The Quest for Productivity
Baldev Dogra, machine manager, right, and
Rafael Lopez, left, setting up tomstones on MGI's 3-machine,
66-pallet Toyoda FH450s manufacturing system. The technically
advanced system runds 24/7, and has provided hugh coas
How a Highly Successful Military Aerospace
Manufacturer Achieved Success by Setting its Sights on Increased Productivity.
Story and photos by C. H. Bush, editor
Question: what’s in a nameplate? Answer: a highly successful military aerospace manufacturing company, if you do it right.
“My father, Glenn Grossman, founded Metalagraphics, Inc. (MGI) in a 2500-sq-ft building in 1975 to manufacture nameplates for the military and commercial aircraft industry,” says David Grossman, company vp, business planner and programmer. “But that was just the beginning. When he started MGI, my father was an air force veteran and a businessman with several years experience with a fortune 500 company. He was ambitious, he knew people in the industry, and he knew how to sell. The result is that today we operate from a modern, 28,000-sq-ft building, we have 56 employees and some of the most advanced manufacturing equipment available in the world.”
MGI, now located in Moorpark, CA, indeed has morphed into a major player in military aerospace manufacturing.
“We went through a number of stages to get where we are now,” Grossman says. “In about 1978 we added sheet metal fabrication to our services and moved into a bigger facility. We concentrated our efforts on that business and after a few years, we added machine shop capabilities and doubled our floor space. The machine-shop work grew until our sales were about 50-50 sheet metal and machining. In 1987 we bought our current facility. Today, we’re probably 80-20 machining, and, incredibly, we still need more room.”
At about age 9 or 10, Grossman and his brother began working at the shop, doing odd jobs.
“It was fun, actually,” he says. “I enjoyed being there until midnight sometimes, doing whatever my father said. It was good experience and helped me learn the business.”
Richard McAlevey, GM, left, dicusses quality requirements with David Grossman, tight. In the backround quality manager Drina Ball sets up a part for testing. CMM is a Brown & Sharpe Global Performance system.
Services Offered Today
MGI currently offers a wide variety of manufacturing services, including machining, sheet metal, assembly, marking and bonding.
“We have some projects in house where we do everything except electronic assembly,” Grossman says. “We machine, fabricate and assemble parts and components on the mechanical side of the business. We build chassis, covers, gearing, whatever our customers need.”
The company certainly has the internal capability to do that “whatever.”
“On the sheet metal side, we have high-tonage brakes, punch presses and large capacity shears,” Grossman explains. “Our 80-ton brakes are capable of forming metal up to .375” thick; our pneumatic punch press can punch metal up to .187” thick and 40” wide x 70” long. Our craftsmen are capable of manufacturing components that normally require very specific machines,”
On the machining side of the business, the company is equally well equipped.
“We utilize Toyoda, Hitachi Seiki and Mori Seiki 4-axis mills on four production pools with 112 total pallets,” he adds “We offer EDM machining, and we have multi-axis turning capability with mill-turn machines. We can handle diameters ranging from .015” to 22” and lengths up to 40 inches.”
For quality control, MGI has two CMMs.
“We have a Brown & Sharpe Mobile One CMM which allows us to QC parts anywhere on the shop floor,” he says. “We also operate a Brown & Sharpe Global Performance CMM in our quality department.”
The company currently serves such customers as Raytheon, Northrop/Grumman, Litton, (now part of Northrop), Motorola and General Dynamics.
Rafael Lopez loads a tombstone at one of the Toyota systems 3 load stations.
The Quest for Productivity
Right from the beginning, MGI was on a quest to increase efficiency and productivity.
“As early as 1994 we realized that sticking with traditional manufacturing methods wasn’t in our best interest,” Grossman says. “We realized that the future was to get rid of blueprints, to go paperless on the front end of the business. So, we laid out $400,000 on software and had a guy come in to convert our blueprints into solid models.”
The problem was that the company was way ahead of its customers.
“Our customers just weren’t there yet,” Grossman says. “They didn’t understand what we were trying to do. They would say, ‘Hey, it sounds great, but how the heck are we going to inspect it? How are we going to take a model and tell our inspectors, to check it for us?’”
MGI partially solved the problem by forming a new company, Metrology Group, Inc., aimed at helping their customers make the transition to the use of 3D modeling.
“By 1997 our customers started picking up on it, and we started going out and teaching primes how to do their modeling to become more efficient for machining. The problem was it took a lot of money to make the switch. It was worth it in the long run, of course, and now we’re there.”
Grossman, who loves computers and programming, also has spent years designing, programming and perfecting a highly sophisticated MRP system to increase internal efficiency.
