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Reforming Manufacturing Using Digital Information

- Improving Lean Manufacturing Through 3D Data
by Dr. Hiroshi Toriya

When implementing digital information at the manufacturing frontline, changes must be made according to each specific business division. Looking at the real world efforts of Toyota, Shintec Hozumi, and Brother Industries, we can start to see how digital data builds the strengths of the workplace.

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4. Reforming Manufacturing Using Digital Information

How to Enhance Digital Literacy at the Manufacturing Workplace

In order to implement 3D knowledge-based manufacturing, it is necessary to enhance digital literacy at the workplace. Even though 3D design practices have been implemented in design, their effects will be very limited if the manufacturing site continues to use conventional methods such as paper drawings and reports. The fastest way of enhancing digital literacy at the workplace is to introduce best practices already used by some departments to the other departments across the company, which then becomes a strong incentive for related departments to adopt the same practices. When reforming business processes to leverage digital data, the effects delivered can be observed both internally and externally. These effects encourage related departments and external suppliers to get curious about work based on 3D information, resulting in the more rapid, but organic, expansion of activities based on this data. But for other departments to be successful in implementing 3D in the manufacturing workplace, it is important to make adjustments tuned to each department. That department must assess the unique problems being faced and take appropriate, measured responses. Also important here is the attitude of top management in supporting these efforts. This chapter discusses how several manufacturers have successfully enhanced the digital literacy of their workforce and built up the strengths of their workplace.

Toyotas Digital Literacy The Problems Encountered when Manufacturing is based on 2D Drawings

As a successful global automobile manufacturer, Toyota efficiently manufactures very high quality automobiles while remaining responsive to local needs and cultural differences in different countries. Until recently, the company practiced CE (Concurrent Engineering) activities, where design and production tasks are carried out simultaneously. However, on expanding production to a global scale, the company was challenged by limitations caused by the use of conventional work processes based on drawings. For instance, the speed of transmission of information is slow when using paper. When reviewing manufacturing methods and instructions, people can inadvertently use old drawings. Additionally, with 2D drawings complex shapes are difficult to express. Depending on how a drawing is interpreted, there is a risk that similar but different parts may be manufactured at the different factories worldwide. When this occurs, it is necessary to redo everything from scratch. Faced with such challenges while needing to enhance production efficiency and quality as well as shorten production lead time, Toyota found it was forced to move away from drawings to something else.

In response to the challenges it faced, Toyota started to switch to the approach of using live data instead of drawings in its work activities, based on the idea that there is only one type of data serving as the basis of manufacturing. On deciding that CAD data is the only data that can express products, the company began to adopt 3D CAD design and manufacturing data in all of its work processes at all of its plants and offices around the world. In 2008, Toyota held an exhibition to demonstrate its efforts in using CAD data to its own companies and external parts suppliers.

Making the Change to Data-Based Activities

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The exhibition was attended by many of the companys departments, from body engine and car body production, assessment departments, IT departments, and sales preparation departments, using more than 100 displays to describe the effects of 3Dbased manufacturing. With Toyota executives also talking about the companys efforts to promote the use of 3D data at the event, attendees witnessed top managements full support behind these efforts. As a result, the company has successfully enhanced product quality and development efficiency using CAD data in every phase of its business process, from product design, to mold design, and car body finishing.

