Suburban Success Story

Suburban Mfg. machines parts for U.S. military aircraft such as the F-22, F-35, V-22, and CH-53 in its 55,000ft2 facility just east of Cleveland, Ohio. The company is also a third-tier supplier of components for commercial aircraft such as the Boeing 787.

Parts as diverse as titanium engine mounting brackets, aluminum mounts for aircraft air conditioning units, and all types of valves and manifolds to actuate hydraulics for landing gear are mainstays of production. Most of the parts can fit easily in one hand, but items as large as 3" x 5" x 27" can be CNC-machined from solid 4" x 6" aluminum bar stock into elegant, thin-walled structures lightweight enough to serve in aerospace applications.

As a general-purpose job shop, Suburban performs work for a variety of industrial customers. “Aerospace is only a small portion of our business – about one-third – but it’s the part that we continue to try to grow,” says Brian Nuibe, Suburban’s vice president. Suburban recently received AS9100C certification., which will allow the company to offer precision machining services to many more potential aerospace customers. In addition to a busy manufacturing facility, Suburban also embraces the idea of education, training, and apprenticeships.
 

Doubled in Size

Employee-owned, Suburban’s workforce now numbers 63, a figure that nearly doubled in the past 5 years after the company had the same 30-person crew for a decade.

The reason?

“The growth of our aerospace business really boosted sales,” Nuibe reveals. “It’s very difficult to get your foot in the door, but once you get in, you keep getting awarded more and more work.” Suburban also enjoys a low employee turnover, with a few core employees having 25 or even 30 years of experience. Brian has 29 years, and worked his way up from the shop floor, where he started just out of high school.
 

Pallets Improve Productivity

One of the reasons Suburban’s aerospace business is growing is due to increased productivity from horizontal machining centers such as the two Okuma MB-4000Hs the company installed, which are served by an automated 36-pallet storage system.

“Two loading stations, two machines, and one operator,” Nuibe points out.

In operation since January 2013, the three-level Palletace flexible manufacturing system is more than 60ft long. Of the original 20 500mm pallets Suburban purchased, 18 have work on them currently, leaving plenty of room for more pallets in the machine crib.

Fastems makes the storage system and has partnered with Okuma, which supplies and installs the unit.

“You can get it in different configurations based on your shop,” Nuibe says. “It’s standardized, but customizable to your needs.”

The pallet changer is built on location, with the crane rails assembled and all the sheet metal attached to make an enclosed, operator-free space.

Machinist Denny Williams describes the sequence as the crane picks up a pallet he’s just loaded, moves it with automated precision from the loading station, rotates it 180°, and places it on its assigned shelf.

“It knows where it goes,” Williams says, “based on how it was programmed.”

Pallet retrieval works just as smoothly. A call goes for the work; the crane finds the pallet and conveys it to one of the two, curved Plexiglas-enclosed workstations or moves it directly into the machine where it can swap out the pallet there.

This pallet system gives Suburban additional capabilities. Two machines replace three, and they still have room to add more.
 

Moving Horizontally

Nuibe is an advocate for horizontal machining centers.

“The horizontal gives you several advantages over the vertical,” Nuibe explains. “First and foremost is that you can get more parts on the work surface. If you are running a vertical, you’re locked into one table, that’s all you have. On a horizontal, you can bring in a tombstone with four, or up to eight sides, so you can get more work onto the pallet, and generally, more parts.

“Because you have two pallets that can swap, your productivity automatically increases because the only downtime you have is the few seconds it takes for the pallet to rotate into the machine, rather than a human having to unload work from the table and load new work onto the table in the vertical before he can start machining again. On the horizontal, you’re loading it all offline, and the machine is running while you’re loading more parts, so your downtime is limited to the time it takes to switch that pallet,” Nuibe continues. “When you couple that with the Fastems system, now you have storage for those pallets, so you can leave them set up for repeat work. It’s really quick for me to get set up and running rather than starting from scratch, which I’d have to do when running from vertical.”

The time saved varies from job to job, from a few hours to as long as 12 to 14 hours.

