routine, however the benefits of these meetings are nothing less than exciting!  I am regularly a part of design review meetings where the team consists of product designers, process development experts, as well as tooling experts.  The theme of these meetings is the engagement of product design ideas with the realities of the process and tooling world, ultimately leading to a happy marriage that efficiently produces high quality production parts.

A typical meeting starts with an invitation sent by email to all interested parties.  The invitation shows up in one’s calendar when accepted.  The invitation contains login information to initiate a computer connection using the internet as well as a phone number where all participants can call into.  All parties are then connected to hear one another simultaneously, while looking at the “presenter’s” computer screen.  The computer screen of anyone currently logged into the meeting can then be shared with the group so anyone with something to share can share it with all. Think of the benefits in developing ideas and more functional designs when the people that have a stake in the project are all connected in this way, saving time, money and increasing the pleasure of brainstorming ideas.  This eliminates much travel time for those who would need to leave their offices and travel to a common destination.  This is huge! Although sometimes necessary, travel time is not usually productive time.

There are some practical guidelines that make this type of meeting most effective.

1. Like any meeting, there should be a stated purpose and a target end time, with all conversation directed towards that purpose.
2. It works best to have a moderator with an agenda and issues log distributed ahead of time.
3. Courtesy takes on a different twist because you can’t readily “see” who may be starting into a paragraph of comments.  It is possible for two people to just start speaking at the same time.  Be sensitive here and introduce your remarks by asking if you can have a minute for a comment before you start a lengthy disertation.
4. Mute your phone if you are not directly speaking.  It reduces background distractions.
5. Pay attention. Just because you are not facing someone in a meeting, you may be called on at any time for input.
6. Include at time at the end of the agenda for “round table” so everyone know they will have an opportunity to bring up one last thing if needed.

There are several products available that enable one to use the internet in this way.  The software that I’ve used are:      a.) Gotomeeting, b.) Livemeeting, and c.) WebX.  Gotomeeting has a nice feature in that the internet opens a VoIP (voice over IP) connection where you can simply use the mic and speakers on your laptop to utilize the audio portion, along with the shared computer screen.  This is nice because it saves on telephone costs.

It is important to mention that you only need to purchase this software / service if you want to initiate the online meetings. When you receive an invitation, there is no cost for you to log on.  When you respond to an invitation for the first time, your computer will ask for permission to download a small software utility which is required for you to connect.  This is safe and is required for your computer to connect to that service on the internet.

Now that your appetite has been stimulated, have you ever been in any of the following situations?

1. You are talking with someone about a particularly confusing problem and the words just don’t seem to express the thoughts adequately.  Your words keep banging into themselves, so you say, “just a minute, I’ll send you an invitation.”  In less than 3 minutes you are looking at pictures of the problem and illustrating the solution.
2. You are concerned about the progress on a project and are not able to travel across town to review it.  You send out a couple of online invitations, requesting your team members to convene online so they can present data to illustrate the progress.
3. You have a completed 3D design and the time frame to build the tooling is short.  You are anxious to get started, but are uneasy about the complete design being approved for build.  Several people have to review it and there is no time….  Send an invitation to all parties involved and do an online review with all stake holders.

Sharing online is easy, efficient and beneficial to the success of any program. Sharing brings benefits to all.  My appetite is stimulated.  Would you share that piece of chocolate cake with me?  I’ll share my ice cream with you.

Five years and CAD/CAM-centric business process makes a world of difference at Anderson Global

[MUSKEGON, MI -- APRIL 2011]  In 2005, Troy Leroux left his job at Anderson Pattern (Muskegon, MI) to pursue a new career opportunity. Anderson was a highly regarded conventional custom casting process tooling manufacturer that was struggling in the face of foreign competition and inflexible business processes.

In 2010, he was rehired by his old company to schedule production in the roughing department. The company had changed its name to Anderson Global. That was not the only thing that had changed. Leroux was astonished by how much more productive the company had become. He roughly estimates that output through the company’s CNC manufacturing equipment had increased by 40-50%. It was almost like he had stepped out briefly in one era and back again in another.

Leroux said, “I was just amazed at the speed at which things were going on. But then again, there are other variables involved.  When I left we didn’t have the high-pressure coolant for drilling. Drilling a particular component could take days. Now we can take a hole that used to take minutes to drill and do it in seconds. We’ve standardized our programs and processes. The biggest thing is that machines are no longer standing idle while programs are being written.”

Roughing It

About a year before Leroux left the company, Kevin Knollinger was promoted from his position as a bench worker to a CNC programmer trainee.  The company was going to try something a little different by off-loading some of the manufacturing operations to a department with equipment that would be dedicated primarily to roughing operations.

