4 Tips to Improve CNC Machine Efficiency Before the Chips Fly

Time is of the essence in today’s highly competitive manufacturing world. What can you do to save time before, during and after machining? Here are several methods and approaches that can help.

Why care about time when machining parts? As the cliché goes, time is money. With today’s multiaxis and 5-axis CNC machines in manufacturing, there is plenty of opportunity to optimize time for machine shops of all sizes. But before diving into the practical details, let’s take a step back and look at what needs to be done before machine commands are programmed and prior to making chips fly off a piece of titanium or stainless steel.

“It’s important to know how much time and whose time,” writes CNC Cookshop in its blog series on CNC productivity. “Ultimately, you probably want to understand the time impact for people and machines—both are scarce resources that have to be scheduled. It costs more to have too many with people or machines idle or too few where you’re unable to process as much work as you otherwise could.”

Tip 1: Start at the Macro Level: Adopt Lean Manufacturing Practices

So much of lean manufacturing methodology is focused on eliminating waste. At its core, lean manufacturing is about optimization. It’s about improving a process or making a quality part in less time than you do it today. It is not by simply working faster, says lean manufacturing expert Jamie Flinchbaugh, because working faster can lead to errors. Manufacturing work can be improved by performing efforts in parallel, eliminating handoffs and rework—and expelling some process steps altogether.

“Technology is often a solution here, whether it is buying faster equipment in manufacturing or developing software tools for the office,” writes Flinchbaugh for Industry Week.

Technology abounds in today’s manufacturing—and continues to evolve in cutting tools, work and tool holding, coolant and across metrology, and sensors that provide real-time machine data—and in simulation and reporting software. Use it to your advantage.

“Getting people to see the waste, and then giving them the tools and techniques to think differently, to reduce and eliminate that waste—that’s the key,” says Mike Petkewich, a senior knowledge expert and team manager for lean manufacturing at The Boston Consulting Group, in the article “Transforming to Lean Manufacturing.”

Tip 3: Push Your Machines and Tooling to Their Limits

Think of today’s CNC machines like race cars: They are designed to go fast—and handle a lot of throughput and rpms. That built-for-speed mindset is also true of metal removal rates and tooling designed to achieve new and improved performance levels—depending on the material, of course.

“CNC machines are some of the most profitable assets your business has, but when they’re idle, they’re overhead,” notes CNC Cookshop. “Shop after shop has found that the first order of business is to keep the chips flying. The more production the machine is capable of, the more we want to keep it busy making money for the shop.”

Tip 4: Don’t Forget About Cycle Time

Many companies calculate cycle time by dividing the amount of machining time by the number of parts made, which is an average. But is that precise enough information? Automating data collection at each machine to get more accurate cycle time information can help.

“One second of saved cycle time will total 16.6 minutes of saved production time in one thousand cycles … If but four seconds can be saved per cycle in a one thousand piece order, over one hour of production time can be saved,” notes Lynch in an article on rapid time. “And if this four seconds can be saved without spending money by simply formatting your programs efficiently, all the better.”

 Need advice from other experienced machinists and metalworking specialists? Jump in on the conversations over at the metalworking forum [registration required].