The MB-4000Hs are replacing older, similar machines, but, as Nuibe says, “The new machines are lightning-fast compared to the old, so right away we save 30% in time just because we were able to boost all the speeds and feeds. Electronic controls enhance operation tremendously. They’re easier to operate and more user-friendly.

“The new machines have a lot of sophisticated features,” he continues. “Probe protection, tool breakage detection, there are a lot of things to allow them to operate unattended.”

Nuibe remarks that being able to run the machines after hours without a human monitor is a significant labor-cost saver.

A new multi-tasking machine, scheduled to arrive in December 2013, will add a new dimension to Suburban Mfg. The twin spindle, twin turret, multi-tasking machine is also equipped with a full milling head, allowing for 9-axis machining on a single machine. The 58,000 lb machine is state of the art in machining and greatly improves Suburban’s ability to machine very complex parts. “It is able to grab a part and do milling and turning in one machine. Non-conformances [of parts] on the shop floor should drop considerably with the addition of this machine,” Nuibe notes.
 

Bringing in New Blood

Even though Suburban has added to its workforce and improved productivity, the company’s managers still see the need to bring a new generation of machinists onboard. The machine shop has re-established an apprenticeship program with nearby Lakeland Community College providing the academics and Suburban supplying the on-the-job training. It is a 4-year program, with Suburban sponsoring the apprentices and setting up the curriculum with Lakeland faculty. The course of study includes “a lot of math,” Nuibe says, plus metrology, blueprint reading, jigs and fixturing, and similar subjects, often with multiple classes on each.

Suburban currently has five apprentices in the program. Several are children of current employees and the rest are friends of those children. Two are in their fourth year and about to graduate to become journeyman machinists. They are the first of the revived program with Lakeland. Suburban had a similar apprentice program many years ago, then interest waned.

“For a long time, there were no young people interested in a career in manufacturing,” Nuibe laments.

That has changed.

“We’re very fortunate to have some young people interested in doing this,” Nuibe says, his tone brightening.

He thinks that what has changed is young people’s awareness of college expense, and knowing people getting degrees not being able to find a job to match. For the mechanically minded young people, machining suits their interests.

Nuibe admits that young people are more adept at using software, and have an advantage over those who didn’t grow up with the technology and had to learn it as an adult as he did. Plus, he adds, with video tutorials readily available, learning is so much easier now.

“The tools for learning are so much better than they were 10 years ago, even 5 years ago,” Nuibe states.

Despite the ease of modern learning aids, Nuibe cautions, “Training never ends in this business. You’re constantly learning. If you’re not, you’re in trouble.”

To help the apprentices stay out of trouble, Suburban has thorough on-the-job training based on a mentor program.

“We have captains who are senior machinists and group leaders who oversee operations on the floor and who mentor apprentices,” Nuibe explains.

Managers are involved as well, including the company president. “He’s working on retiring, and as part of his retirement he enjoys working with the apprentices and training them,” Nuibe states.
 

Robot Combat

Nuibe notes another activity his apprentices engage in – RoboBots – which is part of the Alliance for Working Together Foundation. AWT is a county-wide cooperation between local manufacturers and schools to help students develop the technical skills needed in manufacturing. Last spring, the apprentices participated in a RoboBot combat-robot competition, working with high-school students to build 15 lb robots that fight each other in 3 minute bouts. For the apprentices, the activity is strictly volunteer, performed after-hours and on weekends. Since the apprentices and students are close in age – maybe 5 years apart – Nuibe hopes Suburban’s next group of apprentices may come from this cooperation.

“We learned a lot this year. Our robot took a beating,” Nuibe discloses. “We’ll do it again next year, but we’re going to be ready for them this time.”

Okuma America Corp.
Charlotte, N.C.
www.okuma.com

Suburban Mfg.
Eastlake, Ohio
www.submfg.com

About the author: Eric Brothers is senior editor of AMD and can be contacted at 330.523.5341 or ebrothers@gie.net.

Learn the back-story of the Palletace system installed at Suburban at http://bit.ly/1787DpB.

Learn more about the Alliance for Working Together Foundation at thinkmfg.com.