The first objective was to take on some 2D machining and hole drilling. That experiment worked well, but it soon became obvious that if the company were going to improve its efficiency by having a department dedicated to roughing, then they would need a more capable CAD system. The company evaluated nearly a half dozen products and determined that Mastercam (CNC Software, Tolland, CT) was best suited to its needs. Knollinger became the full-time Mastercam programmer and played an important role in the company’s gradual conversion from paper-based to electronic-based manufacturing.

He said, “We previously had to make 2D blueprints for each part that we machined. The machine operator took the 2D print and would program the part at the machine control. Most of the time programming was done while the machine spindle was not running, causing spindle down time.”

“We now have three off line Mastercam programmers that supply programs to ten machines five to seven days a week for three shifts.  Spindle down time is now limited to changeover setups. We standardized a tool library for all our machines to allow programs to be run on various machines versus a specific machine.

“This creates scheduling flexibility. Standardizing the tool library also made programming quicker and more efficient because tools and holders are all set. The machine operators are also more efficient because they don’t have to be locating tools for their machines every time they run a new program.”

All About Spindle Up-Time

Knollinger believes that most machinists today buy into the new paperless way of doing things but obtaining buy-in wasn’t easy at first. “Programming at the machine had been a big part of their jobs and we were asking them to give that up. Everybody has their own way of doing things, so it’s not easy to give up on your own preferences, particularly when you been doing things a certain way for years. However, I think that most of my coworkers are finally saying that this is really working. It’s not perfect but I think that if we hadn’t done this, we would not be alive today. That’s how important it is.”

Today the roughing department has 16 CNC milling machines, CNC– Mazak horizontals and vertical machines, Mori Seiki, OKK horizontal machines, Promac 5 axis and Mazak powermaster lathe turning centers that are in continuous operation nearly 24/7. Each operator has two machines to set up and run.  For the sake of manufacturing consistency and scheduling flexibility, the CNC programs, machine setups, and tooling libraries are standardized as much as possible. However, most of the machinists are skilled machine coders and they can make adjustments to programs at the machine when this is needed to prevent spindle downtime.

Knollinger is the lead programmer and he and two others Todd Bowlin, Randy Schweisser write all the programs that keep the 16machines going. He has nothing but admiration for the high precision manufacturing skills of his coworkers in the finishing department, but he estimates that 90% of all the metal cutting that takes place in the shop now occurs in roughing. 3D cavity semi finish, and 2Dhole drilling.

Today, the name of the game throughout the shop is to keep spindles cutting. That is the job of the machine operators. The job of the Mastercam programmers is to keep the operator supplied with mistake free programs that can be set up and run with a minimal amount of downtime. The work begins when the process engineers in the next room send over a Unigraphics model of the tooling configuration.

“We will review their manufacturing process and talk with them if we have a question. Occasionally we catch something so we are their buffer. By the same token, the machinists all have demo copies of Mastercam on their equipment. So they can simulate what I have done, and sometimes they will catch something that needs to be fixed. So they are my buffer. Going to paperless manufacturing has eliminated a lot of mistakes.”

Continuous Refinement

When Anderson Global launched its roughing department, the company was using version 9 of Mastercam. As of December 2010, they were using Mastercam X5.  Knollinger said that they have a good working relationship with the reseller Michael J Stevens  mikes@axsysinc.com who alerts them when there are new features in the CAD/CAM software that will provide the company an opportunity to make significant improvements in CNC operations.

Here are a few examples CAM software capabilities the roughing department uses routinely to improve productivity.

Computer Simulation: BACKPLOT simulates tool movements throughout the machining process and VERIFY shows color-coded views indicating where too much or not enough material has been removed. Using these features, standardizing processes, and eliminating errors formerly associated with manual data entry at the machine have driven down the occurrences of costly mistakes while machining. Even though a typical run is just one part, the machinist can set up the workpiece in a matter of minutes using magnetic work holders, push the button and go.

C-Hook Technologies. Knollinger said, “We use a tool called ProDrill for machining vent holes in our core box tooling. This feature-based machining program uses C-Hook technology that allows it to run inside of the CAD/CAM software. The software analyzes the vent cylinders and will generate a program with all necessary turns in a matter of seconds. The backside of the lower insert (shown in figure 1) has twenty different turns, with over three hundred operations. This program will be run on a Mori Seiki 8000 horizontal machining center with dynamic rotation. The venting portion of this program will run about 16 hours. Before Mastercam we would have drilled all these angled vent holes manually on a radial drill. This would have taken around 40 hours.”

