Mazak UK’s Project Engineering Centre in Worcester, England, faced several challenges in their quest for operational excellence. One significant hurdle was the complexity of explaining and planning around their Palletech system, a highly advanced, modular flexible manufacturing system designed to optimize the efficiency of Mazak’s CNC machine tools. This system is characterized by its modularity, allowing for customization according to specific manufacturing needs. It can include multiple machines, robotic arms for material handling, and storage solutions, all working in unison to streamline production.

However, the complexity of the Palletech system lies in its extensive customization options and the intricate interplay of its components. This complexity posed a significant challenge for the team at Mazak UK, as traditional 2D drawings and explanations were insufficient to convey the full capabilities and configurations of the system. The detailed nature of the system, with its numerous components and possible configurations, made it difficult for clients to fully grasp the extent of its functionality and efficiency without a more dynamic and interactive representation.

The search for a solution led Mazak UK to Visual Components, promising not just an upgrade in how they presented their solutions to clients, but also a restructuring of their internal processes, particularly in CNC machine programming and CAD/CAM integration. The decision to implement Visual Components was driven by its compatibility with Mazak’s existing infrastructure and its potential to significantly cut down on the time and resources spent on project planning and execution.

With Visual Components, Mazak UK achieved a remarkable improvement in the speed and efficiency of their proposal generation. Where it once took weeks to prepare and present a proposal to clients, Visual Components enabled the team to accomplish this in a fraction of the time.

Previously, we were looking at around about 4 days to turn a proposal around, and currently (with the help of Visual Components) we can probably fire one out in about half an hour.

Stephen Smith, Project Manager at Mazak UK

Client engagement and understanding with 3D visualization

The 3D visualization capabilities of Visual Components marked a paradigm shift in how Mazak UK engaged with its clients. From high quality video and images to 3D PDFs, the software’s ability to present complex manufacturing systems in an easily digestible 3D format meant that clients could better understand the proposed solutions.

The introduction of Visual Components at Mazak UK’s Project Engineering Centre enabled the engineers to adopt a more client-centric approach. This approach, focusing on involving the client in the design process, led to improved client relationships and satisfaction. Additionally, the integration of Visual Components into Mazak’s workflow enhanced operational efficiency not only on the manufacturing floor but also in sales, project management, and client servicing. The software allowed for a more integrated approach to project management, connecting different aspects of the operation.

Customization for enhanced project delivery

One of the standout features of Visual Components that Mazak UK capitalized on is its robust customization capabilities. This aspect of the software played a crucial role in enhancing their manufacturing process optimization. The ability to tailor each component and simulation to meet specific project requirements offered Mazak a significant edge in both design and execution.

Key aspects of customization include:

• Modifying 3D models: Engineers at Mazak UK were able to alter and fine-tune 3D models within Visual Components, ensuring each component accurately represented their real-world counterparts.
• Scripting for advanced functionality: Utilizing the open API and Python scripting in Visual Components, Mazak added custom functionalities to their models. This approach allowed them to simulate complex manufacturing scenarios and machine interactions that were previously challenging to conceptualize.
  Stephen Smith, Project Manager at Mazak UK, explains, ‘Given that everything can have a Python script behind it, we’re able to attach interfaces to these modules, and we’re able to make sure that they clip together, first of all, in the right place. Or secondly, if they can’t clip together physically, they won’t in the software world.” This level of detail in scripting enhances the precision and reliability of the simulations.
  In addition, Mazak has created an automated solution that creates a bill of materials from the layout with one click of a button, further speeding up the proposal process.
• Adapting to client specifications: Customization also extended to adapting designs based on specific client requirements. By tweaking models and simulations, Mazak could present tailored solutions that resonated more effectively with their clients.

To further enhance planning and operational efficiency, Mazak UK incorporated statistical analysis from Visual Components which can be displayed visually in software as pie charts and line graphs. Statistical reports can be generated to assist in planning, to check on things like ensuring that manually loaded cells are optimized so that the operator is not overworked, for example, and the machines are not left idle. In some instances, this has allowed for planning of how operators carry out other duties without affecting the output of the cell, showcasing to clients a flexible and efficient use of human resources.

