The Manufacturer Magazine : Promoting best practice in Manufacturing

Avery Weigh-Tronix, Smarter solutions

Manufacturing in Action, Source : The Manufacturer
Zone : Operations and maintenance
Published : April 2008

Adding value to weighing solutions and the processes and services that support them is the way forward for Avery Weigh-Tronix. Peter Slack, operations director, talked to Jayne Flannery

When it comes to outweighing the competition, Avery Weigh-Tronix has already seen the scales tip in its favour. “We design, manufacture, install and service the widest range of weighing solutions available for industrial applications. No one can compete with us in terms of the breadth and scope of our portfolio,” stated Peter Slack, operations director, who is based at the company’s west Midlands manufacturing site. The Avery Weigh-Tronix Group includes the Salter Brecknell, Railweight, Avery IT and Dillon brands.

Although the company has an international presence, the UK is a key manufacturing base. Proximity to customers is seen as critical and 65 per cent of output is destined for the domestic market with the remainder destined for the EU, America, the Middle East and Australasia.

“We have made a strategic decision to retain – and further develop – a very diverse and flexible manufacturing operation,” Slack explained. “Our site in the west Midlands offers a full range of steel fabrication facilities. Additionally, we build our own printed circuit boards in-house, using both through-hole and surface mount technology. Then we have internal software and hardware development functions, allowing maximum flexibility.

At a most basic level, if a customer has an installation and they decide after an order has been placed that they want all weighing platforms in their corporate colours, we can respond immediately because we have an in-house paint facility.

“On some product lines, such as weighbridges, we can move from taking deliveries of steel in sheet form through to producing a completed product without ever having to source product or services elsewhere. Then of course we have the full capability to install and maintain that product. This level of integration means that we can tailor our offerings to meet very specific requirements within lead times that could never be matched if we were, say, sourcing from China.”

Taking the waste out of waiting is the overall aim. This has been the focus of numerous value stream mapping exercises across every aspect of Avery’s operations. “We have reworked our processes throughout our entire chain, starting with customer services and the way we deal with quotes, through to our response time with spare parts,” he added. The team even studied the installation of weighbridges into customer facilities, minute by minute, to identify ways to minimise the time taken, thus maximising the customer’s uptime and productivity.

Cutting lead times is also the key driver behind a significant programme of capital investment in automation and process efficiencies. The shopping list to date has included two robotic welding machines, new CNC machining, shot-blasting and plasma cutting equipment, as well as a fully equipped in-house paint facility.

The programme of substantial capital investment is continuing and it is this latest phase of investment that is most exciting to Slack. Two further CNC machining centres are on order to support the recent launch of a new, highly innovative digital on-board weighing system. This system is designed to be fitted beneath vehicles and moveable equipment. The underbody, tipper and skip weighers will use new digital load cell technology with two-wire data transmission through standard auto-electric cable.

“It has a number of very special advantages,” he explained. “The vast majority of existing systems rely on analogue technology which communicates between a load cell and the driver’s cab. This technology is very susceptible to water ingress and vehicle under-bodies are naturally a wet environment. We have come up with a totally new solution which eliminates this problem.”

Research by Avery showed that most faults occur in the chassis cable and connector system due to damage or temporary moisture ingress into plugs and sockets. The new wire system is more reliable than competing four-wire analogue systems because it simplifies the cabling. The number of wires in the chassis cable is halved through a single two-core ‘daisy chain’ configuration.

The load cells clamp onto this ‘daisy chain’ cabling with only two contact points, so a four load cell system only needs eight chassis contacts compared to 60 for an analogue system. Installation, reliability and serviceability are also improved because of it.

The serviceability point leads Slack to highlight that Avery Weigh-Tronix’ agility in manufacturing is matched by its determination to excel in after-sales support. “Other companies are supplying these markets, but what sets us apart is the size of our service team, which is the largest of its kind. Wherever we have equipment placed in the UK, we can offer immediate on-site support,” he continued.

However, he acknowledged that size is not everything. Given the diversity of requirements that must be met, getting the right technician in the right place with the correct parts in the shortest possible time is extremely challenging. To improve customer service levels even further, Avery is currently midway through a £3 million investment in communications technology that will enable an even better response.

“Looking forward, we attach growing importance to offering end-to-end, value adding solutions such as these, backed up with world class design, manufacturing and service capabilities – rather than simply selling discrete products. Creating smarter products and especially smarter solutions is where we see our future,” he concluded.

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