SCHUNK & Automation

Wade Anderson:

Hey, manufacturing world. Welcome to another episode of Shop Matters. Sponsored by Okuma America Corporation. I'm your host Wade Anderson. Today joining me in the studio, I've got Allan Logan with SCHUNK.

Allan Logan:

Hey, Wade.

Wade Anderson:

Hey, Allan. Appreciate you coming.

Allan Logan:

Yeah. Thanks for having us, man.

Wade Anderson:

All right, so to start with, let's just talk a little bit about Allan. Who is Allan Logan?

Allan Logan:

Wow. Big question. Actually not so big, but at any rate, Allan Logan is a family man. He's also a fan of our industry with a passion to save American manufacturing. Started in the industry 20 years ago in industrial distribution, spent a few years there and then another 15 years in the metal cutting side of our business. Since two years ago started with SCHUNK. Moved to the other side of the process, as I like to say. Went from the metal removal side of the process to the clamping side of the process, the lathe chuck.

Wade Anderson:

You went from, "how do you cut it?" to "how do you hold it?".

Allan Logan:

That's right. That's right. A whole ‘nother world over there too. Had no idea. When I guess as a metal removal guy, a cutting tool guy, it's really fascinating to see the chips fly. And as long as it's held securely, then hey, let's let it rip. I guess when you get over and start really understanding what it all takes to hold the work piece securely and efficiently. It's a whole ‘nother world.

Wade Anderson:

Yep. What an important part of the process, right? You can dream a lot of things and talk about massive material removal rates and cool five-axis tool paths. You always at some point have to back into, okay, well, how are you going to hold that? How are you going to get to all that geometry?

Allan Logan:

Yeah. For me, I think it's an overlooked opportunity for efficiency. The reason I think that is where the action is is where the chip's being made.

Wade Anderson:

Right. That's the exciting part, right?

Allan Logan:

Yeah, it is right? Chips are flying, hitting the door. You know, there's a lot of stuff going on right there. The human nature is to focus on where that action is, but then and so I think a lot of attention has been paid to improve in shops' efficiency on that side of the process. Okay. That's only half of it. The other half is over here on the workholding side. Yeah. It's not as sexy maybe, or as fun to watch, but it has an equal part in terms of the quality of the components, the productivity of the shop's environment. I really think that that is an area where a lot of attention and opportunities to improve your bottom line will be for years to come and customers, we know customers are starting to recognize the same thing. They haven't really, I guess, investigated that side of the process as they have the metal removal side.

Wade Anderson:

Sure. Tell us a little bit about SCHUNK. Who is SCHUNK as a company, how’d it get started and where are we at today? You kind of take us through the history, if you will.

Allan Logan:

Well, yeah, that's a great question. SCHUNK is a fascinating company. SCHUNK is a family-owned company. Currently, third generation leadership. SCHUNK started as a machine shop right after World War II in 1945. The founder, Frederick Schunk, started making precision automotive components for manufacturers, such as Porsche. Actually the Porsche 356 was the first automobile he started making components for. Shortly after that, his son, Heinz Dieter Schunk joined the business in 1964. Heinz Dieter had a vision to produce chuck jaws. His father having a shop, constantly needing to manufacture chuck jaws for the different work that was coming through. Hans Dieter recognized that there would be an opportunity to standardize. Shortly after that, the Schunk family introduced the first standard jaw program in Germany. That was 1945, 1964. The company continued to evolve, got into technology, such as hydraulic tool holding, and then say around 1989, 1990, the company had now grown from say a 10-person machine shop to a global player in workholding technology of 3,500 employees.

Allan Logan:

The company continued to grow, acquire other companies, get into other technologies. Today SCHUNK, as I mentioned, comprised of over 3,500 employees with 33 international subsidiaries, and is the global, a global player, I should say, in clamping and gripping technology. You might ask, "What is the difference between clamping and gripping?"

