Fouch knew that automatic sensors could facilitate identify environmental culprits in punching problems, for example, but with so many potential options to try, he didn’t know where to start. “The worst thing you can do, especially in a smaller company, is to wallow in pilot purgatory hoping to find a viable product,” he says. “If someone else has done it before, they know a viable path and can save time and money.”
That’s what three executives and managers from Apple’s engineering and operations teams offered when Fouch and Quinn Shanahan, who oversee Polygon’s medical device and specialty products manufacturing, visited the manufacturing academy in October and November, respectively. In the five hours Fouch estimated, Apple employees assessed Polygon’s challenges and applied Little’s Law’s industrial engineering equation for identifying performance bottlenecks to develop solutions.
As a result, a detailed strategy was developed that included sensors and software to cost-effectively track production and alert on anomalies. Polygon can now count the number of times the pipe passes through the grinder and will soon be able to determine whether an overheated motor or other factors could explain the botched hole, Shanahan says.
If all goes according to plan, Polygon will implement a working system that solves the key bottlenecks for no more than $50,000, compared with the $500,000 the automation consulting firm could charge, according to Fouch. The Apple team is working to visit Polygon to discuss other improvements. “They have walked these paths before,” Fouch says. “Without their help, it will take us much longer.”
Apple’s Herrera says giving compact manufacturers a sense of the benefits of automation and other technologies could ultimately lead them to work with consultants and invest in more high-priced systems.
Two other academy participants told WIRED that they haven’t received extensive facilitate from Apple – Herrera says it comes down to which companies have prepared a “problem statement” that Apple can facilitate solve – but they are working to apply what they learn in their factories. Jack Kosloski, a design engineer at Blue Lake, a plastic-free packaging startup, says he found it eye-opening to learn about the thoroughness of Apple’s product testing.