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Quality and growth: CFT-Industrie’s robot solution
CFT-Industrie has decided to acquire a robot in order to meet new objectives (production quality and penetration of new markets). For this purpose, it has benefited from the “Robot Start PME” programme with tailor-made support and a subsidy equivalent to 10 % of the project.
CFT-Industrie, an SMI located in the French “Centre” region, employs 15 staff members and stems from the take-over of the BMI company in November 2011. Throughout the last two years, it has been involved in an ambitious corporate project including a strict quality plan and company reorganisation in the scope of a Lean approach.
CFT-Industrie specialises in the bending of wires, sheet metal and flat products, the manufacturing of shades, welding (TIG, MIG or spot welding) or swaging, etc. Today, this company wishes to meet new objectives in terms of production quality and market diversification.
New perspectives
To meet these targets, CFT-Industrie quickly initiated a robotisation project. Supported by Symop and Cetim, CFT-Industrie joined “Robot Start PME”, a programme supported by “Investissements d’Avenir” (Investments for the Future) and implemented with the CEA-List.
“We had already drawn up a first specification and contacted manufacturers who immediately told us about “Robot Start PME”, explains Élisabeth Klein, quality manager at CFT-Industrie. The three-day assistance provided by the Cetim expert helped us make our specification even more accurate as regards the choice of the robot: weld quality, acceptance phases, machine and tool inspection criteria. During the robot acceptance phase, we were also assisted in checking that the robot complied with the specification. Furthermore, the company’s employees were offered a training and information session. This robot opens new perspectives in our quality improvement process.” This acquisition represented an investment of EUR 163,000, 10 % of which were subsidised in the scope of “Robot Start PME”.
A new boost
The new 2-station (2-axis) welding robot produces a part every 4 minutes (or even every 3.15 minutes for certain parts) instead of 15 minutes with the manual welding process. This is possible thanks to the two lateral stations of the robot which allow two production operations to be performed simultaneously: one allows preparation while the other one makes the weld. As a result, manufacturing times are almost four times shorter. The assembly of a hospital cart which used to take fifteen minutes now takes four minutes and production costs have dramatically decreased.
What is more, the robot offers an identical and linear weld quality from a product to another, which allows CFT-Industrie to tackle new markets and guarantee high quality level and production capacity for larger series production.
The robot also had a positive impact on human resources: 3 employees (two of them being dedicated to the new robot) were trained for 12 days and the two vacant positions gave rise to the recruitment of two additional staff members. In addition, the robot adjuster, who had previously been a welding operator, had the opportunity to develop his professional skills. The absence of musculo-skeletal disorders on these stations dedicated to the robot, should also be noted.
“This action enhanced our professional expertise vis-à-vis our customers and gave a new boost to our company. This durable and efficient investment is an opportunity for us to propose new products with a higher added value whilst decreasing our production costs, and then to increase our orders”, concludes Antoine Honoré, chief executive offer of CFT-Industrie.
To date, approximately 100 SMEs are taking part in Robot Start PME and 126 are applying for this programme. This national collective action aims at helping 250 SMEs to acquire their first robot.
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