THE BUSINESS OF VISCOSITY BLOG

We talk a lot about the new reality for coil coaters. Their customers are demanding smaller lot sizes and more frequent shipments. Often they are asking for delivery of just a portion of a coil!

This has driven coil coating runtimes down proportionately. The average coating system run is now less than one hour. In turn, this translates into 1–2 color changes per hour. And if you do the math on that, it extends out to more than 30 color changes per day!

In our recent blog, “3 Ways PCM Reduces Costs in Aluminum and Steel Coil Coating," we outlined the case of one of our clients who utilized the PCM to address cleaning issues in their coating systems. They reduced their paint delivery system volume by more than 70% which:

Disposal of drums of waste paint and coating is a necessary evil for anyone in the industrial coating or finishing business, but is especially true for coil coaters.

Color changes represent a significant cost to every coil coater – a cost that gets added to every job they run – and as such, a cost that gets passed along to the customer. The components of a color change are the same for every coater. Every color change consumes:

• Paint
• Solvent
• Line time
• Labor

In our recent blog, “Increase Run Time: Add the PCM to Coil Coating Fluid Process," we showed that if we remove preventative maintenance (scheduled downtime) from total downtime in industrial coating and other paint and coating processes, we could divide the remaining sources of unscheduled downtime on a coil coating line into five categories:

Every manufacturing business that survived the infamous “downturn” has increased their focus on operating costs in order to remain viable and competitive. In many markets, however, “remaining competitive” means extending warranties and reducing price. This translates into reducing inventory and controlling what is paid for goods with no compromise in the quality of the goods received.

Coated coil users and those in industrial coating industries are no exception.

One of our coil coating customers in the Southeastern United States specializing in high quality aluminum coating and steel coil coating, found himself at a competitive disadvantage because his line is not equipped with a second top-finish head to provide “quick-change” capability.

Though not alone, this left him with no way to embed cleaning time into his coating system run time, which meant that every minute spent cleaning represented time that the line was down. This was limiting the capacity.

The Profile Correction Module (PCM) provided a low-cost solution to their problem.

Partial drums are a big pain for metal roofing coaters, just as they are for all coil coaters. They have to be handled. They have to be stored. They are full of expensive paint, which represents a cost and has to be accounted for on the books of the business – either as an expense or as an asset. Neither of which is an attractive option!

Please excuse the trite reference to Stephen Covey! But in this case, there really are seven traits that we see that signify that we are working with a world-class coater. Truly world class coil coaters are identified by their ability to:

1. Provide a high quality surface finish batch-after-batch
2. Deliver on time, every time

In order to stay competitive, coil coaters are continuously working to implement leaner operations with the goal of optimizing the throughput in their coating systems. These objectives would seem to be in direct contrast to the marketplace, which is demanding more frequent deliveries of smaller and smaller batches – often of custom colors – which all suggest less efficient operations.

Enter SCS’ innovative coating technology, the Profile Correction Module (PCM).