Work cells made to serve

The customer is king. To best serve him, JR Machine Inc. implemented work cells into its machining environment as part of a lean manufacturing initiative, said Tim Tumanic, CEO and president of the Shawano, Wisconsin, parts manufacturer.

Founded in 1992 with a focus on producing bushings and pins, JR Machine’s continuous improvement journey began a dozen years later, he said, when competition from Asian manufacturers heated up for commodity-type parts.

“We made the decision that how we are going to compete and actually thrive was by driving value on complex parts for the customer,” Tumanic said.

He said the parts that the company produces for a host of industries, including heavy machinery, hydraulics, energy, medical, defense and fire suppression, are not necessarily complex from a geometric standpoint but rather from a supply chain standpoint. Therefore, JR Machine provides complete supply chain services, such as post-machining services and procuring all types of workpiece materials, including cast and forged ones, he said.

JR Machine’s shop floor layout is shown. Image courtesy of JR Machine

During the initial downturn in activity caused by the pandemic, Tumanic said JR Machine earned an AS9100D certification for the aerospace industry. The manufacturer now machines a sizable amount of high-temperature superalloys.

“Aerospace alloys have been big for us and allowed us to get into some different markets,” he said. “We went after those types of customers and are now seeing the fruits of those efforts.”

A Common Platform

Although the industries that JR Machine serves are diverse, it machines parts from 25.4 mm to 254 mm (1″ to 10″) in diameter and up to 711.2 mm (28″) long, leading them to be machined by a certain size of machine tool, Tumanic said.

“So we have used the DMG Mori NL 2500 platform as our choice (of) machine tool going forward,” he said.

With 12 work cells and plans for three or four new cells in the next year to 18 months as the company adds 929 sq. m (10,000 sq. ft.) to its approximate 3,252-sq.-m (35,000-sq.-ft.) facility, Tumanic said JR Machine takes a cellular approach to machine acquisitions.

“When we make a machine tool purchase,” he said, “we don’t look at (it as if) we are buying two machines. We are buying a cell.”

Typically, Tumanic said, each cell has two machines with live tooling, which reduces lead time.

“They are multitaskers,” he said, “so you can complete operations all in one cell. One of the big things in this cellular arrangement and buying machines with live tooling is that they are not only turning centers — they are also machining centers. A part doesn’t have to sit in queue waiting for a machining center.”

In addition to machining, Tumanic said the cells can be configured to add further value to parts. Options include marking, cleaning, packaging, labeling and assembly.

Tim Tumanic is CEO and president of JR Machine. Image courtesy of JR Machine

“We can easily put seals on the part, snap rings, pins,” he said.

To reduce motion waste, Tumanic said the cells have a computer station to enable workers to have everything they need to operate each cell. For example, they can download programs from the server, print labels with all the required information, refer to the employee handbook and even request time off.

“They can do everything right from the cell,” he said.