improvements

As we all start off the new year, I have been reflecting and bouncing around between what has happened in the past, as well as what kind of outlook I have/want for the future. I think it is human nature for us all to do this and dare I say the holidays and reconnecting with some people we don’t see often increases the focus on the past.

While I love watching the videos of projects that I have completed personally over the years. In some images below, I try to focus more on how I can continue to pull the positives out and prevent the pitfalls. Things like demolishing the “finished” part of our basement and building it into a brighter and more functional space for our family of 5. Some of the highlights included my daughters at every step of the process, even down to leaving “notes” on the walls for the next person who works in the room. I still do my best to make sure they get involved with any project, and it has to be far more than just watching or holding this while I do work. I take the time to educate them and ensure they get to add experiences to their memory and I hope it all takes root throughout the years, and they can call back on these experiences as they move forward.

That’s one saying that has stuck with me since the Marvel series Luke Cage. When it seemed as though he was getting pulled backward or potentially taking the wrong direction, he would say, “Always forward, never back.” This was the motto of his mentor, Pops, who encouraged Luke to move in the right direction and not step backward in his progress. It’s my experience though that, like Luke, this will get tested many times throughout the year and experience is the only true way to learn something. That is why I try to encourage experiences in all aspects of my life. I let my daughters do things and try solutions they come up with as long as they are safe. If they ask for input, I will offer it. Sometimes I try to steer them clear of big mistakes and try to get them some direction as to why.

This year I have already started a project that involves rebuilding a basketball hoop and installing it for my family and friends to use. Now, I could have gone out and bought replacement parts and even a new goal. While my budget wouldn’t really allow new and replacement parts seem to be a bit high, I am taking the time to further my skills, and my daughter’s experiences, and spend some intentional time with my family in the process.

This came with some work to do from finding the original specs on the arms that hold the backboard on and also refreshing my CAD skills while learning new software that I could use for free at home to help me verify the angles the pieces need to be cut at. From here I will start making cuts and then weld up new arms. You had better believe that I will have each one of my daughters out in the garage with me learning how to at least try and weld, so they can understand the level of effort that goes into making something out of what someone else may consider trash.

So what does all of this have to do with EXAIR and how we conduct our business? Well, as a member of the team here, I devote myself to continuously improving and learning. This could be things like testing myself like others have on the CCASS certification and deeper dives into our product offerings like the flow curves on a pressure regulator. I’m not the only one here that has that drive either. The entire team here is constantly pushing and driving forward to ensure we bring our customers and contacts the highest-level products, knowledge, and experience, and can confidently share our experiences with you to increase your potential success when implementing an engineered solution.

If you want to advance your process and knowledge, or just see if EXAIR has any experience with what you are having trouble with, contact an Application Engineer today.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

We understand that it is more important than ever to realize savings within manufacturing processes. EXAIR can reduce compressed air consumption and provide simple ROI in a matter of weeks in MANY cases.

In the hustle and bustle of the daily grind wherever you are, there are certain processes that become muscle memory for you and certain processes that just work and don’t need any attention. Whether it be a login process for your computer network, the number of steps it takes to fill your coffee cup, or the compressed air applications in your facility.

You know what I am talking about, these items begin to get glanced over and often become overlooked. When going through process improvements or troubleshooting, it is easy to overlook processes which are not causing trouble or that have become “acceptable” because they are producing. EXAIR firmly believes compressed air applications are ripe for improvement, and our product lines are built to replace inefficient compressed air products with engineered and efficient solutions.

When evaluating a process for improvement creating a baseline is the necessary start. With this, we can then start to draw a realistic target of where the process needs to be in order to be optimized and document the changes from our starting baseline.

Much like the 6 Steps to Compressed Air Optimization, which starts with measuring compressed air consumption to provide a baseline. Sometimes, this may require the installation of a Digital Flowmeter, others it may include taking advantage of our Efficiency Lab service for us to get a baseline of what air consumption and other key performance indicators are for your application.

Once we have the baseline and a target, we can then begin to design an improvement process. Whether this is implementing better controls for the air, such as pressure regulators, or implementing controllers such as the Electronic Flow Control, it may even be simply installing an engineered solution. Once an improvement has been implemented we can then go on to the next testing phase to again gather data to see how much air was saved from the baseline.

Once the performance of the new process is determined then we can take the new cost of ownership numbers and give a simple return on investment back to determine what the actual savings by implementing these process improvements have amounted to.

The below example is from a customer who had already improved their static elimination application by using our Super Ion Air Knife instead of a homemade pipe with drilled holes. They further optimized the application with our Electronic Flow Control.

If you would like to talk through methods for process improvement or how we can help you determine these costs, please reach out.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

Tag: improvements

New Year New Knowledge.. Always Forward, Never Back.

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