SV Customer Win: Production Strides at American Ring

American Ring’s production division is improving and simplifying its processes with SV. See just a few examples of how SV is used to help American Ring in key spots.

Scheduling

When Paul Lioi took over as Plant Manager for American Ring’s Massillon, OH division, he sought a better way of scheduling production. Lioi had developed his own method of pulling sales, production, ring inventory, WIP, and upstream wire production into an Excel workbook that fit his way of managing. The problem was that this process was taking hours each week that he did not have.

According to Lioi, “I needed a comprehensive way to view and prioritize all ring manufacturing and upstream wire forming work, inclusive of inventory, with color coding of key needs. The new SV software process does this all instantly for me, where previously it took me four hours every Saturday to prepare this information.”

Heat Treat and Process Inspection

American Ring heat treats its rings internally, which brought heightened requirements from its customers on measurements of chemistry, temperature, and ring hardness. Using a combination of automatic feeds from its heat treat controllers and key operator plant floor measurements, the company brings all recorded data into SV at the work order level. This includes requiring measurement capture before a work order can be clocked out on the floor.

Lioi speaks to how this has helped. “Our Inspection Measurements folder in SV now alerts us as soon as any machine or operator measurement goes outside the tolerance for the part being run. Management can immediately approve or take action upon any outliers."

Rick Johnston, Director of Information Technology, comments further. “What’s more, we can now provide important inspection reports to our customers in response to requests or audits.”

Johnston concludes,

“With SV, we actively tackle projects as part of our annual support agreement. Not only have we addressed tactical needs such as production scheduling and inspection, but share and implement best practices learned in SV across our Massillon, OH and Livonia, MI divisions.”

American Ring, headquartered in Solon, OH, manufactures and supplies retaining rings, snap rings, and Belleville disc springs. Learn more at: www.americanring.com