Custom job-shop gets lean

GEM offers contract prototyping, machining, finishing, and assembly for some of the world’s largest OEMs such as Eaton, Parker Hannifin, and GE. Started by brothers Rob and Kevin Gottschalk in June 2006 in Bristol, Wisconsin, GEM manufactures 2,000 different parts annually with runs ranging from five to 50,000 pieces. By May 2011, they opened a second facility in Kenosha, Wisconsin, to keep pace with customer demand. GEM Mfg. is ISO 9001:2008 certified and has more than 50 machines between their two locations – the first specializes in turning, the second in milling.
 

A snowball of success

The successful 5S tool-room project inspired the Gottschalk brothers to proceed into a Quality Lab 5S project, and facilitate a Kaizan event – a just-in-time process improvement activity. That Kaizan event led to GEM’s Jan. 2010 investment in an eNETDNC system for their shop to address inefficiencies with CNC program transfers and file revision control. eNET’s file rev control tools, such as the smart file compare feature for edited-uploaded programs, ensures that GEM’s master programs will never be lost or edited without management approval. Using eNET also allowed operators to call and send programs quickly from the machine control. Previously, GEM relied on remotely cueing programs from a CAM system, a time-consuming process which involved the operators leaving their machines to cue programs up from a workstation computer. This cumbersome process came to a head when CAM systems were unable to transfer programs to GEM’s new Mazak, Makino, and Haas machine tools. The eNETDNC system worked for all of their machines and control types.

Good manufaturing practice

As lean tools allowed GEM to improve costs, quality, and delivery times for their customers, company officials appointed an in-house coordinator of continuous improvement in 2011. Their organizational commitment to being good manufacturing practice (GMP) compliant and applying lean and 6∑ techniques throughout led to GEM Mfg. winning a Small Business of the Year award from the Kenosha Area Business Alliance (KABA) in November 2011. Motivated to keep the lean momentum going, the Gottschalk brothers attended IMTS 2012 to learn about eNET’s real-time machine monitoring. GEM was interested in streamlining the data captured on the floor and gaining insights into their machine utilization, so in early 2014 they added eNET’s machine monitoring and data collection. “We found eNET to be extremely customer focused, and since their hardware is made in the USA the system is rock-solid, so they don’t have to charge their customers yearly maintenance fees,” says owner Rob Gottschalk. “Since they also provide free software and hardware updates and phone support, choosing eNET for machine monitoring and data collection at GEM Mfg. was a no-brainer for us.”

Fast-forward to today and the Gottschalk brothers are still very satisfied with that decision to trust in eNET for machine monitoring. GEM Mfg. leaders have even rolled out an employee incentive program tied to machine cycle-on percent/chip cutting time, based on the real-world data they collect through eNET.

eNETDNC Inc.
enetdnc.com

GEM Manufacturing Inc.
www.gem-mfg.com

About the author: Luke Galindo is sales and marketing manager for eNETDNC. He can be reached at 414.817.7070 or luke@portcnc.com.