Appliance OEM Lovin' Lubrication
The management team at the Electrolux kitchen-range manufacturing plant in Springfield, TN, relies on its pressroom to keep assembly lines stocked just-in-time with stampings that meet strict quality requirements, without fail. This is no simple task, as the firm has asked its pressroom to down-gauge while also stamp spiffier looking parts with complex forms that often require practical magic from its
dies and presses. When we last wrote about the Electrolux pressroom’s investment in new press controls and quick-die-change procedures, its continuous improvement plan was called Disruption Free Production (MetalForming, December
2000). The plan focused on training and timely maintenance to optimize press uptime. Today, the plan has evolved into a more encompassing OEE hierarchy of metrics that has plant managers and engineers looking at efficiency and productivity from every conceivable angle.