Jewel in the crown: technology meets art

The DTI-sponsored Silver project – in which the Technology Innovation Centre (tic) in Birmingham brought modern systems to the jewellery, giftware and cutlery industries – has resulted in serious transformation. Companies noted for their art and craft have found that affordable manufacturing and business IT, advanced machines and modern methods have delivered significantly increased productivity, slashed work in process (WIP) and much more. Some are entering new high value markets. The Silver project (part of the DTI ICT Carrier Cutsil programme) kicked off in May 2001 under the direction of Dr Tim Burden at tic. Delcam, Cybermatic, DeskArtes, Roland Digital Group and Vision Numeric UK were chief among the technology suppliers, and the objective was to reduce costs, while also cutting time to market, improving quality and responding to the need for more flexible short-run manufacturing. There are two joint winners here: First let's look at Alfred Terry, a North London company designing and manufacturing high quality gem-set jewellery in gold and platinum – producing around 65,000 units per year. This company's association with tic goes back to 1996, when the firm participated in the Jewel programme. Initially, tic audited the firm's business and manufacturing processes against best practice, before generating proposals for a structured business process and manufacturing development programme. Alfred Terry joins up Alfred Terry is not a business with long production runs: a bulk order might be for 20 pieces, each of which will be slightly different, or at best 20 split across three product lines with multiple sizes. So looking first at production, tic proposed lean shop floor processes targeted at lowering material and stock inventories and reducing high value waste and WIP. The requirement included investment in IT to improve information flows as well as systems to manage internal and external supply chain quality monitoring and improve production planning and management. In fact, tic suggested investing in a new networked client/server PC-based system covering everything from manufacturing to trading. Subsequently the company linked its lean manufacturing processes to retail sales via flexible manufacturing systems combined with CAD/CAM. Alfred Terry implemented an integrated virtual product design, development and manufacturing system using 3D CAD systems, lightweight CNC machining and rapid prototyping. It involved prototyping an intricate 3D milling machine with the power, work envelope and flexibility of the best CNC machines – but almost desktop in size. It also meant investing in appropriate CAD systems and skills. But Jeremy Banks, who now runs the system, says it transformed the company. Banks: "We invested in DeskArtes 3D surface modelling software and a Cybermatic six-axis CNC milling machine originally to make patterns for casting silver giftware – on the basis that if it was useful we could use it for the gem set jewellery side of the business too. It's been so good that we're now using it for a new range of diamond set gold bands." So good in fact that the company has now bought another, and is looking at purchasing a third as new business goes through the roof. "We've gone from no diamond set bands collection to having 90 to 100 pieces in just two years," says Banks. "That kind of development would have taken a decade before." And Kasler adds that while the firm has seen a reduction in volume of its earlier commodity business, the high value added, semi-bespoke new products have significantly increased profitability. Banks' description of what's now the development process is mouth-wateringly fast and sophisticated, but uncomplicated. "Creating a new design is very quick. We work with the customer to design the ring. Once that's done, we output an STL solid model or IGES file. The STL file goes into OpenMind software for Hypermill, which provides the limited five axis post-processing to create the CNC tool path. Then that goes to the machine to cut the holes from the gold blank. The CAD system also creates all the ring sizes for us… It's cut out a huge amount of work. It means we can go from a new design to a sample in a day and the cost is about £50!" R Platnauer goes virtual Meanwhile, R Platnauer in the West Midlands, will be launching its jewellery as configurable ranges on the Internet, using 'virtual supply chain'. The goal is to provide a high speed, web-based specification and ordering system which will cut costs but, most importantly, also enable customised design and build direct to customers. The system is built around DeskArtes 3D CAD, a product configurator and web technologies, enabling customers to select from jewellery components, like materials, band designs, mountings and gems, and create combinations. Rules ensure only valid configurations and options, and because the system builds the price as it goes, taking into account standard bills of materials (BoMs) and routings, it also allows them to order their designs online for delivery in days. Operations director Daren Lightwood: "It's of paramount importance that we can get new designs to customers as fast as possible. The web is one of the keys here, but we've also been very successful with our rapid prototyping. But having given them access to new designs, we've got to be able to build them." Which brings us to the rest of Platnauer's work with tic. Looking at rapid prototyping, it's not a million miles from Alfred Terry's direction, but with the primary objective of getting new sample ranges out fast. Platnauer now uses Delcam's Artcam CAD/CAM systems to first design and then drive wax rapid prototyping machines, four-axis milling and laser cutting machines. Lightwood says that, as a result, the company can turn CAD designs into samples within 48 hours. As for manufacturing, Platnauer did extensive Pareto analysis of production operations, and went first for the big win, casting, to improve everything from WIP, to overs, scrap and rework. "We worked to improve the management and flow of our processes and to get efficiencies using production engineering principles in what is a craft industry," says Lightwood. "Productivity increased three-fold, while reducing labour cost by 50%… Lead times have come down to four weeks from about eight. And with the visibility we get from the system we should now be able to improve more." And it won't stop there. Platnauer intends now to add barcoding, to track everything through the design and production cycles, including samples, returns, scrap and so on. "Adding barcoding will automate production reporting even more and give us better management visibility, but it will also enable us to control our outworking better and give us better management of quality, losses and so on," says Lightwood. Key benefits

• Development times slashed by 80%
• Automatic production of sizes
• Faster set-up and production
• High speed, web-based specification and ordering system
• Custom design and build service direct to customers
• System ensures only manufacturable combinations
• Productivity increased three-fold
• Labour cost reduced by 50%
• Lead times halved
• Stock turns up from three to five