Jewel in the crown technology plus craft

Three years of the DTI Silver project – in which the tic (Technology Innovation Centre in Birmingham) has been bringing modern systems to the jewellery, giftware and cutlery industries – has resulted in serious transformation. Companies noted primarily for their art and craft have found that affordable combinations of manufacturing and business IT, and advanced machines and methods have delivered everything from significantly increased productivity to slashed work in process (WIP). Some are even now entering high value markets hitherto closed to them, and witnessing substantial growth. This is a fascinating story, not least because it points to the power of both innovation and technology transfer to revolutionise competitiveness. Silver kicked off in May 2001 under the direction of Dr Tim Burden at tic, with assistance from the Teaching Company Scheme. Participants included the British Jewellers Association (BJA), the Ceramics Industry Research body CERAM, and the British Cutlery and Silverware Association (BCSA). Delcam, Cybermatic, DeskArtes, Roland Digital Group and Vision Numeric UK were chief among the technology suppliers. The objective was to ramp up competitiveness in the sector, building on the earlier DTI Carrier Jewel project. The project was to look at everything from modern virtual product development systems and rapid prototyping, to web technologies, and on to advanced production management systems. And it was all geared to the common business drivers: reducing costs, while also cutting time to market, improving quality and responding to the need for flexible, short-run manufacturing. First let's look at Alfred Terry, an established 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, and established what it needed to become more efficient, flexible and responsive. 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 at production itself, tic first 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, and to manage internal and external supply chain quality monitoring while improving production planning and management. tic also suggested investing in a networked client/server PC-based system covering everything from manufacturing to trading, the front office and so on. Much of it was adopted. To get the picture, orders are now taken onto an integrated system managing sales order processing, accounts, inventory, manufacturing and the rest. In production, it generates labels which tell the shop floor what the order is – which pattern number, order date, delivery date (and wedding date so that on-time, in-full can be guaranteed) – allowing tracking, auditing and providing reports for purchasing in the usual way. Nick Kasler, Alfred Terry's trading director, describes that system as having transformed the way the company worked, citing the development of its Product Allocating and Sorting Systems (PASS), for example, which revolutionised the company's sales (specifically of diamonds) and forecasting. That was then, and subsequently the company has gone on – with assistance from Silver – to link its lean manufacturing more directly to sales via smart flexible manufacturing systems combined with CAD/CAM. Starting in 2001, Alfred Terry worked with tic to implement an integrated virtual new product design, development and manufacturing system using 2.5D and 3D CAD systems, lightweight CNC machining, rapid prototyping – and potentially also customer-facing collaboration using Internet-based rendering tools. It meant the development and prototyping of an intricate 3D milling machine with all the power, work envelope and flexibility of the best CNC machines in manufacturing – but almost desktop in size. It also meant investing in CAD systems and skills specific to the jewellery industry. But Jeremy Banks, who now runs the new design and machining system at Alfred Terry, says it's totally transformed the company. Banks: "With the help of tic, 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 and bespoke items." So good in fact that the company has now bought another, and is looking at purchasing a third as new business from bespoke rings and collections 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 this." And Kasler adds that while the firm has seen a considerable reduction in the volume of its earlier commodity business, the high value added, semi-bespoke new products have been responsible for "a significant increase in profitability." Innovative thinking Banks' description of what's now the new product development process is mouth-wateringly sophisticated but uncomplicated. "Creating a new design is very quick. We work with the customer to design the ring, whether that's different diamond sizes or positions, or styles. 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 we require 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 just by changing the 'g' code. "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!" And hence the transformation to what most of us would generalise as engineer-to-order, as opposed to make-to-order or to-stock manufacturing. And as for the lean influence, Banks continues: "It's so flexible: there's virtually no set-up time. It takes about one minute to get the machined product off and put a new blank on, press 'go' and run the program." His enthusiasm is palpable: "The beauty is, we're nowhere near the limits of the system or the machine; we've still got an amazing ability to make more intricate, more interesting designs," says Banks. "We could even go further and automate other processes too." It's all still used for making patterns for Alfred Terry's earlier giftware ranges through the usual route of investment casting, but it's the system's new-found ability for bespoke gold ring design and machining that has brought this business along so far and so fast. Indeed it may well not be long before diamond set band specials become the company's mainstay. Can it go further – for example, taking design options out onto the web and collaborating electronically with customers and suppliers? Banks says it could as and when the need arises. He describes current rendering limitations with DeskArtes under Windows, but the firm knows it could do more in terms of online representation for marketing purposes at least. Another partner in the Silver project, R Platnauer in the West Midlands, is going the whole hog, and will soon be launching its jewellery as configurable ranges on the Internet, using what tic calls 'virtual supply chain' technology. 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 – providing better service for Internet users, and elevating the company increasingly above the commodity market. Combination technologies The system is again built around DeskArtes 3D CAD, with a product configurator database and web technologies, enabling Internet users to enter a virtual environment in which they select from standard jewellery components, like materials, band designs, mountings, gems and so on from the catalogue available, and create their own combinations. The system is equipped with rules to ensure only valid configurations and options. Customers can manipulate their creations in 3D on-screen, and because it builds up 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 a matter of days. Operations director Daren Lightwood is clear that this is a key way forward. "It's of paramount importance that we can get new designs to customers as fast as possible using technology to its maximum. The web is one of the keys here, but we've also been very successful with our rapid prototyping for major clients, also under the Silver project. But then, having given them access to new designs, we've got to be able to build them fast and economically as well." Which brings us to the rest of Platnauer's improvement work with tic. Looking at the rapid prototyping side, it's not a million miles from Alfred Terry's direction, but with the primary objective of getting new sample ranges out to major clients as fast as possible. 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 full samples within 48 hours. "That's how you keep buyers interested; we believe it's one of the most important investments we've made," says Lightwood. In the end though, everything comes back to manufacturing fast and efficiently – and here Lightwood and tic have been instrumental in a transformation based on lean thinking. Under his direction, Platnauer did extensive Pareto analysis of the firm's production operations, and went first for the big win – casting, to improve everything from work in progress, 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," he says. But it didn't stop there. The project moved on to the rest of production – and to the managing IT. "We installed a CAPM integrated purchasing, financials, stock control and management reporting system that was man enough for what had become an SME, and we developed a production control system (PCS) on top of that," says Lightwood. Platnauer's TCS student built the PCS database – again by applying lean thinking to the existing manual and spreadsheet systems. Now the PCS manages works orders, purchase orders, capacity planning and total weight – remember we're talking about precious metals. All works orders are launched according to week number due, printed and logged to a database, and everything is tracked through the stages, with reports providing visibility. It's all paid off. Says Lightwood: "Productivity has increased three-fold, while labour costs have reduced by 50%." And beyond that: "Lead times have come down to four weeks from about eight, enabling business turnover to increase considerably. With the visibility we get from the system we should now be able to improve more by focusing on our strengths." What next? "Now we're ready to move on to MRP, which will pull our systems together better and enable us to focus on production scheduling looking forward rather than just reactively, while also minimising stock holdings and improving stock turns further." And it won't stop there. Platnauer intends now to add barcoding systems, 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. Another catalogue of success. It's worth spending time with these companies and the others to see innovation and technology in action. Currently, there are five demonstration centres showing how modern production and associated technologies can be adopted by all sorts of traditional UK businesses. They are at Alfred Terry in London, Hean Studio in Hereford, Ola Gorie in Orkney, R Platnauer in Birmingham and the Sheffield Assay Office. We commend them to you.