With our country facing unprecedented supply chain challenges, like many other manufacturers, Phillips Precision Medicraft is as well. Our teams have been working diligently to manage and mitigate the impact on our OEMs by leaning out manufacturing and logistics, using new technology to continue transforming the capabilities of our manufacturing floor and business processes to improve supply chain management.
In 2021, we highlighted automation in the form of pallet changers to convert existing 5 Axis machining centers into independent high-volume 5-axis robotic manufacturing cells.
We also introduced Factory Wiz, a platform that provides real-time data to track the performance and productivity of each individual machining center. This year we will continue to add more 5 Axis automation packages and our first horizontal milling system.
Horizontal milling is a brand new manufacturing approach for PPM. Horizontal machining centers will allow us to make large parts faster and more efficiently. In addition, the machine’s horizontal orientation does a much better job at chip evacuation, extending tool life, and holds more parts on its tombstone than a vertical machine.
The tombstone system uses a minimum of four faces with a larger machining envelope that holds a greater number of parts to manufacture multiple job setups at once. It also gives us the option of redundant tooling to run for long periods of time without human intervention with its 133 tool capacity. This new system is an ideal solution for large higher production parts.
By creating an adaptable manufacturing operation with continuous improvement and LEAN efficiencies, we can ensure the quality of the products we are known for while expanding our capacity.