During the design process, Toyota has been carefully defining the shape of car bodies, engines, and parts using 3D CAD to meet design requirements. The company also uses CAD data for assessments such as structural analysis, etc. In the event a problem is detected, the data is corrected, and throughout several design reviews the final correct CAD data is created. Downstream processes are then based on this data. One problem which the company encountered is that expensive complicated CAD data often might not work on the modest personal computers that are often used at plants and other departments. This is where lightweight 3D data using XVL came into play, and Toyota started to apply XVL for all of its 3D CAD data communication. For instance, downstream processes would use XVL to easily access, read and browse CAD data from upstream areas such as the design department. (Figure 4.1). A direct example of the successful use of lightweight 3D data throughout Toyota is with electronic reports. In the manufacturing process, countless reports such as parts lists, work instructions, work components list, and so on, are compiled, exchanged and used. Naturally, the drawings used in these reports tend to result in enormous volumes of data. However, by preparing these reports directly from XVL, efficiency is enhanced, and the sheer volume of data reduced. Now, work instructions are prepared in a 3D file to convey the tricks of specific tasks and intuitive actions in 3D alongside listed instructions. In Toyota, people are also working to communicate information using 3D data in place of 2D paper drawings. This involves placing additional, necessary information into the 3D data as opposed to creating 2D drawings from 3D data. The 3D data file is then sent out to participants in the manufacturing chain. The key aim of this activity is to directly reduce the time taken to prepare drawings and instructions as well as to prevent inconsistencies between the information received and the design data. In addition to product design data, Toyota plans to switch drawings of the automobile structure designs, used in the initial development stage, to 3D. This direct use of 3D data is creating a positive response in that it helps convey information quickly and clearly, but has also led to increasing requests for the information to look like drawings from various departments. The progress of 3D usage is therefore reliant on how well end-user applications can leverage 3D without causing critical changes to processes already in place.

Deployment of 3D Data in Toyota

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Figure 4.1 3D data utilization at Toyota

Lightweight XVL is used at Toyotas design department, for the automated review of large-scale designs and assemblies. XVL and the XVL applications allow accurate and very rapid review of assembly data of entire car designs. In the companys design review process, automatic checks of all possible interferences between all parts allow design quality to be significantly improved in the design phases. Use of XVL for repeated design reviews means that there is greater identification and prevention of problems which can often occur in downstream processes. Since cars comprise about 30,000 parts, the time it takes to collect all the related CAD models is enormous, and although Toyotas database contains data on thousands of very similar parts, the 3D representation for each part has to be confirmed by hand. Since XVL is able to display any 3D data instantaneously, especially compared to the speed of a CAD platform, it is an effective tool for this kind of manual part checking. XVL can also significantly reduce the man-hours required for collecting CAD models from various sources. By integrating XVL with 3D CAD data, a company can effectively use 3D digital data in realistic settings. In Toyota, digital manufacturing processes based on 3D data are aggressively promoted by top management. This in turn encourages business process innovation at the workplace, based on 3D data, and then the sharing of successful experiences and tasks between departments leads to further improvements. During the exhibition at Toyota, enthusiastic discussions between Toyota staff and the visitors were held. Also present were the CEOs of supplier companies. Activities such as this help increase digital literacy in the manufacturing workplace, as well as promote the understanding by top management of those supplier companies. Toyotas well-known Just-In-Time production method involves all related parts manufacturers, so by expanding the suppliers active approach in using 3D data, Toyota is working hard to further enhance the productivity of the whole group, worldwide.

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Shintec Hozumi is an example of a more familiar use of 3D data at the workplace. Shintec Hozumi is a company with 400 employees, located in the Aichi Prefecture and whose business involves both manufacturing of automobile production facilities and factory distribution systems, as well as documentation services for digital content. The company started using 3D data across its production facilities design department and plant. For design, there is an automated process that converts facility design data from 3D CAD to XVL, and then displays that data without needing the CAD platforms. Large monitors and displays are installed across the plant so that staff can search for required manufacturing information as well as refer to 3D data. As a result, production staff are able to directly access information that shows the 3D shapes of products being assembled alongside information such as parts names, and so on. (Figure 4.2). Kaoru Suga, a manager at the company who installed the system says Until this system was implemented, our staff at the factory floor checked shapes of facilities on 2D drawings. However, 2D did not adequately describe complex facility designs. So by installing this system and using 3D on the shop floor, our staff are now able to accurately determine and reproduce the shape intended by our design staff.

