It pays to be bold with automation

MacKenzie recently purchased two 9-axis DMG MORI NTX 1000 machines and coupled them with an ABB robot and automated infeed/outfeed conveyor. Images: MacKenzie Atlantic

In 2017, Matthew MacKenzie made a bold decision. The president of MacKenzie Atlantic Tool & Die, located in Musquodoboit Harbour, N.S, decided that all future equipment investments needed to have some level of automation.

“We recognized that full automation was the direction our company needed to go in to grow and be competitive,” he said. “We haven’t put a piece of equipment in the shop that hasn't been focused on that. And it has been especially important in a job market where it's difficult to find skilled labour.”

Prior to this decision, the shop had successfully supported the defence and natural gas sectors, primarily using 3- and 4-axis milling machines in conjunction with a fabricating and welding division. However, in recent years, MacKenzie became laser-focused on enhancing the machining division.

We previously spoke with Matthew MacKenzie about the company's focus on medical device manufacturing. Check it out.

“Our welding and fabrication segment is definitely smaller than our machining side,” he said. “We recognized that it had a place, but we made a conscious decision to put our efforts into growing the CNC department, particularly with automation or advanced manufacturing services.”

Investing in Advanced Equipment

Just has COVID-19 had taken hold, the company had just purchased two 9-axis DMG MORI NTX 1000 machines and coupled them with an ABB robot and automated infeed/outfeed conveyor.

The shop created a fully enclosed automation cell that allows an operator to load precut blanks onto an upper conveyor and includes a vision system that shows the robot where the blanks are in relation to each other. Then the robot receives commands from the two machines to load those blanks into them. The machines are able to fully process the parts from start to finish—so they can do all the lathe work, all the milling work, any different angle, and even full deburring. The cell also has a coordinate measuring machine (CMM) probe inside of those machines to perform a full final inspection. The robot then is able to offload those complete parts, clean and blow them off, and then put them on the outgoing conveyor.

“So essentially, we have people that come in, take the parts off the lower conveyor, clean them off, put them in a box, and ship them to the customer,” said MacKenzie. “That’s really helped our throughput from where we were in 2017 to where we are today, essentially having those two machines run 24-7.”

One of the advantages of the NTX machines is that they have an upper spindle that can act as a mill spindle, or it can stay stationary and hold tools to do turning. They also have a lower turret that holds typical lathe tools. With these capabilities, they can be actively machining side one on the primary spindle while the lower turret or the upper head is working on the secondary spindle. This has drastically reduced cycle times.

“As an example, a standard part might have a total of 10-minute cycle time for side one and 10 minutes for side two,” said MacKenzie. “If we can work on OP1 and OP2 at the same time because we have an upper spindle and a lower spindle, well our cycle time all of a sudden becomes 10 minutes, not 20. We've been able to find some really amazing savings for our customers and higher throughput.”

The automation and robots have given the shop a significant competitive advantage as it is now able to compete for jobs and produce the parts twice as fast as a shop without this exact same equipment.

During the past three years, the company has seen a 30 per cent jump in sales. MacKenzie credits the shop’s sales jump to the increased capacity put in place with the new equipment investments. The shop is able to create more complex parts, provide better turnaround times for customers, and get more out the door faster.

That’s not the only advanced equipment the shop has invested in. Recently, MacKenzie purchased a DMG MORI NHX 5000 horizontal CNC milling machine with pallet changing system.

“We went away from that more traditional 3-axis, 4-axis milling where you have to have an operator open the door and load the parts,” he said. “For the last six months, we have parts that have been on the machine, and it runs 24 hours a day. The total cycle time per pallet is over 24 hours and it only takes about 30 minutes to switch the parts over. For every 24 hours of output, we only have 30 minutes of labour input.”

Developing Robotics- and Automation-related Skills

The shop currently employs more than 30 people across its three facilities. With the introduction of robotics and automation, MacKenzie recognized that it was important to provide its workers with the skill sets to thrive in this new environment.

