What matters most in manufacturing?

1. Attracting customers with optimum quality exactly meeting the expectation of clients.

How to achieve?

More accurate data and measurement with flexible and reliable connectivity brings a product more and more near to the client’s expectation. This way one saves costs and increases expectations.

So the Key is Accurate and fast measurement.

1. Digitalization in factories using IoT-what is the basis of it?

Basis of Digitalization in Factory is an accurate data definition and measurements. For example, if a company itself does not know how much fire retardant it Category B2ca cable is, how it can start a project of digitalization in order to standardize the mixing process of raw material and processing parameters on extrusion?

The key is knowing where you are and what tolerance we have in hand to play with.

1. How measuring instruments could be affordable for all?

Companies with high brand value charges at least 30 % of their total cost to clients JUST FOR MARKETING & BRAND BUILDING, who pays at the end is the Client for other’s marketing. Whereas what you wanted to pay for is just the Instrument with high accuracy, reliability, and speed?

This is the reason today in the industry several manufacturers are just too behind the benchmark and never been able to finance required investments for those good instruments and machinery cause they are far more expensive than the expectations.

The key is to ask for quotations, give chance to new players, and compare their performance/price with existing BRANDs.

Note:- Of course some ideal and theoretical conditions are taken into account on the above example but in a practical way this calculation can be easily done by any manufacturer and they can realize themselves what would be the best possibility.

Case study 01:-

Cable manufacturing company XYZ in Italy wants to produce CPR grade B2ca Control cables 4G 2.5 sqm, with HFFR X Insulation and sheathing. The cost of per meter cable is 20€ and another costing is as follows:-

Overhead:- 6€/meter

Additional costs (altogether to make calculation easy:- 4€/meter

With this steep net margins, it would be impossible to sustain for XYZ so the management asked its middle management to work upon cost reduction (however material and overhead are already optimized)

90 days of delivery is normal for such cables as it has to be first prepared as a prototype then wait 2 months for the approval from the third party on several testing and then start the production at a series rate.

90 days of delivery is just because of third party tests required and wait for approval whereas it also causes cash crunch and inflow issues to the company itself as customers will pay as soon as the delivery packing list is prepared (let us assume).

Option 1:- Manufacturer can have a fully certified in-house laboratory and test and approve everything by itself in order to reduce delivery time by 2 months (Almost impossible as CPR could not be approved internally for B2Ca grade, secondly the huge investment will still cause an increase in depletion costs of 0.5% to 1% in OR-II).Know more here.

Option 2:- Manufacturer can invest in Simulating Laboratory with OPTIMAL accuracy and certification which costs about half of the option 1, and still continues the production as they now know that it would pass, while testing all prototypes in house and simultaneously keeps manufacturing ON while the samples (less than usual) is being tested in third party lab for approval. In this way, they can reduce delivery/invoicing time from 90 days to 30 days while just increasing the depletion rate of 0.25%-0.5%. It adds a financial credit of 1%-1.5% itself which in consolidation gives around 1% of the increase in Net profit to achieve cable cost optimization through cable and plastic test equipment investment.

This way ROI of simulator testing Lab can be less than 24 months.

Of course some ideal and theoretical conditions are taken in to account on the above example but in a practical way this calculation can be easily done by any manufacturer and they can realize themselves what would be the best possibility.

Techtrivial helped several cable and plastic manufacturers in such calculation and setup of optimum required laboratory or machinery for them throughout the LA-EMEA region.

This is just a case study, we have several such cases where with the help of just a few Cable and plastic test equipment, companies are able to save cost in millions and to be specific from 0.5-4% of OR-II. Below are some examples:-

1. Conductor resistance and Copper purity test measuring device- The kelvin bridge Ohm meter also call CR Meter helps you to fine-tune the gap between actual conductor resistance and 100% of the required specification.

https://www.techtrivial.com/product/copper-purity-test-apparatus/

1. Weighing balance and density meter- Helps you to track your weight analysis, not only of plastics but also the finished goods and conductors.

https://www.techtrivial.com/product/profile-projector-cable-measurement/

1. HV tester- helps you to prevent complaints and failures on-site which in turn becomes much more expensive at a later point of time.

https://www.techtrivial.com/product/dc-ac-high-voltage-current/

1. Insulation resistance (Volume resistivity) measurement- Helps to predict the requirement vs actual insulation properties of plastic in real conditions.

https://www.techtrivial.com/product/lcr-measuring-in…asic-to-advanced/

1. Correct Extrusion tip and dies- Are the main component what plays a huge role in keeping the diameter and thickness under control along with reducing surface issues and scrap afterward.

https://www.techtrivial.com/product/tip-and-die/

There are many more, we are sure to put all the case studies one by one in the coming time. Till then remember that www.techtrivial.com is your one-stop-shop for all laboratory aids and cable and plastic test equipment supplies. Very soon we are launching our Industry 4.0 compliant ERP system on Microsoft 365 base specifically designed for the Cable manufacturing industry. Stay tuned…stay optimized.