Digital Literacy Inside Shintec Hozumi

Figure 4.2: 3D Display installed in the factory clearly shows the products being manufactured

Figure 4.3 compares the 2D drawings used until recently and the corresponding 3D displays. Since 3D shapes can be rotated and displayed, zoomed and panned easily and quickly, it can be clearly seen which version is easier to understand. The fact that the staff at this plant, where welding sparks fly, are successfully carrying out the manufacturing processes while checking 3D data on the screen, proves that the use of digital data can be productively expanded to the factory floor. Shintecs plants are reportedly expanding to Quangzhou and Tianjin provinces in China due to customer demand. According to Isao Okamoto, CEO of the company, Our plants in China are far from each other - not to mention a long way from Japan - about several thousand kilometers, so it is not easy for our staff to travel between them. By displaying 3D data using XVL at our Chinese plants, which do not have CAD facilities, we are able to show customers in China the facilities we will be delivering long before they are built.

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The company also plans to use 3D data for its digital content production business in the future, showing how 3D digital data is steadily spreading at the workplace level with the understanding and encouragement of top management.

Figure 4.3 Drawings used prior and the corresponding 3D XVL Data

Brother Industries, which has been expanding offshore production rapidly since the 1990s, launches products concurrently through close collaboration between different departments across the company. Aiming to shorten development time of products launched abroad and to stabilize quality early after the start of production, the company started using XVL as a tool for linking Japan, its development base, with its production bases abroad. In its mainstay printer business, Brother continues to reform and refine its manufacturing processes by using 3D data, led by members of the manufacturing department. The company has also compiled 3D manuals for printer assembly and started trials to use them at the factory floor (Figure 4.4). After introducing XVL into its operations, Brother succeeded in achieving measurable results in just five months, as a result of the digital literacy of its top management.

Brothers Digital Literacy Quick Deployment of 3D Data

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Figure 4.4 3D Assembly Manual used by the shop floor at Brother

The 3D manual delivers information on printer parts linked to information such as facilities and equipment required for assembly and quality assurance details. The 3D display also shows assembly animations and any precautionary notes. This system shows production checkpoints, while reproducing the same in a 3D animation, making the process very easy to understand. Masahiro Kamimura, Group Manager of the Manufacturing Department says Creating this assembly manual is in and of itself a process of checking the assembly design. The process of creating the assembly animations which includes the tools needed for assembly is a viable way to check the design from the standpoint of manufacturing. This allows any manufacturing ideas, suggestions or changes to be fed rapidly back to the design department. Says Takehiro Masuda who actually created the animations While creating 3D animations of an assembly process, we get the chance to think about the assembly procedure and how workability could be improved. By going through this process, we are able to prevent problems that otherwise may occur during manufacturing. Printers are becoming more and more compact at a very rapid rate, and to keep up with this, designers need to negotiate hard to obtain adequate space for the required parts. As a result, even if the finished product design works, it may prove too difficult to assemble, parts may scratch or collide with other parts, and other unforeseen problems may occur. By creating animations prior to manufacturing, the team can more easily discover such problems before production begins.

Once the assembly process is reviewed using 3D data, various other ideas on how to utilize 3D data will usually bubble up to the surface. By using 3D animations, it is possible to check user operability before a product is assembled. In addition, by simu-

Increased Use of 3D Data

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lating the paper feed mechanism inside the printer using 3D animation, the concept of that mechanism can be communicated to manufacturing plants abroad. The paper feed mechanism involves numerous gears operating together, and is a difficult process to immediately understand using traditional communication methods. However, in 3D simulation, it is possible to quickly see and understand how the paper is handled. In the past, if the paper feed mechanism in a product is defective, Japanese engineers have had to travel to fix the problem. With 3D simulations and instructions, the local team is more able to address the problem immediately. These are the kinds of additional uses that 3D in the organization inspires, and as a result, the manufacturing department at Brother is already running several short-term trials on various new methods of applying 3D data throughout the company.