Mazak UK’s adoption of 3D simulations in their customer communications serves as a compelling case of how digital transformation can propel a manufacturing company to new heights. The efficiency gains, enhanced client engagement, and operational improvements exemplify the potential of embracing simulation tools like Visual Components.

About Visual Components

Founded by a team of simulation experts and amassing over 20 years in business, Visual Components is one of the pioneers of the 3D manufacturing simulation industry. The organization is a trusted technology partner to a number of leading brands, offering machine builders, system integrators, and manufacturers a simple, quick, and cost-effective solution to design and simulate production processes and offline robot programming (OLP) technology for fast, accurate, and error-free programming of industrial robots.

Want to learn more about the benefits of our solutions for your business? Contact us today!

The post CNC-ing clearly now: boosting proposal speed and client understanding with Visual Components at Mazak UK appeared first on Visual Components.

In this case study, we’ll tell you how these two companies used Visual Components to design, optimize, and validate a production layout and workflow and present a virtual model of their solution to the customer – in less than 2 weeks.

Finding a Simulation Partner

Established in Istanbul in 1974, Akım Metal is a Turkish group of companies with more than 40 years of experience in metal processing for global distribution. Under their brand SMB Technics, they produce single turning and double turret CNC lathes, as well as automatic loading and unloading systems.

Recently, SMB Technics competed for a project that required it to propose and present an end-to-end manufacturing solution with unique requirements. The prospective customer was a large metal forging and machining company that operates predominantly in the automotive market and has a large customer base. To optimize both the solution and the presentation, SMB Technics decided to conduct a simulation study and prepare a high-quality 3D simulation of its solution.

To support it in this endeavor, the company reached out to ONO Technology. Building partnerships with its customers to facilitate long-term collaboration, ONO Technology uses an engineering-based creative approach to determine clients’ pain points and quickly develop solutions that are presented in a digital platform.

Together, SMB Technics and ONO Technology used Visual Components to design, optimize and validate the complete manufacturing line.

Designing and Simulating a Complete Manufacturing Solution

The customer operates in the fast-paced automotive industry where time to market plays a significant role in defining companies’ competitive advantage. For this reason, it wanted a solution that streamlined its primarily manual production process, which was operator-dependent and inefficient, with no automation and unstable cycle times.

One of the main challenges SMB Technics and ONO Technology faced was that the area designated for the new manufacturing line was limited. They knew they would have to be creative in how they used the space — as well as 100 percent certain of their layout calculations. “We decided to use Visual Components extensively throughout this project — as in addition to its other capabilities, it would allow us to digitally verify that the line would fit and operate properly in the space,” said Melih Kocaman, COO of ONO Technology.

To design a solution that met the customer’s requirements in regard to throughput, footprint, equipment utilization and budget, ONO Technology simulated several different scenarios based on SMB Technics’ input. The optimal solution the companies settled on was almost fully automated and used the latest in robotics technology. It consisted of two CNC lathes and two CNC milling machines, along with automatic loading and unloading robots.

“A conveyor feeds metal parts into the cell, where a parts transfer robot then transfers the parts to a conveyor that feeds to the milling machine,” Kocaman explained. “An automatic loading and unloading system, consisting of a three-axis servo-controlled gantry robot and ladder-type loading unit, picks the metal parts from the conveyor and loads them into the milling machine.

“Once the machining job is complete, the gantry robot unloads the metal part from the milling machine and places it into an inspection station,” he continued. “Following inspection, a worker transfers the parts to a conveyor that sends them to packaging.”

ONO Technology used Visual Components to model components of SMB Technics’ machines, design different layouts and production scenarios, and conduct simulation studies to identify and verify the optimal line configuration.

Since the presentation of the solution was critical to winning the project, ONO Technology used Visual Components to export high-quality simulation videos and 3D PDFs of their solution to share with the customer. And, to really make a statement, SMB Technics exported a virtual model of their simulation to give the customer’s board of directors a VR walkthrough of their new production facility.

We decided to use Visual Components extensively throughout this project — not in the least because it would allow us to digitally verify that the line would fit and operate properly in the space.

