TriMech Blog

The Georgia Tech (GT) Lean Consortium Group of Georgia Tech Enterprise Innovation Institute recognized ModernTech customer Yokogawa for excellence in implementation "Best In Show" in its 5S Best Practices Contest 2014. Yokogawa was among the top 3 companies awarded for sharing its best practices as an entry to the contest.


This event marks the 2nd annual contest of its kind held by the GT Lean Consortium Group. It serves as an opportunity for individuals from member companies to showcase the projects they have taken on and to share their 5S best practices with other companies.


This year, the entries centered on 5S and Mistake Proofing. Companies were requested to submit a method in which they were incorporating 5S practices into their facility.


At the time of the contest, Yokogawa had recently acquired a Stratasys uPrint SE Plus 3D printer through ModernTech as part of a trial program.

"FDM is the perfect fit for us. It allows us to easily change designs at any stage in the game without being penalized by cost or delays."


— Jacob Rooney, Mechanical Designer, Nova Tech Engineering

Situation

Nova Tech Engineering (NTE), based in Willmar, Minnesota, produces automated machinery for use by poultry hatcheries worldwide. A key part of the company's success has been its ability to customize its machines to manage numerous types, breeds and sizes of birds. However, as the business grew, the cost of machining numerous variations became increasingly inefficient, costly and growth-inhibiting.


"We were spending a lot of time and money machining low-volume components which was detrimental to our overall operational efficiency," mechanical designer Jacob Rooney reflects. It is with these issues in mind that NTE turned to Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM).