Accessible Test

Stackups

(Product Maintenance)
Technical Research received notice of a customer complaint regarding separation of the Velcro from the cubes in the Stackups kit. The customer’s returned parts were examined and found to have the white hook Velcro separating from the cubes. The blue loop Velcro was not separating. The Project Leader and Technical Research examined materials that were in stock and found no separation but it was noted the white hook Velcro was easier to remove from the cube than the blue loop. Samples were placed in a high heat environment to try to speed the process of adhesive failure but samples survived this test. Technical Research worked with the Purchasing Department and the vendor to find adhesive for the hook material that will hold as well as the loop material. The vendor made samples for review by the Project Leader and Technical Research. These samples were approved and production of the cubes was resumed. A new shipment of the cubes was received and tested in July. These were accepted and the kits with new cubes were stocked in July.

All Urethane Parts—72 Items/34 kits

(Special Project/Product Maintenance)
On Oct 11, 2008, Tri-Plastics in Huntington Indiana had a catastrophic fire that destroyed all tooling for urethane foam molded parts for APH. All parts’ tooling was at this facility because APH’s original vendor (Jasper Plastics) had asked to end a long standing production relationship with APH. Technical Research immediately began working with the Purchasing and Inventory Departments to secure any sample parts from stock that were available. Any items not available from stock were pulled from the Technical Research standards library. Seventy-two items were collected, physically organized, and labeled by part number in Technical Research. Next, all items were photographed to create an inventory of digital images for reference when discussing parts with potential vendors. These photos included the part numbers and a scale to give the size of the part. All parts were weighed and the weight of the urethane part (used by vendors in figuring material amounts for production) was noted. All parts were reviewed for proper Pantone number identification of part color. Archives of Technical Research and the Model Shop were researched for drawings of parts. Also, Technical Research had kept many patterns of items when the Model Shop was organized some years back. These patterns were examined and several parts were found that tooling could potentially be re-made from these older patterns. Most of the items involved were very old (25-30 years) and documentation of these items was somewhat sparse. However, either drawings or patterns were found on approximately 20% of the parts involved. Technical Research next took all information, organized it, and created a database that could be sorted by column to give information needed on the status of items as well as to help prioritize which items to work on first. This database contains information regarding: the item part number, what catalogue item the part is used in, the page of the APH catalogue the kit appears on, the pantone number of the part, the weight of the part, whether or not there are drawings of the part, whether or not any pattern is located in either the Model Shop or the shelves of Technical Research, a notation if the part is being considered for either re-design or dropping from production, total inventory of the kit the part is used in, inventory of the kit (in months) the existing stock will cover, and Project Leader associated with the kit. This database was distributed to the Director of Research, Project Leaders, and Production and Production Support areas. Once information, tooling, and drawings were organized work began in earnest to replace tooling and put the parts back in to production. Two kits were immediately re-designed to avoid the use of urethane parts. Both had new parts made using a material called Excel, a form of plastic that was cut to shape rather than molded as the urethane parts were. For many of the parts, existing parts located from APH stock or from the Technical Research standards library were used to make tooling drawings. Drawings were reviewed and changes made as needed. These drawings were submitted to several vendors, including the vendor that had originally made the parts. As bids were awarded, vendors made tooling. Prior to any full production, vendors were required to submit pre-production approval samples for review by Technical Research for accuracy of dimensions, quality of finish, and color of part. Once a sample part was approved, the vendor could start production. Nineteen kits have had tooling approved and have either been produced or are in production. Technical Research was successful in locating old patterns used to make the original production molds on nine different parts impacting three different kits. These were turned over to the Model Shop where the patterns were evaluated, repaired (as needed), and used to pour new master patterns for tooling. This process saved time, labor, and money in re-creating the production molds. This was particularly important on U.S. Puzzle Map kit because those molds were made from very intricate master pieces of the states. This would have been very difficult to re-create. Within 10 months of the fire, 30 of the 34 kits impacted are either completely re-tooled and are back in production, in-process of re-tooling at the vendor for production, or have been discontinued.
Four kits remain needing further work before the re-tooling process can begin. One kit currently has 20 molds. Technical Research is working on a re-design of the tooling for the kit that will cut the number of molds from 20 to 10. Five molds will be made the traditional way, via drawings of the tooling. However, 15 of the molds should be able to be combined down to five molds with the use of electronic CAD files and rapid prototyping. Two kits currently have drawings in-process. One of these is a complete re-design of the part and the second is a very complex part. Both will require extensive work to complete the drawings. One kit is on hold currently pending responses to surveys about the kit and the urethane part. Any changes requested by Trustees will be incorporated into the design of the new part during the re-tooling process. Or, if the responses indicate the kit is no longer useful, it will be discontinued. The progress to date is the direct result of the coordinated efforts of Technical Research, Operations Engineering, the Model Shop, and Purchasing. Work on this is ongoing to complete the last four kits and to monitor the first production runs of the re-tooled kits.