“What’s funny,” he says, is that companies who do that for a living have seen our system and say, ‘Why aren’t you out there competing with us?’ I just laugh. I’m happy to have the system helping us stay more efficient.”
Equipment Productivity
According to Grossman, MGI knew right from the beginning that, in addition to utilizing the right software, having the right equipment was the key to efficient operations,
“Our first machines were Mori Seiki verticals mills and a couple of Fadals,”he says “but those were part of
‘traditional’ manufacturing. That wasn’t our goal. So, as soon as we could afford it, we bought three palletized standalone horizontal mills. But we quickly realized that wasn’t the answer either. We knew that to stay competitive, we needed even more automation.”
In 2001 Grossman says his family made an internal pact that the company’s long-term goal was to be fully automated and run around the clock, 7 days a week.
Baldev Dogra uses the Toyota Mach III Cell-controler software to schedule system production. The software centrializes productions managment for all three FH450S and the 66 pallets at a single PC. The Windows-based program reportedly increases machine and operator productivity up to 90% by determining the most efficient production scheduale and automating a multitude of tasks.
Toyoda FH450S Machining Centers
MGI’s interim solution to increased equipment productivity was to purchase a Toyoda manufacturing system with three FH450S horizontal mills, each equipped with 484 tools, all fed by a Toyoda 66-pallet pool system.
“Originally we thought a 28,000-sq-ft facility would last us forever,” Grossman says, “but it turned out we’re very crowded. So, in order to add the automation we needed, we had to find a system with the smallest footprint possible. That turned out to be Toyoda. Our requirement was that we needed as many pallets as we could get in a 65 x 35-foot spot. That was the key, but we also needed speed, flexibility, tool changer retrofitting, those kinds of things. The Toyoda system met all of those requirements.”
Another advantage of the system for Grossman was the way the machines talked to his server.
Grossman: “The Toyoda controller has a way to pull in the programs it needs whenever the pallets move in or out of the machines. That really makes life easy for our guys. They don’t have to be rocket scientists to run the system.”
Next Steps for MGI
Where does MGI plan to go next in its quest for productivity increases?
“Our next purchase probably is going to be another Toyoda, this time an FH550 with a pallet pool and two machines,” Grossman says, “but there’s a problem. We’re out of space. We’ve milked this facility for about all we can get out of it. At the moment we’re looking into buying a new facility with either 60,000 or 84,000 square feet of space. We figure that will hold us for a while. We hope so anyhow.”
Manufacturer Achieved Success by Setting its Sights on Increased Productivity.
Story and photos by C. H. Bush, editor
Question: what’s in a nameplate? Answer: a highly successful military aerospace manufacturing company, if you do it right.
“My father, Glenn Grossman, founded Metalagraphics, Inc. (MGI) in a 2500-sq-ft building in 1975 to manufacture nameplates for the military and commercial aircraft industry,” says David Grossman, company vp, business planner and programmer. “But that was just the beginning. When he started MGI, my father was an air force veteran and a businessman with several years experience with a fortune 500 company. He was ambitious, he knew people in the industry, and he knew how to sell. The result is that today we operate from a modern, 28,000-sq-ft building, we have 56 employees and some of the most advanced manufacturing equipment available in the world.”
MGI, now located in Moorpark, CA, indeed has morphed into a major player in military aerospace manufacturing.
“We went through a number of stages to get where we are now,” Grossman says. “In about 1978 we added sheet metal fabrication to our services and moved into a bigger facility. We concentrated our efforts on that business and after a few years, we added machine shop capabilities and doubled our floor space. The machine-shop work grew until our sales were about 50-50 sheet metal and machining. In 1987 we bought our current facility. Today, we’re probably 80-20 machining, and, incredibly, we still need more room.”
At about age 9 or 10, Grossman and his brother began working at the shop, doing odd jobs.
“It was fun, actually,” he says. “I enjoyed being there until midnight sometimes, doing whatever my father said. It was good experience and helped me learn the business.”
Richard McAlevey, GM, left, dicusses quality requirements with David Grossman, tight. In the backround quality manager Drina Ball sets up a part for testing. CMM is a Brown & Sharpe Global Performance system.
Services Offered Today
MGI currently offers a wide variety of manufacturing services, including machining, sheet metal, assembly, marking and bonding.
“We have some projects in house where we do everything except electronic assembly,” Grossman says. “We machine, fabricate and assemble parts and components on the mechanical side of the business. We build chassis, covers, gearing, whatever our customers need.”
The company certainly has the internal capability to do that “whatever.”
