BY TIM PENNINGTON EDITOR
An audit of its liquid coating
system led to $100,000 in
savings for one shop.
Mauser applies more than 60 different colors
of paint to the steel barrels and lids it produces.
20
OCTOBER 2017 — PFonline.com
In manufacturing, it is called drift: the operational
phenomena whereby practices and procedures move away
over time from optimized performance. Where turning the
knob to 5 seems to produce just as good a job as when it was
set to 3.
Almost all parts of the manufacturing process are victim-
ized by it, especially finishing, where the amount of liquid
paint that is sprayed on a part gets edged up over the months
and years after the finishing equipment was first installed and
dialed in.
"It happens to the best of us," says Jim DiFonzo, plant
manager at Mauser, a Warren, Pennsylvania, shop that makes
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In-Tune Liquid Equipment
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