CAD/CAM Helps Container Systems Grow

Like many manufacturers, Container Systems (Franklinton, NC) took a heavy hit after 9/11. This thriving manufacturer of heavy duty shipping containers, boxes and specialty containers for electronics and communications equipment, as well as plywood reels for the rope and cable industries, saw the previous year's sales of $8 million drop to $4 million.

Today, this company is leaner and sales are pushing toward the previous high. To stay competitive in the post 9/11 business environment, Container Systems relies heavily on automated manufacturing with a high speed router to keep pace with increased business volume using less manpower and equipment. The company purchased an Accu-Router to cut reels and manufacture parts for any containers that require precision hole cutting. At the recommendation of the router manufacturer, the company also purchased Mastercam CAD/CAM software to generate programs for the router.

Scott Parsons, vice president of Container Systems, says, "Mastercam has been a great productivity tool for us. Without it, I would be spending most of my time making drawings manually and programming the router." Parsons explains that about 25 percent of the work volume in his business is accomplished using the router and software. After a little training in both, it took just nine months for Parsons to become very proficient with these systems.

Initially, it took him five or six hours a day to write programs for the router. Now he spends only one or two hours a week writing new programs or tweaking existing ones. Instead of being overwhelmed with the new technology, it has given Parsons time to create more container designs and seek new business opportunities.

Today, instead of using traditional band saws, Container Systems cuts with the router. Automatic cutting is faster and more accurate. Where it once took an hour or so to change over to a new job, the transition is now almost instantaneous. "We change things on the fly. If a customer calls and says, 'hey stop running 12 in reels, now I need 14½ in reels', we just press a button," adds Parsons.

Container Systems manufactures around 10,000 reels per week. There were once 14 people working in this area. Today, with the CAD/CAM software and the router, there are only ten. Besides making it possible to relocate four workers to other manufacturing tasks, the software and the router replaced three pieces of conventional manufacturing equipment (including two older manually programmed CNC systems) that are now used only for overflow production needs.

Parsons remarks, "We have 45 guys in the plant. Those who were working on the reels moved to other jobs in the plant. No jobs were lost and we grew our business." In terms of increased productivity, he added that Mastercam would pay for itself in less than a year and also provides a subtler dividend: "Now when a potential customer comes in and sees that machine running, we show them how we can do their program on Mastercam. It's a powerful sales tool."