Facilitating Lean Manufacturing Through Modularity

Breaking a task down into individual parts can be more efficient than tackling it whole cloth. Danobat, a Basque OEM of custom machines, knows this well. Rather than design its custom machines from the ground up for each job, the company estimates that it uses 90% stock modules, with the final 10% making up the customizations that determine whether a machine is suited to a complicated aerospace project, an energy application or another high-demand area.

Earlier this year, I visited Danobat’s campus just outside Elgoibar, a small town nestled in the mountains of Basque Country in Spain, where Danel Epelde, business development director at Danobat, and Manex Ochoteco, president of the company’s US division Danobat Inc., showed me around the company’s freshly renovated facilities. They explained how the company has reorganized its production floors to reflect its machines’ modularity, with dedicated subareas that have helped improve output and reduce lead times.

Shopfloor Modularity

Danobat maintains several production buildings on its Elgoibar campus. Though each is dedicated to a different type of machine, all have benefited from the company’s revamped production process.

Here, the idea used to be that all components for a machine were made concurrently and assembled together. Each machinist had an individual tool bench. But communication delays could slow production.

Now, each area of the floor is organized in teams that work together to produce the subassemblies and modules of their particular area. Ochoteco describes this as a very lean process, while also noting that the improved intragroup communication better enables teams to update managers about progress and request necessary components for the next assembly. Danobat aims to test its modules as it builds them, helping the final assembly come as close to a plug-and-play model as possible. This production model also assists in simultaneous machine construction, as an area on the floor that finishes its task ahead of others can then start on its module for the next machine.

This process had a few growing pains as Danobat’s staff adjusted (notably, during the height of the COVID supply-chain problems), but now Epelde says the process reduces the company’s lead times for machines by as much as 25%.

Common Base, Custom Solutions

This modularity also helps the company’s R&D team focus on specific solutions to specific customer challenges. As mentioned earlier, many of the modules that go into the machine can remain the same, so they don’t need to create an entirely new machine from scratch.

For example, Danobat developed a machine that uses lasers and grinding wheels to produce high-tolerance engine turbine blades for a major aerospace company. Then, when working on another project developing gears for a wind energy company, Danobat was able to reuse a lot of the earlier machine’s modules, with newly developed modules making up a small (but vital) portion of the machine.

This does not mean that IDEKO, Danobat’s R&D team, won’t take on larger projects that call for more work. Currently, the team is developing automated solutions for machining carbon fiber aerospace parts. The project aims to shrink the footprint necessary to machine these components as well as reduce wait times for components. The difficulty is in the toolpaths, as reliably meeting aerospace tolerances in carbon fiber has required hefty work on moment-to-moment robot positioning. The R&D team is in active conversation with its client, ensuring that the outcome will meet their expectations.

Partners in Production

Sometimes requirements call for a specific expertise the Danobat team does not yet have. In these cases, the company partners with or acquires companies better versed in that particular area to make use of their knowledge.

For example, Danobat does a lot of work with the rail industry. One of its major projects is the creation of underfloor lathes for wheel profiling on trains, and it does steady business with rail companies in the EU. Attempts to expand into the US rail market have proven difficult, however, as the company must meet a different set of government standards. To do so, Danobat recently acquired a Michigan-based company that has a similar underfloor lathe of its own. The Michigan company better knows U.S. customers and regulations, so its staff is more effectively able to take the lead in the market.

This idea also holds true for technology. Onboard connectivity software has evolved into a vital source of data for manufacturers over the last few years, and many have desired some sort of connectivity software from Danobat’s machines. To meet this need, Danobat bought a software startup company to act as its in-house connectivity software provider. Now, Danobat can provide the same level of customization to software as it does to its hardware.

To get broader perspectives on international markets, however, Danobat has also chosen to expand and found subsidiaries in these markets. This includes Danobat Inc., which operates a technical center just outside Chicago, Illinois. Here, the company conducts real-world part tests to demonstrate the viability of its machines to potential customers, while also acting as a service center for customers in the U.S. and Canada.

Ochoteco says that all of this — the expansions and acquisitions of new companies to open new markets, the emphasis on custom machines and the modularity of its new production processes — creates a leaner company. “Sustainability is the priority, growth is the outcome,” he says, and this leanness is a large part of that financial sustainability. Financial stability, in turn, has led to customer trust in Danobat and repeat business, as its clients know that the company will be able to reliably support its custom machines into the future.