In 1988, Joacir dos Santos founded ProModel Usinagens LTDA, a small-scale industrial model-making operation in São Paulo, Brazil.
Since then, ProModel has grown constantly, with the second generation of the Santos family at the helm, in the design and manufacture of mould tools and the injection moulding of plastic components – primarily for automotive, but with some white goods and electronics industry customers. In 2005, the company moved to larger (10,000 m2) and more purpose-designed premises.
Tool component production on Macro pallets is high-precision. This eliminates “adjustments” during final assembly.”
Rapid growth has resulted from planned investment in increased productivity and achieving lower production costs – highly important factors when facing the ever tougher global competition. “One wrong decision and the game can be over!”
Combined with the demand for shorter delivery times and lower prices, the constantly increasing customer base meant that production capacity had to be improved. But were more machines and more employees the answer?
Thorough studies proved that more machines would not be the optimum solution, whereas exploiting and improving present capacity by minimising downtime would be better. Quite simply, it was a question of keeping machines running for as long as possible. Another problem was the unreasonable amount of time required in adjusting components during final assembly.
Being wise old hands, ProModel took a look at how successful other industrial colleagues were working which, led to them using System 3R reference systems in their production. The Macro system paved the way for electrode manufacture Set-up times were reduced by 40 percent – a marked increase in productivity.
The latest step on the productivity ladder is larger workpieces on Dynafix pallets, 280 x 280 mm.
The possibility of producing high-precision inserts and components in the same way was quickly appreciated, and small fixtures were made and fitted onto the Macro pallets. This allowed vertical and horizontal mounting for milling of all sides – quick, efficient and with repeatable accuracy.
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This opened the way for the opportunity to quadruple the machine’s simultaneous production capacity and 4 Macro chucks were fitted to a steel plate. The machine is now working all night long. There is less resetting, more spindle hours and increased productivity.
The same production technology is now also being used for larger components. ProModel has just invested in System 3R’s Dynafix system with 280 x 280 mm pallets to improve productivity even further.
Emerson dos Santos: “Lead times down 30 percent thanks to Macro. A fantastic investment!”
Emerson dos Santos, production manager, summarises: “For smaller mould tools, delivery times have fallen on average, by a good 30 percent. We very recently delivered a batch of 15 tools. The lead time for this delivery used to be 90 days – this time it was 57. Without doubt, System 3R reference systems are the best investment we’ve made in years!”
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Macro
Dynafix