January 2008 Edition

FROM THE SHOP FLOOR

Three Days Just Isn't Enough

Dave and his brother were offered a tour of Makino factories in Japan and saw first-hand how the three Makino machines currently in their shop –and a fourth on the way –were built

In November, my brother and I were offered the opportunity to visit Makino's factories in Japan. Of course, we accepted.

We would leave the U.S. Monday morning and be back Friday afternoon. This minimized our time away from the shop. But, with the duration of the flight and the time change, we only had about three days to see three factories.

On Wednesday, we met Scott, our local Makino salesman, who gave us name-tags and directed us onto our tour bus. After a two-hour ride through fog and rain, we arrived in Katsuyama. From there, we took a long and winding driveway though woods. When the trees parted we saw the Makino factory campus. We were told it was at the base of Mt. Fuji, but the sacred mountain was not visible because of the weather.

Welcoming Committee

We were greeted by company office workers and with a bow, went into a large conference room, where we had individual desks, each with a folder of information and other goodies. There were several presentations which addressed the company history, its current status, and its future developments.

We then toured the factory. Our group was led by Kobayashi-san, who was the head of the Katsuyama factory. This factory is where Makino does all of its machining; it was large and clean.

Makino's strength is horizontal machining. Working from that foundation, it set the goal of developing equipment to machine large parts, so Makino developed its own large machines. The MCF series contains a number of models that can handle the biggest parts.

Through demonstrations and presentations, Kobayashi showed us the ways Makino improved its quality and reduced costs. However, he did not tell us when these cost savings would be applied to list prices.

Mystery Trip

After the tour, Kobayashi –with an enigmatic smile –directed us to an elevator. It took us to the roof of the factory. The clouds had vanished, and sure enough, we saw we were at the base of Mt. Fuji. A beautiful sight, but a strange place for a machine tool factory.

When the tour ended, it was back to the conference room for an overview of the next day's activities. We later ate at a traditional Japanese restaurant. While somewhat long, the bus ride from the factory afforded us the time to get to know other people on the trip.

The next morning it was back aboard the buses, this time to the city of Atsugi. There are two Makino facilities there. The first is where Makino builds its die and mold machines, and the second is where it builds its Makino J Series for super-high production parts.

Again Kobayashi led our group. We saw how a machine tool is built. It is rare to see a machine without its metal enclosure. It was fascinating to see the inner workings.

The J Series machines are assembled into customer turn-key workcells. The cells are designed from the machine up, including fixturing, tooling, and programming. In the super-high volume world, seconds matter, so Makino does all testing and run-offs in this factory before installing the cells in customer plants.

The most interesting part of the Makino J tour was the demonstration of some of the special tooling developed for specific parts. Kobayashi showed us tools for long boring, precision grinding, and honing that can be performed on machining centers.

After the tour, we headed back to the hotel for dinner and a reception. There I met Mr. Makino himself.

It was an informative trip, albeit a little short. I would like to go back to Japan as a tourist next time, not just as a machinist.

Dave is responsible for programming, tool selection, and fixture design for Ansco Machine's 20 CNC machines in Peninsula, OH. He's been working in a machine shop since age 12, starting by drilling holes on a turret lathe and making simple parts on a Bridgeport.

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