Man or Machine?
Can More Automation Solve Your Labor Woes?
Above: Intermac Primus 5 cutting Dekton; courtesy Infinity Equipment Ltd.
By K. Schipper
The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown several aspects of society into a tailspin. Among those getting the most press is today’s labor situation. Among the trends, while hirings are shooting up – by almost 200,000 in December – and going up almost five percent from a year ago, many industries are seeing a dearth of available workers, especially in the skilled trades. So, what’s a business owner supposed to do? Two options are to raise wages and benefits – and prices along with that – or go with less skilled labor and hope for the best. There is a third option, though: Add automation. Not only are there specific areas within a fabrication shop that can be automated if they aren’t already, but machines can work at a faster pace, are more efficient and, as one equipment manufacturer puts it, “Automation isn’t only a good investment for today, but it’s an asset that creates more wealth and more value for tomorrow.”
IMPROVING CUTTING AND SHAPING The funny thing is the equipment manufacturers can’t even agree on the biggest job or process that could be automated in a shop, but often isn’t. Whether it’s sawing or doing sink cutouts or simply materials handling, it’s possible a small- or medium-sized shop could be doing it better by making an equipment investment. Of course, it’s a rare shop that’s using hand tools exclusively to cut its slabs into countertops. However, there’s a lot of difference between using a manual bridge saw and automating up to a five-axis saw according to Nick Wadenstorer, vice president of sales and marketing for Orion Township, Mich.-based BACA Systems. “Our Robo Sawjet not only helps with reducing labor on layouts and vein-matching that improves material yield, but it also helps downstream in terms of labor,” Wadenstorer says. “With the help of digital templating you can map out what that countertop will look like.” Egon Hinss, national sales manager for Sarasota, Fla.-based Breton USA, also cites saws as a technology that’s improving rapidly. “A new saw can certainly make cutting easier and give you a better quality,” he says. “For instance, mitering is becoming more and more popular in the industry, and our new saws allow a user in real time to adjust the miter cuts to follow the shape of the slab.” Robbie Tidwell, national sales manager for Jeffersontown, Ky.-based Northwood Machine Manufacturing Co., agrees. “Saws are very important at this point in time because of the amount of mitering the industry is doing,” he says. “You need a very accurate machine, not only with a saw, but with a waterjet. Being able to miter with a waterjet, especially doing porcelain material, allows for less breakage and less possibility of moving the part [during fabrication].” If a shop has already automated its sawing, there are other areas that could benefit from an equipment upgrade. Doing sink cutouts and polishing are two of them. Michele Ragno, vice president of sales for the Charlotte, N.C.-based stone division of Biesse/Intermac, says he’s visited shops that run a CNC router, but only to cut edges. “They’re still polishing by hand,” he says. “They don’t have a tool presetter to do tool management and so they’re still polishing by hand.” Still another process that shops may persist in doing by hand is sink cutouts. Steve Collick, North American sales manager for Pontiac, Mich.-based Marmo Meccanica North America, admits that can be an expensive proposition if you don’t have CNC technology in the shop. “However, there are alternatives out there at a modest price that are dedicated sink machines,” Collick says. “One problem with cutting them by hand is the dust. However, lower price points should allow more people to use them in their shops.”
“You’ll definitely see recent technologies that could improve your company if you’re upgrading from five years ago.” Egon Hinss Breton USA
OTHER “HELPS” It’s difficult to mention dust without bringing up the whole issue of shop safety, and material handling is an issue that everyone agrees can be improved with more automation – not just for safety but to improve workflow. Northwood’s Tidwell says that, beyond looking at a shop’s saw and router, now is a suitable time to look at a hoist system, whether it’s a jib crane or an overhead crane system. “That way, you can move material with one guy,” he says. “You don’t have to have a guy on a forklift with another guy with a vacuum lifter or pinch clamps. Plus, you aren’t running as much risk of damaging the material or getting someone hurt, especially moving things with a forklift.” Once that material is in place, there are other “helps” it can benefit from. Breton’s Hinss, for instance, mentions that company’s Robocup. Working with one of its CNCs, the Robocup system automates the positioning of the suction cups on the workbench as well as for loading and unloading. “Normally, you have an operator who will place the cups in the right positions and then connect hoses to them,” Hinss says. “With the Robocup, the machine places those vacuum cups itself while the operator is doing something else.” Biesse’s Ragno says that company will be making an introduction of an improved system of material handling at this year’s TISE. Two years ago, the company introduced a slab-retrieval system. “That’s a loading system that will allow the full automation starting with slab management,” Ragno says. “The slab yard can be fully automated, as can loading the bridge saw or loading the cutting machine.” Certainly, many shops have already taken the plunge and gotten into computerized management system, but BACA’s Wadenstorer says from his observation there are still a number of them out there that are managing their schedules on a dry-erase board – or worse. “At a minimum you need some sort of Excel® file or something similar to manage your templator and your installer schedules,” he says. “There are a number of software companies that have gotten into our industry and can help automate processes for inventory, quoting jobs, keeping track of the templator’s schedule and the installer’s time. It can really help manage a shop owner’s schedule.” None of these solutions exists in a vacuum, of course, and if a shop made the investment in any of these solutions five years ago, does that necessarily mean things have changed so much over that time that an upgrade is required, or even makes sense? It depends on who you talk to. Wadenstorer says all the equipment manufacturers continue to improve the efficiency and reliability of their machines, but there’s probably not one machine that has really changed what’s being done in shops today. “It’s based on what each individual shop’s pain points are and what’s needed to reduce their specific labor problems,” he says. “They have the five-axes saw, so their pain point would most likely be flat polishing. Maybe they have the CNC router, but they don’t have the tool presetter and they spend a lot of time calibrating tools. Then they should look at the presetter.” However, Breton’s Hinss sees it differently. He compares automated production equipment to a more universal – and popular -- piece of technology. “If you bought a cell phone last year, and you upgraded to a new one this year, you really wouldn’t see a significant difference,” Hinss says. “But, if you bought a cell phone five years ago and are upgrading this year, you’ll see a significant difference. You’ll definitely see recent technologies that could improve your company if you’re upgrading from five years ago.”