Melih Kocaman, COO of ONO Technology

Outcome

In large part thanks to Visual Components’ powerful modeling, layout planning, and simulation features, SMB Technics and ONO Technology were able to present the solution to the customer just two weeks after beginning the project. Together, the simulation videos, 3D PDFs and VR walkthrough made for a highly impactful presentation that earned SMB Technics and ONO Technology the customer’s business.

As Kocaman shared, “The accuracy of the solution and the realism of the presentation materials gave the customer full confidence in our ability to deliver a solution that met the unique requirements of their project.”

Thanks to this streamlined, innovative solution, the customer achieved its objectives for faster cycle times, improved quality and lower production costs. In addition, the company was pleased to have a solution that was completely designed in Turkey — from software to hardware — and delighted with the after-sales service. Ultimately, SMB Technics and ONO Technology delivered maximum productivity at an affordable price.

The accuracy of the solution and the realism of the presentation materials gave the customer full confidence in our ability to deliver a solution that met the unique requirements of their project.

Melih Kocaman, COO of ONO Technology

About ONO Technology

Established in 2009, ONO Technology is an Industry 4.0-focused tech company based in Istanbul, Turkey. Its mission is to help manufacturers and producers keep up with the latest innovations in digital, IoT and robotics by combining global partnerships with proprietary technology and bringing disruptive technologies to Turkish manufacturing. The company’s past clients include leading manufacturers such as Unilever, Beko, and the Ford Motor Company.

The post ONO Technology & SMB Technics Project Case Study: A Winning Partnership Lands a Key Project appeared first on Visual Components.

As a provider of turnkey production solutions, FEELER works with manufacturers to design and implement the optimal solutions for their production needs, often using advanced 3D manufacturing simulation software. They shared an example of a recent project they completed for the design of a Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS). Using Visual Components 4.0, FEELER analyzed multiple layout configurations and production scenarios to determine 1) the optimal number of CNC machines, and 2) the transport priority for the Rail Guided Vehicle (RGV). Check out the video to see how they did it!

How FFG FEELER used Visual Components to design an optimal FMS solution:

1. Test dispatch list off-line to optimize the system
2. Determine optimal # of Buffers
3. Determine optimal # of Stations
4. Determine optimal # of Machines
5. Determine optimal # of Labor resources
6. Determine optimal RGV transport priority setting

The post FFG Feeler – Optimizing Flexible Manufacturing Systems with Visual Components appeared first on Visual Components.

Fastems, an independent robot integrator with over 20 years of experience in the machining industry, is a major player in the field of robot integration. The company employs 500 people worldwide and since its founding in 1990, Fastems has delivered over 2000 robot applications.

Visual Components and Fastems have worked together since 2007. According to Mika Laitinen, Sales Manager in Robotics, the collaboration has provided Fastems with many valuable benefits, the most remarkable of which is the increase in sent proposals.

With Visual Components Fastems has been able to make 5 times more proposals than before. Another key benefit for Fastems is the hours and days saved in layout planning time. Visual Components has also been able to support Fastems’ independence from different robotics brands.

From 50 to 250 proposals a year

Without a doubt, the business area within Fastems that has been impacted the most by the Visual Components collaboration is sales.

In the past Fastems, much like many companies in the industry, relied on CAD software to support their sales process. The main problem was that even if the sales organization had the capacity to scale up, sales materials, such as layout plans and illustrations were often held back on the desks of layout planners.

“In the past we were able to make 50 proposals a year,” says Mika Laitinen. “We could clearly see that there was great potential in our sales funnel that we just could not reach with our CAD software.

Switching to Visual Components in our sales processes really gave us the opportunity to tap into that potential.”

Displaying the layouts in beautiful 3D PDFs

Another clear advantage of the Visual Components solutions for Fastems is the possibility of presenting layout plans in 3D.

“There is a huge difference between a layout in the usual PDF format compared to a 3D PDF. The client can zoom into any detail in the layout and, more importantly, they can actually see the plan in action!”

As a Visual Components user, Fastems has been able to send out five times more proposals than before. “We would never have been able to create layouts this fast with our old CAD software,” Mika Laitinen says.

Today, Fastems makes 200 – 250 proposals each year.