Allan Logan:

Clamping is the workholding side of our business and tool holding. You've got our hydraulic tool holding technology. You also have our lathe chunk technology and our stationary workholding technology. In stationary workholding, you'll find the workholding that you would have for your machining centers, vices, zero-point clamping systems, magnets, vacuum technology. A very broad company with a passion to bring technology innovations to the market. To help our customers help their customers. You got the clamping side and then the gripping side. Gripping is where our automation expertise lives. SCHUNK is a global leader in automation technologies, such as end of arm tooling. We're headquartered in Germany, but to bring it closer to home, we actually have our US headquarters in Morrisville, North Carolina, close to the Raleigh Airport. There we manufacture, and we also have our sales and marketing and other administrative functions to run the business. We also have a tech center in Houston, Texas, where we support partners, such as Okuma, with customer applications, much like the tech centers you have in Texas as well.

Wade Anderson:

Sure. Yeah. A lot of times we keep a machine on your floor there in Houston as well. We try to share from a partner technology standpoint. We have a lot of your components, obviously, all over our tech center, but it's nice to give you guys a platform to be able to test and prove out products on as well there. You have a really nice facility in Houston.

Allan Logan:

Absolutely. The thing I think about it's so neat with those tech centers is we together as partners can collaborate and develop processes for our customers outside of their production floor. Anytime we can help our customers realize efficiency gains and do it remotely at the Partners in THINC, or at one of the SCHUNK tech centers, then that's time we're not developing a process at the customer. That's time they can use to continue to meet their customers' demands. The technology is really, in a sense, developed and proven to a point outside of the production environment.

Wade Anderson:

Right. When it hits the shop floor, now it's a matter of execution rather than development?

Allan Logan:

That's right. I said earlier, we develop the process to a point, right? Because we all know that once it goes to the shop and it's in a production environment, there's things that we cannot anticipate. There are certain conditions that we just can't replicate in a tech center, but maybe 90% of the development is done. That's a really strong resource for our customers and something that I know you and I are both very proud of that we can offer to our customers.

Wade Anderson:

Absolutely. You mentioned the headquarters here in North America. You guys just went through a recent expansion, correct?

Allan Logan:

Yeah, we did. Actually our third expansion.

Wade Anderson:

Third? Wow.

Allan Logan:

Yes. Since 1992. So 1992, it was incorporated in Morrisville, North Carolina. Our president is Milton Guerry. Since then we've had three expansions, as you mentioned, the last one, the most recent being in May of 2019. There we expanded our manufacturing facility and also our sales and marketing offices as well. The expansion is actually set for growth. Because right now we don't occupy all of the office space let's say. Manufacturing is a different story. We’ve got it full of machines and Okuma machines, by the way. We are anticipating a lot of growth and we're built to grow.

Wade Anderson:

One of the things I find interesting the last time I walked through your shop, as soon as you walk in, it always interests me when I see customers that are actually using their products in a manufacturing environment. It's one thing to talk about principles and things that you should be doing as a manufacturer. It's something else when you're actually walking the talk and SCHUNK does that. You walk into the floor and there's automated cells. Your gripping technologies, things you're talking about, you're wringing it out in a real world manufacturing environment.

Allan Logan:

Yeah. That's a great point, Wade. I think about the Okuma MACTURN that we have on the shop floor. That machine is equipped with SCHUNK grippers because it's an automated cell. We have our end of arm tooling tending the machine. We have our lathe chuck on the machine holding the tool holders that we're turning and milling. Then we have our tool holders that are actually holding the cutting tools. Yeah, it's a really neat place to see where we use our product to make our own product. It's a great opportunity for customers to come by and see what it is that we're doing, and maybe give them some ideas on how they can utilize some of the technology in their own shops.

Wade Anderson:

Right. The automation component, one of the things I noticed, you guys have your OEE measurements in place. You've got a big board and, at least last time I was there, it was on one end of the shop where you could see all the machines, what the OEE, the efficiency was on them. As you're talking about the MACTURN with the robot on it at the time was the highest overall efficient machine within your manufacturing cell.

Wade Anderson:

I forgot the exact percentage, but it was quite a bit higher from all the machines that were not automated. That to me really speaks to why do you need to automate, right? Machine shops only make money if that spindle's turning. You think about a robot- sometimes isn't as fast as a person, but they don't take breaks, they don't walk away, they don't stop and stare at their cell phones, and things of that nature. Even though sometimes the load time, things of that nature, may be a little bit different than what you might see John Doe sitting here throwing parts into a chuck. But the consistency of the overall process was so much greater than everything around it. It was a real eye-opener for me.