“You have to look at what you’re charging for that linear footage of a particular edge.” Steve Collick Marmo Meccanica North America
“That machine is there every single morning ready to go to work. It’s just waiting for you to turn it on.”
Robbie Tidwell Northwood Machine Manufacturing Co.
THE RIGHT FIT With any equipment addition – now or in the distant future – two other big questions always loom. First, how will I fit it into my current workflow? And, more importantly, will my return-on-investment (ROI) make such a purchase feasible? The equipment manufacturers are interested in helping shop owners answer both. While space is often an all-too-looming consideration in about any growing operation, making a major investment in technology and then just plopping it down on the shop floor wherever it can be shoehorned in doesn’t make sense. Fortunately, all the equipment manufacturers help in designing – or redesigning – a shop’s workflow to best integrate that new machine. Biesse’s Ragno says that company hired a special product manager for its North American market three years ago just to help customers work on the layouts of their buildings. “Whether it’s a new building or they’re adding a new machine, we help them study the best workflow with the floor space they have,” Ragno says. “Bad workflow leads to more breakage and more injuries. The less they move the piece, the more-efficient they are, and this is something we offer at no cost to our customers.” Northwood’s Tidwell says that company even will collaborate with the engineers and produce CAD drawing if needed to develop the best program possible. “We also put a customer in contact with people who have crane systems and water treatment systems,” says Tidwell. “We don’t just sell a machine; we sell a solution to your digital shop.” As with any big purchase, however, the bottom line is … well, the bottom line. And the equipment manufacturers can at least offer the cost of operating a particular machine and suggest parameters that should be considered before a shop owner writes that check. “Along with the cost of the machine, you have to look at what you’re charging for that linear footage of a particular edge,” says Marmo Meccanica’s Collick. “Then, there are you labor costs. You can’t just look at what you’re paying a person per hour. If you’re paying their insurance and worker’s comp, you’ve got to take that number and bump it up. It should be an easy formula.” Breton’s Hinss also suggests that a shop owner look at the number of different hats he or she is wearing, including time spent in the shop. “If you can free up small portions of your production, you can end up freeing up time for a lot of those other jobs,” Hinss says. “For instance, if you aren’t in the shop fabricating, you can free up hours that can be spent on customer service or selling more jobs.” Collick, too, emphasizes the word “small.” “A lot of times, a shop owner buys a big behemoth and then realizes they’re only using 10% or 20% of the machine’s capability, and it leaves a sour taste in their mouth,” he says. “It often makes more sense to start small and get going, and then go on to the next step.” It’s also important to realize that automation isn’t going to benefit every shop. Hinss says it depends on both the type of clientele the operation serves and the number of kitchens it puts out per week. “Generally, we say that it’s in that five-to-10 range of kitchens a shop puts out each week where it starts to make sense to automate,” he says. “It’s not a scientific number, but at that level you can add the equipment and increase output and efficiency.” Can a shop with as few as five employees benefit from automating at least parts of its process? BACA’s Wadenstorer says he wouldn’t dream of being in business today without at least a digital cutting device, preferably a five-axis saw. “Single-handedly, it’s one of the best things you can do,” he claims. ”You’re investing in your business, increasing your efficiency, increasing your labor usage, and reducing the need to hiring another person. It absolutely helps every facet of a business.” Northwood’s Tidwell agrees. He says automation is the wave of the future, especially like now when good, skilled labor is hard to find and keep. “That machine is there every single morning ready to go to work,” Tidwell concludes. “It’s just waiting for you to turn it on. It can start work immediately, it doesn’t have to go to the bathroom or call in sick. It also doesn’t ask for a raise. At the end of five years, it will continue to work for you for free.”
"Bad workflow leads to more breakage and more injuries. The less they move the piece, the more-efficient they are."
Michele Ragno Biesse/Intermac