“On the sheet metal side, we have high-tonage brakes, punch presses and large capacity shears,” Grossman explains. “Our 80-ton brakes are capable of forming metal up to .375” thick; our pneumatic punch press can punch metal up to .187” thick and 40” wide x 70” long. Our craftsmen are capable of manufacturing components that normally require very specific machines,”
On the machining side of the business, the company is equally well equipped.
“We utilize Toyoda, Hitachi Seiki and Mori Seiki 4-axis mills on four production pools with 112 total pallets,” he adds “We offer EDM machining, and we have multi-axis turning capability with mill-turn machines. We can handle diameters ranging from .015” to 22” and lengths up to 40 inches.”
For quality control, MGI has two CMMs.
“We have a Brown & Sharpe Mobile One CMM which allows us to QC parts anywhere on the shop floor,” he says. “We also operate a Brown & Sharpe Global Performance CMM in our quality department.”
The company currently serves such customers as Raytheon, Northrop/Grumman, Litton, (now part of Northrop), Motorola and General Dynamics.
Rafael Lopez loads a tombstone at one of the Toyota systems 3 load stations.
The Quest for Productivity
Right from the beginning, MGI was on a quest to increase efficiency and productivity.
“As early as 1994 we realized that sticking with traditional manufacturing methods wasn’t in our best interest,” Grossman says. “We realized that the future was to get rid of blueprints, to go paperless on the front end of the business. So, we laid out $400,000 on software and had a guy come in to convert our blueprints into solid models.”
The problem was that the company was way ahead of its customers.
“Our customers just weren’t there yet,” Grossman says. “They didn’t understand what we were trying to do. They would say, ‘Hey, it sounds great, but how the heck are we going to inspect it? How are we going to take a model and tell our inspectors, to check it for us?’”
MGI partially solved the problem by forming a new company, Metrology Group, Inc., aimed at helping their customers make the transition to the use of 3D modeling.
“By 1997 our customers started picking up on it, and we started going out and teaching primes how to do their modeling to become more efficient for machining. The problem was it took a lot of money to make the switch. It was worth it in the long run, of course, and now we’re there.”
Grossman, who loves computers and programming, also has spent years designing, programming and perfecting a highly sophisticated MRP system to increase internal efficiency.
“What’s funny,” he says, is that companies who do that for a living have seen our system and say, ‘Why aren’t you out there competing with us?’ I just laugh. I’m happy to have the system helping us stay more efficient.”
Equipment Productivity
According to Grossman, MGI knew right from the beginning that, in addition to utilizing the right software, having the right equipment was the key to efficient operations,
“Our first machines were Mori Seiki verticals mills and a couple of Fadals,”he says “but those were part of
‘traditional’ manufacturing. That wasn’t our goal. So, as soon as we could afford it, we bought three palletized standalone horizontal mills. But we quickly realized that wasn’t the answer either. We knew that to stay competitive, we needed even more automation.”
In 2001 Grossman says his family made an internal pact that the company’s long-term goal was to be fully automated and run around the clock, 7 days a week.
Baldev Dogra uses the Toyota Mach III Cell-controler software to schedule system production. The software centrializes productions managment for all three FH450S and the 66 pallets at a single PC. The Windows-based program reportedly increases machine and operator productivity up to 90% by determining the most efficient production scheduale and automating a multitude of tasks.
Toyoda FH450S Machining Centers
MGI’s interim solution to increased equipment productivity was to purchase a Toyoda manufacturing system with three FH450S horizontal mills, each equipped with 484 tools, all fed by a Toyoda 66-pallet pool system.
“Originally we thought a 28,000-sq-ft facility would last us forever,” Grossman says, “but it turned out we’re very crowded. So, in order to add the automation we needed, we had to find a system with the smallest footprint possible. That turned out to be Toyoda. Our requirement was that we needed as many pallets as we could get in a 65 x 35-foot spot. That was the key, but we also needed speed, flexibility, tool changer retrofitting, those kinds of things. The Toyoda system met all of those requirements.”
Another advantage of the system for Grossman was the way the machines talked to his server.
Grossman: “The Toyoda controller has a way to pull in the programs it needs whenever the pallets move in or out of the machines. That really makes life easy for our guys. They don’t have to be rocket scientists to run the system.”
Next Steps for MGI
Where does MGI plan to go next in its quest for productivity increases?
“Our next purchase probably is going to be another Toyoda, this time an FH550 with a pallet pool and two machines,” Grossman says, “but there’s a problem. We’re out of space. We’ve milked this facility for about all we can get out of it. At the moment we’re looking into buying a new facility with either 60,000 or 84,000 square feet of space. We figure that will hold us for a while. We hope so anyhow.”