Allan Logan:

Yeah, it's definitely something we believe strongly in, of course, being an automation company as well as a workholding company. Our president, Milton Guerry, he has a vision for automation that is second to none. I did fail to mention that part of the expansion that we talked about in May of last year included production of automation components as well, so that we can help secure delivery for our customers and react in a more timely fashion. Yeah, automation, it's funny when you were telling the story about the automation and not taking breaks and robots, that kind of thing. I never forget walking through a shop and they had the robot named, it was named Skip. I'm like, "Okay, skips break, skips lunch, skips vacation." Yeah.

Wade Anderson:

Skips all the things that you don't want it to be doing anyway. Right?

Allan Logan:

Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Yeah.

Wade Anderson:

That's funny, I've seen some unique things. I've seen people have robots with like clothes on them. I've seen, obviously, the Gosiger- the drink machine robot that they bring around to open houses and stuff. They have it in the little German outfit and things like that. Kind of comical what people do with them at times.

Allan Logan:

Yeah. For us at SCHUNK, automation and workholding, that's our core competency. We also see that automation is something that is creating jobs. By helping us be more competitive as a US manufacturing society. Automation is a good thing is my point.

Wade Anderson:

Absolutely. You can redeploy your assets into other environments that add a lot more value, not only to the company, but to their lives as well, giving an opportunity to learn new skills and bring more value to the overall operation.

Allan Logan:

Yeah. The robots are getting safer. That's the trend that we're seeing as well. It used to be the large manufacturers were the only ones investing in automation. Putting robots in place. As the technologies advance, that cost to implement has reduced. We are now seeing job shops that have to be very flexible from running a low volume high mix. Right?

Wade Anderson:

I can hear my belly rumble.

Allan Logan:

Small lot sizes and they may be setting up weekly or daily. Now there's the robot technology along with the end of arm tooling technology that allows you to be very flexible and safe. To be able to put a robot right beside a human.

Wade Anderson:

Right. I had John Touhey in doing a podcast here the other day. It's interesting to hear the leaps of technology that the automation houses are going through. FANUC's coming out with their line of collaborative robots that are not just the big robots with a green padding around it. They're truly cobots that live in that environment.

Wade Anderson:

I know from an Okuma perspective, years ago, we would look at projects, especially from a job shop perspective, and you would talk about automation and it was always in the future. We'll get the machine for now and maybe someday we'll automate it and some day's here, right? Now when we're looking at projects, a lot of them start with, "Okay, I need the machine and automation. We need the entire process. We got to figure out how we're taking parts from raw material to finished goods in a unmanned environment." The whole mentality really around automation has changed a lot. I think the environment we're in it has kind of ushered some of that, but a lot of it is just how do you get better process efficiency overall? That tends to be some low hanging fruit. Calculations I've worked on over the years. Labor's always such a huge component of the price to make that part. The more we can get that spindle to run without operator intervention or without manual intervention, the cheaper you can make that component.

Allan Logan:

Yeah. I always think about the machine world, the machining environment, there's way too many variables. Anytime you're trying to identify or troubleshoot a problem, it's a process of elimination. If you can reduce the amount of variables that you can with automation, then you're headed in the right direction. And you mentioned automation getting ready to automate, it's here today. I think it's been expedited with the current state of our society that we're living in right now. It's not a matter of if you're going to automate, but when. If you're thinking when to automate and you don't know, but it's coming, just my recommendation would be to number one, have the vision. Think big, start small. Scale up.

Wade Anderson:

Right.

Allan Logan:

So, what does that mean? Think big, we're going to need automation at some point at some level. Start small. What I mean by that is make sure your machine tool is accessorized with the workholding that will allow you to scale up.

Wade Anderson:

Mm-hmm. Let's talk about some of the products then, both from a workholding standpoint, but also automation. How does SCHUNK address that? How do you look at a process and do exactly that? Start small and provide the opportunity to scale up?

