Case Study: Kings Electronics, Rock Hill, SC
January 6, 2004 - February 6, 2004 

Original Condition:    Kings Electronics designed a new product and desired to know how productively the new design could be manufactured.  The products are connector clamps for communication cable assemblies in the aerospace industry for establishing on-board internet access while flying commercially.

IMP Assistance:

The Institute for Manufacturing Productivity engaged its industry partner, Machine Tool Systems to develop a world-class competitive process.

This process machines the connector clamps in one Okuma vertical CNC machine from raw bar stock to finished product.  Lot sizes were designed to synchronize with end user demand.  Fixtures were designed to accommodate all three designs, thereby reducing design change over to 5 seconds or less.

Manufacturing stages for one design. The other two designs are similar with channel angle differences

Summary

Total machining time from raw materials to finished product is 90 minutes : 54 seconds.  The finished product consists of 12 pieces of six different designs.  Total design change over requires only 15 seconds or less.  The change over/set-up time is software change over only.  Due to the flexible fixture design, there is no fixture or hardware change over/set-up time.  The total machining time is for all parts required for one aircraft.

Economic Impact

As of May 5, 2004, Kings Electronics has been awarded the first contract for installing the communication systems that provides on-board internet assess while flying commercially.  The contract is worth approximately $2.5 million.