Partner: Honda of Canada Mfg. (HCM) has collaborated with the MMRI on over 90 projects of varying size and scope since 2014 with support from Ontario’s Advanced Manufacturing Consortium (AMC) and NSERC’s CANRIMT Strategic network grant. Projects have focused on solving technical production issues as well as developing and demonstrating new technology to significantly improve quality, cost and productivity. These projects fostered learning within Honda with success coming from gaining a deeper understanding of the manufacturing processes and materials involved. Ultimately, these projects generated profit and long-term solutions for Honda.
Challenge: One of HCM's highest cost processes in the engine plant is machining the extremely precise bores that the engine's crank shaft runs in. Precision of these bores directly influences engine efficiency and longevity. Honda's latest engine design changed these features in an effort to improve efficiency. However, these new changes resulted in a significant reduction in tool life due to the very unique challenges in bi-metal machining (a single tool cutting both aluminum and cast iron at once). As a highly specialized process, very little support was available to address this issue internally and from HCM's suppliers.
Solution: The MMRI team worked closely with HCM on both HCM's production floor and in the MMRI lab. Extensive analysis of HCM's process and tools was completed, resulting in replicating HCM's process in the MMRI lab to allow for rapid and reliable testing of ideas, avoiding the need to disrupt production. The MMRI identified several short-term solutions to improve tool life and a novel tooling solution to extract more life from each tool (with the idea now patented and implemented in HCM production), while also establishing long-term research initiatives to further improve cost, productivity and quality in this process in the future.
Impact: To date, two of the recommendations from the MMRI that represent a significant cost reduction in tooling alone, have resulted in rapid adoption at HCM and have also been implemented at Honda plants across North America. Additional savings are realized indirectly through reduced downtime, reduced scrap due to out-of-tolerance parts, and reduced personnel time in monitoring the process. As one of the final steps in producing engine blocks, any scrap produced at this stage was very expensive.
Testimonial: “I have been working with the MMRI since 2014, and our relationship has become very comfortable and seamless. We have been able to bounce ideas off each other to bring to test and success both in the MMRI facility and at Honda. The engine’s crank bore project has been the most successful, receiving a patent for the machining process, and without McMaster’s development of rapid testing to avoid disruption of production, it would not have been possible to get proof of concept to the machining floor quickly. The solution from this project was applied to most Honda facilities worldwide, with the same machining processing, and it was presented at all the Honda conferences. The greatest success of this project was being told by the engineer that developed this equipment, ‘they had never thought of machining it this way’. I look forward to continuing our relationship with McMaster and the MMRI team.” - Joe Zarb, Tooling Specialist –Powertrain Division, Honda of Canada Mfg.