Growing in a Demanding Market

Brad Julius, president of ZTM Inc., worked at Boeing when he decided to start his own business. Coming from a family full of Boeing employees, it was a daunting idea to leave a big company with a retirement plan and insurance and start from scratch. But in 1996, he did just that.

ZTM manufactures airframe parts, and is looking into growing their assembly work; currently they have a small bench-top assembly sector, working mainly on bushings, bearings, and small assemblies. Although Boeing was the only company they supplied in the beginning, they now make parts for Spirit, and they are looking toward other customers in the near future.

"In the beginning, I worked at Boeing for almost 18 years. When I left there and had the opportunity to start working for them as a vendor, I was familiar with their drawings and parts, so it was an easy thing to make happen," says Julius. "But now is the time to expand our horizons, and we're excited about it."

From the beginning, Julius wanted ZTM to be "lights out". Automation is an important part of helping companies grow in a tight labor market. With the shortage of skilled workers, it is important to be able to run cycles efficiently with low operator intervention.

In 1997, Julius bought his first Toyoda machine, a 4-axis horizontal 630, and within a year a second one was purchased. The machines worked so well, Julius knew where to turn when he needed more.

"In 2002, we started buying the high-speed machines with the thought of putting them on one of the RGVs and rail systems," Julius explains. "We bought two more Toyoda 630s fairly close together, along with the rail system, and hooked those first four together."

Two Toyoda 630s are for machining hard metals, the other two are for machining aluminum.

"In 2004 we decided that with the way the labor force was, with less people to draw from and the demands from the aircraft industry being so high, we had to really start moving with the technology," Julius notes. "That's when we bought the two rail systems, and about nine or 10 Toyodas pretty quick – we were bringing them in every couple of months."

Five of those machines are Toyoda 550 horizontal machining centers that are now automated with a three-level, 90-pallet RGV system. Four of the 550s were on site at the beginning of 2006, with the fifth delivered in July 2007. Prior to the fifth machine, the first four were stand-alone, waiting for the rail system. The new system consists of three load stations and dramatically reduces cycle time.

"It's really slick," says Vincent Pray, director of operations at ZTM. "If we fully load it, it could run about 89 hours. We get it to run overnight the full night almost every day of the week."

Over the course of three shifts, it takes three employees to run the system for 24 hours. The loading is done on the first shift, and the machines are still running the next morning when the second shift comes in. If a machine is stopped, it's because not enough work has been loaded on them, explains Julius.

"We've basically got two people who load and unload parts and material," Julius says, "and a third employee introduces new work to it constantly. It's enabled us to run a lot more parts with less people. Hands down, it's no doubt that productivity is way up."

ZTM tracks its quality mainly to ensure their customers receive exceptional products, but also because scrap is very expensive and obtaining material has been difficult over the last several years.

ZTM tracks scrap in opportunities: How many opportunities does a workcell have to scrap a part? In one month, the five Toyoda 550s had 4,200 opportunities to scrap a part, while the other half of the shop, with the stand-alone small vertical-type machines, had 6,000 opportunities.

"On the Toyodas, we scrapped five parts, out of 4,200 opportunities," Julius says. "Now in turn, on the stand-alones, we scrapped 2.5% – that's 150 parts – with the same amount of spindles as the Toyodas. So, the quality is unbelievable."

In addition to the 550s, Julius recently purchased a Toyoda 1050 horizontal machining center to furnish their year-old 37,000ft2 building. The machine is the largest one on the premises, and a second one is planned to come in early 2008. The pair will be joined by a small 16-pallet RGV system, also planned for early 2008.

ZTM recently incorporated five Toyoda 550 horizontal machining centers into a three-level, 90-pallet RGV system with three load stations, dramatically reducing cycle time.

"We can run a longer part on the 1050s," Pray explains. "It can run about a 6ft part, and a typical window is usually 39" to 40"."

Julius credits much of his success to his partnership with Toyoda. When he was first starting out, Toyoda personnel helped him choose which options and which machines were right for what he needed. They were delivered on time, set up, and he has had little or no trouble with any of his Toyoda machines to date.

"I think they see the long-term objectives like we do," explains Julius. "They don't look at it as 'just one sale, then let's go on to the next.' They look at helping to build companies. They're very knowledgeable, and they're customer-oriented people. They want their equipment to perform well, so they're great to work with."

An overhead view of the ZTM shop floor. Automation has assisted ZTM in reaching their goal of "lights out" machining.

The partnership is enhanced by a willingness to help each other grow in business, explains Julius. Now ZTM works with Toyoda on ideas to improve machines, making them better suited for the company as well as Toyoda's other customers.

"They're always willing to look at software changes and technology changes," he says. "And we're proud if they want to bring customers in to see their equipment – we don't feel like it's a threat. There's work for everybody, and Toyoda's always helped us, so we're always willing to show off their equipment."

With the help of Toyoda, ZTM has become what it is today, and there are plans for even more growth in the near future. Julius is considering adding another building on an additional four acres of land in late 2008 or early 2009. The growth pace for the company has been quick, and it seems to be continuing.

"It's a calculated risk, and I hope we've calculated everything right," says Julius. "If the market turned quick, that would be an issue, and if we can't get enough people, that would be an issue. But we're definitely buying the right equipment – it's reliable and the uptime is great on it – so we're doing that part right. The world economy, we can't control that, but we can control the type of equipment and how we set it up."

ZTM Inc.
Wichita, KS
ztm.com

Toyoda Machinery USA
Arlington Heights, IL
toyodausa.com