Allan Logan:

Yeah, that's a good question. What we would recommend that any customer do, let's take a machining center, a milling machine. Is that you need to be flexible. And you need to have the technology platform on the table of the machine that allows you to build on top of that. Maybe it's build on top of that with a vice, or maybe it's build on top of that with a magnet, or maybe it's build on top of that with a manual chuck, right? We at SCHUNK have a zero-point clamping system. We know it as VERO-S and so that then becomes your new table in a sense.

Allan Logan:

You put it there, it gives you a base or a platform for modularity. All those different workholding devices I had mentioned, whether it be a vice, a chuck, a magnet, a vacuum, those technologies are equipped to interface directly with the VERO-S zero-point clamping system. You can go from holding a round part with a three jaw chuck to holding a square part with a vice and never have to re-indicate your workholding. Because once you do it one time and save that into your program, the next time you run the job, you just call that program and hit cycle start.

Wade Anderson:

That reduces your change over time. You've got a known location that you’re going to, you can set up your process sheets accordingly. Operators know exactly, "I'm putting this workholding on, it goes in these different locations..." To me, that's always the low hanging fruit, the changeover times, those are typically the areas where you can make big impacts to the company on keeping that spindle running. Those are great systems to have. I like what you're saying, start with the modularity. Then you're flexible from that point on to address what type of work you're bringing in.

Allan Logan:

Absolutely. SCHUNK is uniquely positioned in that space. The reason I say that is we are a company that provides not only the quick change workholding platform or base, but we also provide automation. We're constantly thinking about the developments for our workholding and how they can be automated. Our VERO-S zero-point system...

Wade Anderson:

You're kind of starting with the end point in mind, right? You know at some point that's got to be automated. You're starting that process early on from the workholding.

Allan Logan:

That's right. That's right. You can have a person quickly change out one clamping device to another, or you can have a robot do it. That's where our two core competencies really merged together to complement our customer and our customer's customer. You also brought up the point about automation and one of the things I think about is the skills gap. We know that there's a skills gap in our industry.

Wade Anderson:

It's a big talking point from Maine to California. Coast to coast. Everybody says, "Well, we're unique. We can't find skilled operators." You're really not unique. That's a common theme across the nation.

Allan Logan:

It is, and the educational institutions are doing what they can to help bring that forward.

Wade Anderson:

Yeah.

Allan Logan:

I want to speak about two things. Number one, at SCHUNK, we're extremely proud that we have an apprenticeship program where we graduate 60-some-odd apprentices a year.

Wade Anderson:

That's excellent.

Allan Logan:

That started in Germany, but we also foster that development in North Carolina as well. That's important to help fill the skills gap. I also think our products can help fill the skills gap. In one way, I go back to our zero-point clamping, quick change clamping technology. We talked about if you set the job up once, you indicate your device, workholding device. You save it, it's going to be there the next time that you set that job up. Because it's going to repeat in less than five microns, two tenths, if you will.

Wade Anderson:

Yeah.

Allan Logan:

The shop says when I started, you would need a highly skilled machinist to set that job up every time. If you set up a lot of jobs every day, then you needed several of that type of skill. Well, with the zero point systems, the VERO-S. Now you can take that process, prove it out, save your work shift offsets, come back to it. You can come back to it a hundred times and you never have to indicate again. What that just did is instead of having a set up person do it a hundred times, now they do it once.

Wade Anderson:

Right. Yep. Save that. That gets recalled and it's repeatable. Now you've got a process that's repeatable. Then long-term-wise again, if it's repeatable and it's known, now you can automate it.

Allan Logan:

Absolutely.

Wade Anderson:

All right. This time of year, we should typically be in IMTS. We should be sitting in the big trade show and sitting eyeball-to-eyeball with people, but we're doing all that remote. We're going to be talking a lot about IMTS Spark here in the next little bit. What's SCHUNK, what are you guys doing for IMTS, IMTS Spark, and just the future outlook on how do we still work together and tackle problems together only not be as physical, in front of each other as we once were?