3D Toolpath Refinement: Mastercam’s recently introduced toolpath refinement algorithm has also been a very useful tool for Anderson Global. This algorithm analyses the chosen tool paths and inserts more or less points along the path to make it easier for a given controller to respond smoothly to directional changes. Knollinger said,  “The upper insert has blow tubes in it. Originally we used a form cutter to mill them when we were machining cast iron, but when machining hardened tool steel the form tools would not hold up. We started to run 3D toolpaths on blow tube holes in order to have a machining method that would allow cutters to stay sharp longer.

“The Radial 3D toolpath worked the best on our machines and was taking about 15 to19 minutes per blow tube, and it was still hard on the tool life. Mastercam X4 was released and the Refine Toolpath was added to the surface high-speed paths. We tested different paths, and the waterline path with the Refine Toolpath setting ran very well. The machining was smooth and the finish was excellent. We reduced our roughing and finishing a blow tube to 8 to 10 minutes and the tool life is much better as well.”

Using these and many other CAM capabilities Mastercam X5 has allowed Anderson Global to improve programming time, machining time and spindle up time for angled vents and blow tubes. This is a major portion of the total hours for a core box project.  This, in turn, has allowed Anderson Global to reduce lead times and offer competitive pricing in an increasingly globalized market place.

Very Different Company

Troy Leroux was amazed and pleased to see the changes that had taken place in the roughing department and the whole company when he came back to the future and resumed working at Anderson Global. The changes he saw were part of a comprehensive strategy orchestrated by company president, John McIntyre to make his company more resilient, responsive and competitive

This strategy embraces investment in technology, partnering with customers, lean manufacturing, equipment and personnel flexibility, product and service diversification, along with the ability to undertake parallel development projects using its offshore divisions.

If the continuous 24/7 spinning of spindles at its Muskegon plant is to be taken in evidence, the plan seems to be working.

Anderson Express was created because it filled a need not yet filled. It combines the latest in technology while offering a small shop, quick turn-around set of services that are necessary in today’s fast changing markets.

Typical small casting tooling shops are filled with skilled people, older technologies, older equipment and traditional management systems.

AE uses a small group of cross-trained, engineers, programmers, machinists and experienced tool makers combined to provide the latest in technology and advanced management philosophy.

Laser Scanning, Reverse Engineering, High end CAD development, Casting/gating simulation, FEA’s, Machine Programming… off-line or at the machine on conversational controls are just some of the technologies that lead up to the machines.

All new Machining centers with the latest in features, such as conversational controls, through the spindle coolant, 4^th axis attachments and large tool magazines will create the contoured/complex shapes  quickly and accurately.

Combine this with advanced scheduling systems and back up from a large sister tooling company and the small project or small casting making facility can have the best of both worlds…Small and Agile – while Technologically Advanced and Forward Thinking.

Anderson Express is a Woman-Owned Small Business located in a HUBZone.

Until recently, trade shows seem to have fallen out of favor for some B2B companies, perhaps understandable given the global economic challenges and corporate belt-tightening strategies. I on the other hand, try to make it to and exhibit at as many of the relevant tooling and casting shows as I can. The upcoming April Metalcasting Congress in the Chicago area—North America’s largest annual event for the metalcasting industry—is among our favorites at Anderson Global. We’ll be there in April 5 – 8 at Booth #322.

I like the fact that trade shows get us quality face-time to personally talk to more customers that we could possibly visit in a month out in the field. With the informal nature at shows, it’s like a focus group where we get to hear our tooling and casting customers’ concerns, pain points, and challenges—and what we can do about them.
Nearly everyone asks “How’s Business?” You gain some real insight into what really going on. Of course, we love it when we hear great things about our company and products—but also when they tell us how we could improve. The networking opportunities are incredible, making connections for potential customers and suppliers in Europe, Asia, North America—actually worldwide. Given the profound nature of the changes that the foundry tooling and casting industry has experienced in recent years, it’s really a great opportunity to meet and share insights with competitors, too. Yes, we’re all in this together. We often find ourselves working more and more in strategic partnering alliances to provide innovative, integrated tooling and casting solutions that quite frankly, could not be accomplish without our collective expertise.

So, if you have opportunity to stop by, Anderson Global is in Booth #322 at the 115th Metalcasting Congress. We’re introducing newly developed tooling and casting solutions—and also debuting Anderson Express, our new division specializing in prototype and small run tooling and casting solutions. Hope to see you there. Let’s chat.

Join Anderson Global at Booth #322 at the 115th Metalcasting Congress, April 5–8 at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center in Schaumburg, Illinois. From design and engineering to prototype through production tooling and castings, see how our innovative tooling solutions are meeting the demands of advanced, world-class foundries and manufacturers. Hope to see you there!