“Our workers are fantastic, but we wanted to make sure that they had the necessary skills to work with robotics,” he said. “We worked with our employees and developed training around the robotics and various integration aspects between the robot and CNC machines. We want to allow our existing workforce the ability to operate more advanced manufacturing technologies and techniques.”

A lot of the shop’s existing jobs were done using more traditional CNC machines. When it made the move to robotics, it needed to re-envision and reprogram how it would process the parts using this new equipment.

“The new equipment means we can process things far more efficiently, less hands-on, and with fewer operations,” said MacKenzie. “Our legacy parts may have had five or six different operations, and now we have robots loading them into the machines and the parts coming out completely done—no one physically handles the parts other than to load them on the conveyor. This really required a new way of thinking about how we process things and how we redeploy our workers across the shop floor.”

Expansion and Growth at MacKenzie Atlantic

Currently, the company runs 18 hours per day, five days per week, with the automation equipment running 24-7 at its three facilities.

The main facility is 15,000 sq. ft. and houses the machine shop and advanced equipment. In 2022, the company realized it needed to expand its manufacturing space, so it purchased a 36,000-sq.-ft. warehouse facility and moved all of its fabricating and welding equipment there. The goal was to expand the CNC machining department at the main facility in Musquodoboit Harbour.

The third facility, a 3,500-sq.-ft., vertically integrated shop dedicated to one of its largest defence customers, is where MacKenzie focuses on what it calls “dock-to-stock,” machining products that go right into the production line.

“In the past three years, we've probably grown about 30 per cent in sales,” said MacKenzie. “Honestly, a lot of this is because we now have the capacity with that more advanced manufacturing equipment we put in place. We are able to create more complex parts, provide better turnaround times for customers, and get more out the door faster.”

Legacy parts may have had five or six different operations and required extensive handling. Now, the robot loads the part onto the machine and it comes out completely done – no one physically handles the part other than to load it onto the conveyor.

Because of the new equipment investments, the shop has had a ton of new opportunities come its way, which has really changed the entire focus what it can do. It also has seen a significant growth in its customer base outside of Atlantic Canada, with many large new customers located in the United States.

“We're working with some of these U.S. customers, looking at their future procurement activities, and bidding some pretty large contracts, larger than what we've bid in the past,” said MacKenzie. “If we're successful in being awarded those contracts, then we will end up having to buy several more pieces of automated CNC equipment, robots, pallet loading, and more. We've already outgrown our space here in Musquodoboit Harbour. Our 15,000-sq.-ft. facility has no more space for new equipment. So that just means we will have to move any new equipment to our warehouse facility.”

Beyond robotics and next-gen machines, the shop also has implemented an electronic scheduling board to help track and manage production throughout the three facilities. When scheduling, everyone on the shop floor has access to the same information via strategically placed TV screens, and every machine has its own computer to log in and out of jobs.

“We have a fully integrated ERP system,” said MacKenzie. “That means with every job that somebody receives, they scan in and out of those jobs, and they're all able to view the schedule board that our operations manager constantly is changing. It's great because it allows us to change the schedule on the fly if we have a priority job come in. It's as simple as essentially dragging and dropping those jobs in that electronic scheduling module and then it just reprioritizes everything. It has provided this constant communication loop that has worked really well for us.”

MacKenzie noted that the latest equipment and technologies have really helped set the shop apart from others in the region. For a long time, the Maritimes struggled to embrace some of the higher-end CNC equipment and automation. Ontario and Quebec shops were quick to invest, but up until recently, it was less common in Atlantic Canada.

“Since we did it, we're starting to see more machine shops sort of take the same approach,” said MacKenzie. “We're hearing of more robotics going into facilities, more automation, and more bar feeders. We're seeing a shift towards less labour input but with more output though process here in the Maritimes. It’s a really interesting shift and we really believe that we are at the forefront of that. We are able to bring new revenue into the province and grow our reach, and that’s great.”

Associate Editor Lindsay Luminoso can be reached at lluminoso@canadianmetalworking.com.

MacKenzie Atlantic Tool & Die, www.mackenzieatlantic.com