Formia Technology Group has begun a development project in its Manufacturing division in order to create a highly competitive Finnish production concept for sheet metal products. This consists of subprojects for integrating with selected customers’ processes in order to create undisturbed production flows requiring a minimum number of “fingerprints” on products or related electronic documents.

This development has begun by streamlining processes in our own manufacturing plants using e.g. the Lean manufacturing philosophy from Toyota. Development tools contain value stream maps (VSM) used for purging all non-value-added operations and boosting value-added activities. Formia considers all matters that prevent instant product flow to customers as wastage (in Japanese: Muda), i.e. something we have to get rid of.

Consequently, working environments and work places are redesigned to enable continuous workflows. Operations such as transportation, moving, the turning of work pieces, fetching and searching are considered as non-value-added delays. On the shop floor and in offices, we use the 5-S method to remove everything that is unnecessary, arrange everything that is necessary and systemize all value-added activities in order to create clean work places. The related goals will be achieved through the commitment of employees and modification of the company culture in support of these principles, while the modification process will be facilitated by tools such as simulation games.

Completing the concept through the networking know-how and experience of Formia's executive group, we can provide fast and cost-effective services, seamlessly linked to the customer’s process if required. The concept is known as the Formia Village and many of its features have been largely influenced by Toyota City. The purpose is to create a manufacturing network together with each customer, sharing the same goals and vision of the future. This shared society also covers financial aspects as shown by the Open Books approach.

Formia Village is a concept that can be duplicated to enhance business with selected customers in the next phase of the development project. We will evaluate the current status and future goals together and design joint visions and processes individually with each customer. The harmonization of business processes includes optimized information systems to enable the electronic exchange of all product information between the parties. Extreme customer cases aim at modularized and standardized products that require an exchange of customer product parameters, restricted to replacing all drawings, e-mails, PDF files etc. The goal is to present orders as cryptographic codes that can be directly interpreted by production machines.

In the implementation of Formia Village, each customer can be supported by the joint know-how of the whole Formia Technology Group. Roll-forming is the most efficient sheet metal forming method in the world and the customer is supported by the know-how of our sheet metal competence center. These technologies can be combined as required for the benefit of the customer. Thus, Formia Village is a society combining technology and know-how for the benefit of the customer.

Pekka Matinaro, Professor Paul H. Andersson,
Seppo Torvinen, M.Sc. Kai Salminen, Jukka Salminen,

Formia’s development projects are supported by state-of-the-art university research. The latest project concerns the simulation of interaction between the product and production system using digital models throughout the lifecycle of product families and production systems. This philosophy contains the idea that products and systems are “live” objects and their evolution must be actively supported by continuous updates of product features and the reconfiguration of production facilities. This integrated simulation model reveals development needs in advance and enables the testing of modifications to avoid disturbances during implementation.

The name of the project is FMS 2010 (FMS = Flexible Manufacturing System) and it is part of the national SISU 2010 technology program. Formia’s academic partner in the project is Tampere University of Technology’s (TUT’s) Institute of Production Engineering. The director responsible for the project is Professor Paul H. Andersson and the project manager is Kai Salminen, M. Sc. (Eng.). The expert member of the project organization is Professor Seppo Torvinen, TUT Laboratory of Product and Production Engineering, also a member of Formia’s development project control groups.

Author
Seppo Torvinen, Professor, TUT Tampere University
of Technology