“The process goes so that the sales people work out clear specifications for each client case and send them over to Fastems FI. At Fastems FI, it now only takes a short time to create really detailed simulation layouts based on those specifications with Visual Components.”

“So, basically the layout proposal is back in the hands of the sales person within a really short timeframe,” says Mika Laitinen.

We would never have been able to create layouts this fast with our old CAD software.

Mika Laitinen, Sales Manager Robotics, Fastems

Multiple robot brands on one platform

Simulation technologies are commonly used in the field of robot integration, but very often those simulations are robot-specific.

Fastems operates independently of any specific robot brand. With Visual Components, Fastems was able to bring multiple brands or FMS to a single platform.

“We are an open integrator, so we do not want to be too tied to one or two brands of robots. Now, instead of struggling to maintain competence for all kinds of different robot brands and their very specific sets of tools, we just use Visual Components as our platform. That’s pretty great,” Mika Laitinen says.

Less time programming: from 4 days to 2 hours

Visual Components has provided Fastems with the opportunity to significantly save time in robot programming.

“We are able to do 90% of programming in simulation. Sure, there are restrictions in some processes, and we need to do a bit of manual programming too, but, honestly, the time we save is measured in days,” Mika Laitinen says.

“Overall, our robot programming time was reduced from an average of 3-4 days to only 2-3 hours. In robotic cell setup, the time used has gone down from 5-10 days of manual programming work to 2 days with Visual Components offline programming.”

Overall, our robot programming time was reduced from an average of 3-4 days to only 2-3 hours.

Mika Laitinen, Sales Manager Robotics, Fastems

Why did you choose Visual Components?

Mika Laitinen is confident the collaboration between Fastems and Visual Components will continue. In fact, using Visual Components for layout planning will be expanded to a number of new business areas within Fastems.

“Visual Components is a really good partner. We can actually influence what we get, and we really appreciate that. The Visual Components solutions are simple, good looking and easy to use, and the fact that a product this effective is also affordable really sealed the deal for us. I think the results speak for themselves.”

The Visual Components solutions are simple, good looking and easy to use, and the fact that a product this effective is also affordable really sealed the deal for us.

Mika Laitinen, Sales Manager Robotics, Fastems

The post Fastems Case Study appeared first on Visual Components.

Erowa is a Swiss company that develops, produces and distributes modern manufacturing technology for the entire chip-cutting metal industry.

Erowa uses Visual Components’ 3D simulation tools and a custom-made library for visualizing production systems for their customers. To ease the adoption of the software, Erowa ordered their own custom model library from Visual Components ready-made.

“The modeling service provided by Visual Components was smooth and excellent. They were able to re-use our CAD designs to quickly produce exactly the models we wanted” says Justin Hulst, Head of Marketing Service at Erowa.

But Erowa is not stuck with just the models created at the beginning of the project. Visual Components also created the “Erowa Machine Wizard”, which allows Erowa to import models created in Cinema4D directly into Visual Components software.

There was nothing comparable to 3D simulation before.

Justin Hulst, Head of Marketing Service, Erowa

“Definitely possible to create more proposals”

In their own words, before adopting Visual Components tools, Erowa was either creating 2D layouts or spending days in creating and rendering 3D layouts.

Currently Erowa is capable of delivering still image 3D layouts of one robot family in half an hour and within four hours if animated movements are required. Visual Components 3D Simulation has definitely helped Erowa in creating more proposals to customers with less hours spent.

Saving resources, saving time

Compared to CAD modeling, creating layouts and showing robot movements is a lot easier with Visual Components.

A sample manufacturing layout created with the components from the customized Erowa component library.

“It is possible that the customer requests 3 to 7 different versions just to get the feeling of how the robot really works, with no regard to technical details. 3D Simulation will save a lot of time in the presales phase”, Hulst explains.

Since they’ve’ started using Visual Components 3D Simulation, Erowa’s Layout designers have had much less back and forth change requests in the pre-sales phase.

If the sales engineer or customer wants to see the cell working, they simply create an animated 3D PDF with sped up movements supported by another animated 3D PDF where the movements and process times of the machines are adapted to real life.

In the future, Erowa is looking into various further possibilities of using 3D animated project descriptions. The library of EROWA Robots will be expanded as well.

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