Of course, all this starts from a Design-FMEA followed by Process FMEA and then a Quality control plan. Further following the sequence of APQP.

www.techtrivial.com is giving you a generic Design FMEA specifically created for cable in excel template and you can always edit and enhance it as per your requirements.

Get a free editable (excel) copy of D-FMEA for Cable by following these simple steps:-

1. Comment on the post :-   #cablecostoptimization
2. Sign up here to our website, so that we can send you the email with the attachment.

What are the test stages applicable in cable industry:-

1. Incoming inspection (Routine)
2. In-process inspection (Routine)
3. Final test and inspection (Routine)
4. Type tests on raw material, components, and finished goods
5. Third-party validation tests for product certification

Incoming inspection (The most ignored topic but could be most profitable as well):-

A cable manufacturer is ideally supposed to put an incoming inspection system which should ideally include:-

1. Weighing, documentation check, and visual inspection (to make sure that the correct quantity and material is supplied)
2.  The specific gravity test of plastics (This test is very important to cable cost optimization as the consumption of plastic is done in Volume (Litres) whereas you buy it in Kilograms so to understand better the price/liter of plastic gives you an insight of costs per meter/volume of cable. Also, a specific gravity test of plastic (generally called density) gives a fair idea of fillers or heavy contaminations in the plastic.
3. Limiting oxygen index– At least once per 5 lots should be done. This test also is very important not only for flame resistivity of finished cable but again for cable cost optimization too. Compounds (especially PVC and LSZH) are made of several chemicals and antimony is one who is responsible for fire/flame resistivity of the compound, however, it’s one of the most expensive chemicals too. so in case if you do not require a very high flame resistance such as LOI of 34% or likewise, you can always ask your supplier to optimize the level of LOI as well as cost/kg for the compound.
4. Conductor:- Any metal whether its CU, Aluminium, Alloy or a superconductive one should be tested for its Resistance and weight per meter. This again gives you a gross margin over cable cost optimization as the conductors are on average 70% of a cable by cost. We can help companies on such projects as these are a bit long term projects following six sigma methodology and talking about it in a post is not possible. Email us at info@techtrivial.com in case this topic intrigues you and you want to know more.
5. Conductor purity:- If your supplier is not LME registered then you also might want to ensure the purity of the conductor.
6. Smoke density test– ASTM 2843, the smaller one should also be done at least every 5-10 lots of plastic. This is important to know at the input itself if your compound passes the regulatory requirement or not.
7. Thermal stability and Melt flow index:- Thermal stability test and melt flow index together determine the temperature profile of extrusion and also the speed of extrusion, this property again impacts your productivity of machine and man as its not possible to run an extrusion of cable on very high speed if the MFI of the compound is low or not supportive. Similarly, if the thermal stability of a compound is not according to norms, this might be an indication of the overuse of fillers and contaminations in the compound resulting in compound BURNOUT inside the extruder.
8. The hardness of plastic:- The hardness of plastic defines the profile of screw at extrusion as well as ensures the homogenously during purging over extrusion. If this is not according to the specifications, you might feel some roughness, fish eyes, high points, and even open points while extrusion over cable and might consequently have to stop the machine resulting in downtime and losses.
9. Visual aspects such as moisture, color, porosity, contamination and granules size consistency using our microscope.
10. Tensile strength and elongation at break:- And at last but not the least, tensile test machines are used for evaluating the strength and elongation properties of plastics. This test is one of the most important tests to determine and avoid any defects afterward a production resulting in huge rejections and causing downtime and delay. Before putting the compound into a tensile test machine, we will have to use our compound molding machine and then the die cutting press to create dumbells.

This should be mentioned that depending of risk classes and acceptance quality limits (AQL) of suppliers and their materials, companies should take a decision and design their quality control plan at an appropriate level and not all the tests are done mandatorily is the confidence level with supplier is high and the risk associated with material is low.

The frequent overtaking of smaller companies by the big giants, the bankruptcy of many new industries all lead up to limiting the approach to future.It also limits the “right of choice” of the customer.

To thrieve to its glory small and medium-sized cable and plastic manufacturing industries need a dynamic strategy with a long term risk assessment and its containment plan.Definitely the relevance of cable and plastic test equipment and cable cost optimization becomes very important.As they are required to ensure lower cost and speedy delivery.We shall surely cover this topic too.

This can be achieved with the 5W & 2H analysis. Let’s go through each of them

1. Why  present does data and its results need to be analysed?
2. When are the foreseeable challenges in the cable and plastic industry coming?
3. Which are the risks
4. Where are the solutions and strategies we are talking about?
5. How often we should run product & process innovation to achieve the sustainability of the business?
6. How      
   • to do cable cost optimization? (We are talking about real manufacturing cost reduction.)
   • cable and plastic test equipment plays a role in this regard?
   • to execute all the actionable in time within the available resources?
7. What
   • does the data shows yet?
   • tools can be used for the projects?
   • is the outcome and closure?

With this series of our new blog, we will cover each of the above topics.  Also several industry leaders are surveyed, interviewed for adding up their valuable inputs.