Background
Innoval is a technical partner to a range of large, multinational companies who have extensive technology teams. These companies want someone they can trust with their highly confidential developments. Furthermore, they want someone they can rely on to find creative solutions to problems and with whom they can build close working relationships. One such company is Constellium.
Constellium produces advanced alloys and cutting-edge technological solutions. The company serves markets as diverse as aerospace, automotive, construction, packaging, renewable energy and transportation. Their 23 production facilities in Europe, China and the United States specialise in rolled products, extrusions and automotive structures.
Over recent years the Operational Excellence and Technology team of Constellium’s extrusion divisions has called upon our diverse range of skills. Some examples of how we’ve supported Constellium are described here.
How we were involved
Gary Mahon has visited many Constellium plants to provide temperature management training to press operators and die correctors. The training consisted of a combination of classroom presentations and coaching sessions at the press. Amongst other things, the operators learnt about speed improvement using billet temperature and available pressure to optimise the extrusion cycle. In addition to this, Gary also took part in benchmarking studies of the presses. As part of this he carried out waste time measurements in order to improve productivity through waste elimination.
Carrying on the theme of waste elimination, Helen Forrest used various Lean Improvement techniques to analyse the packing operations in several of Constellium’s plants. Helen worked with teams of operators and technicians to identify wasteful activities. They then looked at how they could change the way they worked in order to eliminate the waste and become more efficient. Sometimes this meant a complete reorganisation of the packing area but, crucially, with little or no CAPEX spend.
Services Involved
- Aluminium extrusion
- Aluminium training courses
This case study appears as an article in the 2017 edition of ‘innform’; the newsletter of Innoval Technology.
Main image © Dominique Sarraute 2010
It was great to be able to call on people with hands-on extrusion experience when we needed them. Innoval has made an important contribution to the productivity improvements Constellium’s AS&I division has achieved in recent years. I know I can rely on them to supplement our in-house teams.
Martin Jarrett, Director, Operational Excellence & Technology at Constellium
