April 8, 2009 - Hawes Signs, based in Northampton, UK are manufacturers of corporate signs, serving blue chip companies such as BP, Lloyds TSB and the Post Office. In the early 1990's they purchased Nisshinbo and Raskin punch presses. After winning a three-year contract in 1999 for a multi-national petroleum corporation to replace petrol filling station corporate signs they purchased the Amada Vipros 358 punch press. At this point it was clear that the existing CAM system would not be able drive the Amada, so they researched the market for an alternative.

Said Tony Warner, Production Engineer; “We looked at three systems, one of which was JETCAM. It was clear that it was by far the superior of the three at that time.” The company purchased three licenses of JETCAM Expert, along with a license of JETTerm DNC for handling data transfer to the Amada. Free form and rectangular high performance nesting modules were also installed. Staff were trained on the system within two days. Of the training Tony said; “Other systems lacked colour, but I find the JETCAM interfaces easy to navigate. The tooltips within JETCAM Expert allowed me to quickly learn the system.”

In 2005 the company purchased a license of JETCAM Orders Controller (JOC) to improve order management, which Tony cites made a stark improvement; “JOC is very inventive. Overnight we saw a 30% improvement as we could quickly and intelligently create job queues and assemblies. This had a knock on effect of reducing guillotining times.” In 2008 the company decided to re-evaluate their CAM investment; “I did take another look at a competing system that I used to work with, but JETCAM was still better in terms of the ease of use and functionality. We then talked to Press and Shear about updating our JETCAM and JOC licenses.”

In July 2008 Hawes Signs purchased a maintenance contract update enabling them to benefit from the latest versions of JETCAM Expert, JOC and JETTerm, each of which included many new features. JETCAM Expert’s sequencing has been enhanced, and it now includes a tool teach mode that allows the software to learn preferred tooling methods. A new reporting engine provided easily customisable reports. JOC’s interface had been streamlined, improving data entry further and providing fast assembly creation and management.
Tony added; “We asked JETCAM if it was possible to design reports that would help operators to unload nests containing parts from different customers. In the latest version the new reports designer gave us just that, which made a massive, immediate difference. The sequencing also significantly improved nest cutting time, auto-tooling and nesting has improved and JOC has helped us to get data into the system much quicker. Together these features have helped us to get five days of punching performed in just three!”

Support and stability are crucial to a company that relies heavily on specific products, and Hawes Signs have been extremely pleased with the support from UK distributor Press and Shear; “Since I've used the software it’s never crashed and has been 100% reliable. I probably put in one call a year to them. Our support requirement is significantly less than with the previous system, and they actually contact me for updates rather than me having to chase them.”

Although the UK economy has suffered in 2009 Hawes Signs are confident that they are keenly placed to weather the storm and are achieving the maximum performance from JETCAM. Tony finalised; “We only work two days in advance on the shopfloor, and it has massively improved on our ability to react. A combination of several direct benefits from the upgrade to the JETCAM products saw a return on investment conservatively estimated at just 3-4 weeks, which provided us with a considerable improvement to our throughput.”

Benefits Achieved

* Return on investment on upgrade in 3-4 weeks
* 1/3rd reduction in scrap due to software update
* Programming time 30% faster using JOC and new functions
* Can now perform 5 days of punching in three days due to streamlined material loading, sequencing and nest efficiency
* Customisable reports with nests and part images allow for quick part identification
* New staff trained internally in two days
* Less support requirement
* Local dealer excellent pre and post sales support
* Extremely stable system

For more information contact Martin Bailey, Marketing Manager. Digital images are available to download from www.jetcam.com/images/pr_hawes_pics.zip (3MB)

About JETCAM International
JETCAM International has been developing and distributing its JETCAM Expert range of CADCAM software since 1986. In use in over 70 countries worldwide, JETCAM Expert software supports virtually every CNC punching, laser, plasma, routing, waterjet and flatbed cutting machine available today, allowing users to program any combination of CNC machines with a single CAM system.

Contact information:

JETCAM International
Terrasses du Port
2 Avenue des Ligures
MC98000 Monaco
Tel: +44 (0)870 760 6469
E-mail: Email Contact
Web: www.jetcam.com