Allan Logan:

Yeah. SCHUNK is committed to IMTS. We're committed to providing our customer with the solutions, the products to help them envision where they can see their path in the future. As you mentioned this year, we're not able to come together, which is for me, at IMTS, I reflect and I get a lot of energy from that show. It's our time. The manufacturing world. It's our time to come together and introduce new technologies. Yep. That's not going to happen, but we are committed to supporting IMTS and the Spark series. Yeah, it's a new platform. It's different, but we're up to the challenge to help provide the content. Much like we would do in building out our booth at IMTS, since we're not able to do that. Luckily we do have a different platform, as you mentioned, Spark. We are participating and we will have every month, a different industry trend that we're going to highlight.

Wade Anderson:

Oh, that's interesting.

Allan Logan:

Yeah. Yeah. The first month will be future readiness. The second month will be a theme. Five-axis machining. Then third would be skills gap and, and so on and so forth.

Wade Anderson:

Define future readiness. What does that look like for SCHUNK?

Allan Logan:

What it looks like for SCHUNK is, first and foremost, trying to think ahead and help our customers with the technology that they need to automate. I'd say for SCHUNK, it's having thought leaders in mind. What's coming, how can we help our customers take advantage of that?

Wade Anderson:

Sharing what you see basically on the horizon and then how do you navigate through it?

Allan Logan:

Yep. How do you innovate? How do you develop and then industrialize to bring it to the market so that our customers can take advantage of their future and start planning?

Wade Anderson:

Excellent. I like that term. Future readiness. That's something you can sink your teeth in. There's a lot of meaning behind that. Education is such an important thing. I think most shops, they only know what they're experienced by. If you stay kind of in a cocoon and you only do things a certain way, and that's all you do, eventually the world and technology is going to blow past you.

Wade Anderson:

You got to stay educated, you got to see what the new innovations are, and then have that future outlook. What's on the horizon? Anytime I talk to customers, I always like to know, where are you currently? What are you trying to accomplish today, right now? Then where are you trying to get to five years from now? I know people can say, "Man, five years, that's too far out, the way, how fast the world's changing." You got to have a vision of where you're trying to take your company and your shop or your manufacturing process. Then a lot of our job is to make sure what we're doing right here today doesn't handicap you from getting where you're wanting to go tomorrow, five years from now. Down the road. That's a really good outlook on that.

Allan Logan:

That's, I think, one of the realizations I've had is as soon as you learn how smart you're not, the smarter you become. Because you opened up your mind, right? You enlist the experts in that space, whether it be the machine tool builders, such as Okuma or the clamping and gripping experts, such as SCHUNK. Utilize the resources that are out there to help prepare for the future.

Wade Anderson:

Yeah. Through the Partners and THINC group, you've heard me talk and I use this a lot and it's a big part of my philosophy with the partners side of things, but it's forced multiplication. If you try to tackle everything by yourself, one person at a time, you've only got so much bandwidth in whatever that is. Whether that's knowledge, whether that's expertise, experience. You've only got so much, but now if I work with you, I just added to that. I work with this guy, I just added to that. You're multiplying that effect. You take a group of companies that work well together. You're not just working with me and what I know. Now you're working with what I know and what you know, and the people that you've been around and you multiply all that force and that experience to tackle your projects or problems.

Allan Logan:

Wade, I think you just found a fourth dimension.

Wade Anderson:

Yeah? Now we're getting too deep.

Allan Logan:

Yeah, yeah.

Wade Anderson:

Well, I think we're kind of wrapping in on our time here. Allan, how do they find you? If somebody out here is listening to this podcast and says, I want to know more about what Allan's talking about and more about SCHUNK, how do they reach out to you guys?

Allan Logan:

There's a lot of ways to find us. We have our field service reps. We have on the clamping side, we've got 20. On the automation side, we've got another 20. There's 40, roughly 40, employees eager to serve our customers. You can also visit www.SCHUNK.com. Or you can reach out directly to our office in Morrisville, North Carolina and the toll free number is (800) 772-4865.

Wade Anderson:

All right. Allan, I appreciate your time today. Thank you for joining us on this episode of Shop Matters. Allan, I appreciate all the knowledge you brought us on SCHUNK and the workholding and automation pieces. If you have thoughts, ideas, questions, or anything that you want to hear on a future podcast, feel free to reach out to us. You can reach us at www.Okuma.com/shop-matters. We'll talk to you next time.