A powerful bespoke macro, developed jointly by Radan and its client, is at the heart of a new high-speed service for making steel door systems quickly. The computerised service, called Fast-Track, has been developed by steel door maker IR Martin Roberts and the macro it uses took six months to write.
Now that it is operational, Fast Track is reducing the time taken to deliver customer-specific orders from eight weeks to just 5 - 15 working days. This has been achieved largely because of the special macro. This forms the major component of the new automated system which replaces a manual order processing system, reducing the desk-time to process orders from 3 - 4 weeks to 10 minutes maximum.
Fast Track is the result of a value engineering project carried out by IR Martin Roberts and its parent company Ingersoll Rand. This looked at every detail involved in manufacturing a door set, from the customer's first telephone call to dispatch. The project revealed that of the eight weeks it took to produce and dispatch a door set, six weeks was spent on paperwork.
With the eventual implementation of a dedicated production cell for the Fast-Track service and further investment in manufacturing capacity, it is expected that orders could be turned round in just a week. Doors produced using the Fast Track service at present represent about 20 per cent of the company's output, with the rest of IR Martin Roberts' business being concerned with making door sets designed for individual customer needs.
IR Martin Roberts is part of Ingersoll Rand's Security & Safety Sector and is based in Sittingbourne in Kent. It has been designing and manufacturing high quality steel door systems for building projects around the world for more than a quarter of a century. Today its products are used widely in offices, banks, building societies and many other commercial buildings.
Recent prestigious bespoke contracts have included the new Tate Modern, the Jubilee Line extension of the London Underground and many buildings in the Canary Wharf. Many of these door systems are complex mechanical structures with features such as fire sealing and acoustic ratings. They are built up using intricate metal sections combined with brackets and ironmongery.
Doors made using the Fast Track programme are more standardised but still come in a wide range of sizes, accessories and performance ratings. The doors and their frames and some variable size components are made to the specific order while brackets and ironmongery is held in stock. Although any size of door can be made, the general size range is between 400 and 1350mm wide, 1500mm - 3000mm high.
The macro, developed by application consultants at Radan with input from IR Martin Roberts' development engineer Glyn Hall-Edwards, is central to the operation of the Fast Track service. Its development involved the close cooperation of the two companies, combining the software and programming skills of the one and the knowledge of door set manufacture of the other says Glyn:
`It was down to me to define every thing that was to go into the macro. Over several months we went through every detail of manufacture so that now the macro has all the information needed to turn a customer's order input into a production programme. It is a seriously complicated system. Since we started using it in January I have been adding data all the time.'
Ordering a door set using Fast Track begins with a very simple order form which is essentially a matrix of all possible configurations of door sizes, frame profile and hardware requirement. By filling in check boxes, the customer can define very precisely, using on average no more than 14 characters, the type of door size and system he requires, from its functional role, say as a fire or acoustic door, to its colour and fixings.
When this form is received at IR Martin Roberts the matrix data is entered into the Radan macro to create a spreadsheet. This spreadsheet forms the basis for all the instructions needed to process and manufacture that customer order. These instructions, which can fill up to 20 data sheets including a bill of materials, cover every aspect of a door system's production from raw metal through to painting, packaging and despatch.
`When the green button on the system's computer screen is pressed,' Glyn Hall-Edwards explains, `the data from the spreadsheet shoots into a folder where the Radan macro is continuously looking for data. With the macro switched on, as soon as the data lands in the folder it is picked up and used to create the instructions for all the parts that need to be manufactured.'
This process includes the data being entered into the company's Radan CADCAM system that produces all the CNC programmes needed for punching out the sheet metal components using a Trumpf CNC punching machine. The Radan CADCAM system, which was purchased primarily with the Fast Track project in mind, runs the full set of software for design and manufacture, from New Radesign, New Radbend and New Radraft to Radpunch with Radview being used to see drawings on the shop floor.
As well as being an integral part of the Fast Track service as the tool for creating nests and CNC programmes for the punching machine programmes, the Radan CADCAM system is well used for product design. Its ability to create and visualise often complex doors and door assemblies is proving particularly useful and time saving. Design engineer Darran Bowden quotes one example.
`I used it the other day to produce a 3D model of one of our frame fixtures. This was a complicated section with a mitre joint. I produced this in 3D as an extruded section which I could then flatten out as a development and from this get all the dimensions accurately. Without the Radan system we would have been struggling for a long time working out angle geometry.'
The 3D modelling capability of the Radan system is also likely to prove increasingly useful in reducing the time needed to ensure door fitting - components such as the locks, panic devices, closers - fit into specific door designs. These items can be constructed as a set, together with a location peg, and then dropped into a virtual door to ensure all the parts fit without interference, before the door goes into manufacture.