Figure 4.5 Creating reports in Excel directly from 3D XVL data

XVL also comes with a tool for creating spreadsheet-based reports using 3D data. In Microsoft Excel, the required 3D XVL parts data are easily added from any given or selected viewpoint (Figure 4.5). Brother has started applying this tool to create assembly reports and create minutes of mass production review meetings. Assembly reports are created using many images. With conventional CAD, the lengthy manual methods used to paste images into a spreadsheet then made it extremely difficult to update those images when design changes were made. By replacing this with XVL, images can be updated freely and rapidly, and since then Brother has started using XVL for preparing assembly reports. At Brother, the Japanese engineers would visit the production plants in China and carry out mass production reviews using 3D data. Often the site would not have a computer which could run the required CAD system, and now, the engineers carry out the reviews while looking at XVL data. Any problems found would then be written onto the XVL data, and could also be saved out via Excel spreadsheet. Any manager with

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access rights to these minutes and notes would immediately be able to open them on the server from any location. As they are able to look at the 3D data and the noted problems simultaneously, they are able to understand the problem faster, and more easily than the more traditional paper forms using words and disparate drawings.

The efforts to streamline Brothers activities are led by the management of the manufacturing department, which is positioned between the design and factory departments. As a result of this organizational structure, the teams have been able to start trials on 3D data down at the working level from a very early stage and have benefitted from the experience. For instance, getting the settings for 3D assembly animations can, at first, take a lot of time to perfect. However Toshio Ito, Group Manager of the Manufacturing Department, says; This can be overcome by using a process of distributed processing. Just like a TV show where you divide the roles of people into director and actors, so in our case, we assign people to think about the animation assembly procedure while giving consideration to the problems met in manufacturing, and other people are assigned to create animations that have angles of view which are actually easy to see or are more realistic for the shop floor worker. In this way we keep driving the company forward, solving problems one at a time. There remain numerous tasks to be undertaken in 3D digital literacy, says the company. The teams want to provide 3D manufacturing information to all the production bases which are expanding into China, and even as far as Vietnam. And this manufacturing information has to be conveyed using two languages; Japanese and the local language. Conveying any information in multi-languages is a huge challenge. It is also still difficult to express in 3D the skill needed for attaching such parts as harnesses and springs, which can only be attached while a part is bending. Realistically, right now only video and drawings could properly explain this. Having 3D software tools in the future that could replicate this kind of scenario is very much a need of this manufacturing operation. But 3D itself has already aided Brother through the communications gap that can exist in global operations: In a visit to a plant in Vietnam the managers were unable to understand each other verbally. The team from Brother then showed 3D animations of the processes and products. As a result, the level of understanding achieved rose exponentially. Brother is therefore expanding the scope of 3D data communication through such successful experiences. And the ideas never stop - the team members reportedly bring up ideas such as Lets compile a repair manual in 3D next time and so on. Amongst management there are plans to apply 3D data communication to a new hybrid printer, as long as success continues with the first product. Brothers global 3D data applications are progressing steadily as a result of these successful experiences at the shopfloor, and with the encouragement of the companys top management.

Key Points in Using 3D Data at Workplace

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About Improving Lean Manufacturing Through 3D Data by Dr. Hiroshi Toriya. This book, one of several published by author, Dr. Hiroshi Toriya, discusses how Japanese manufacturers are addressing the critical need to continually improve manufacturing processes across the entire enterprise. In the cases highlighted in this book, manufacturers are turning to 3D data practices and processes to enable greater leanness of manufacturing. This book discusses why this is a necessity in the current economic conditions and discusses real world examples through in-depth interviews with manufacturers of all kinds. Originally published in Japan in 2008 by JIPM Solutions, this book is available in English via e-book from Lattice Technology, and is available at www.lattice3d.com

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