Mazak Names Ben Schawe Vice President of Manufacturing
(FLORENCE, KY, July 27, 2007) - Mazak Corporation announces it has promoted Plant Manager Ben Schawe, a 30-year Mazak veteran, to Vice President of Manufacturing, effective immediately.
As Schawe began his Mazak career seeking to work with the latest equipment, it's fitting that his promotion comes during another upgrading of large production equipment at Mazak's Florence, KY plant that is recognized for its continuous improvements. This investment will further enhance throughput capability an estimated 50 percent when completed late in 2007.
"Right now, we're looking to increase production," Schawe says. "We already have Production on Demand, our pull-through manufacturing system. We're evolving now to High Production on Demand. Our goal is to maintain the same excellent quality, the same efficiency, yet increase the number of machines we're producing in Kentucky.
"One of the things we pride ourselves on is using the latest in Mazak manufacturing technology to make the latest Mazak advanced machine tools," Schawe continues. "We're doing that right now and always plan to do more."
Mazak is installing its new Versatech V-140N five-face, double-column machining center with a two-table changer capable of machining an amazing 95,000-pound load capacity. It also features a nutating head combining B- and C-axis rotary motions capable of 50-horsepower cuts. Machine strokes are 433 inches in the X, 181 inches in the Y, and 28 inches in the Z axis, allowing the machine to reach the top and four sides of a part, plus any angled features, in a single setup.
The technology upgrade is nothing new for Schawe, or for Mazak. In fact, Schawe's advancement from a co-op student in Mazak's applications engineering department to the company's Vice President of Manufacturing, mirrors Mazak's own growth as a manufacturer in the United States.
A native of the Florence area, Schawe was a student at Northern Kentucky University when he joined Mazak in 1978 as a co-op student in the Applications Engineering Department writing CNC programs, performing customer time studies, and demonstrating Mazak equipment for customers.
"After running Mazak machines at the job shop I was working at, I saw they were some of the higher-tech machines," Schawe says of his reasons for joining Mazak. "I was very interested in advanced manufacturing technology and a company that was committed to investing in new manufacturing ideals."
Shortly after graduating from NKU with a Bachelor of Science degree in manufacturing engineering technology, Mazak expanded its north building and installed its first flexible manufacturing system (FMS). Schawe became Mazak's FMS Machining Manager. He spent six months in Japan training and actually building the system that would be installed in the U.S.
When the FMS Systems were set up in 1982, Mazak expanded the machining of the major machine tool components such as bases, headstocks, tailstocks, carriages, columns and tables, and then performed the complete assembly and calibration.
"It seems logical," Schawe says of Mazak's commitment to use its own technology to manufacture its products. "Mazak is, above all, a manufacturing company. Our global factories are on one hand, laboratories, and on the other hand, proof that our technologies lead customers to global competitiveness."
In 1984, Schawe moved back to the Applications Engineering Department, this time as National Applications Engineering Manager. Not surprisingly, the department was in the process of expansion, established regional offices and Technology Centers around the country in order to have facilities, personnel and Mazak technology in major manufacturing regions. Mazak now has eight Technology Centers throughout North America, 29 around the world.
"Applications engineering involves studying the customer's production situation and recommending the best Mazak equipment for his needs," Schawe explains. "It involves showing him how you'd process that part, providing time estimates, helping with job quotes, and setting up and running the customer part to verify cycle time and tolerance. It's a process of support to justify the machine and help customers use the machine."
Late in 1989, after the Florence plant doubled in size and capability (including three FMS cells, and an FMS laser system to process sheet metal), Schawe was named Machining Manager to implement the second phase of FMS into the facility.
"At that point, we started manufacturing our own spindles, and did heat treating and grinding," Schawe recalls. "We became totally self sufficient from Japan."
That expansion also enabled Mazak to build larger horizontal machining centers in addition to the vertical models and turning centers it had been building, further broadening its ability to increase manufacturing productivity for customers.
It also allowed the plant to process its own sheet metal, which is now one of its core competencies. That's critical to being able to tailor machines for specific customer needs since most customization results in a sheet metal modification to make way for a robot integration, chuck packages, or a bar feeder.
Schawe moved to Mazak's Design Engineering Group in 1996, just as the company started to design its own machines for the U.S. market. In that capacity, the VTC-30C Vertical Machining Center was designed by engineers in Florence for the U.S. market and exhibited at IMTS.
"That capability is very important in the eyes of the customer," Schawe says. "We emphasize that if customers have a special requirement, we've got the capability to help them. That's added value for them."
When Schawe was named Plant Manager in 2004, Mazak was in the process of again reorganizing its entire manufacturing operation based on its Production on Demand strategy. Essentially, Production on Demand moved Mazak from a build-to-forecast manufacturer to a build-to-order operation, greatly increasing efficiency and reducing waste.
"The whole Nexus series was designed for modularity so that a machine could be reconfigured quickly to exact customer specifications and shipped," Schawe explains. "That way you didn't have idle stock sitting there, but you had parts waiting to be assembled to customer specifications."
"I've always been aggressive in learning about new technology," Schawe says. "And I've learned that if you continually invest in the latest equipment, you can be competitive."
Not only has the Florence plant been competitive, it's been award winning. It was selected as one of the 10 Best U.S. manufacturing companies, according to the Society of Manufacturing Engineers in 1988. It also served as a model for Mazak UK manufacturing when it was preparing to open in the mid-1980s.
As Mazak has grown in the U.S., so has Schawe's career. Amazingly, since it moved to Florence in 1974, and as many physical plant expansions and technology upgrades that have occurred and continue to occur, Mazak continues to aggressively introduce new equipment without a slowdown in production.
"We're used to it," Schawe says. "We do it all the time. Every two years we re-tool and make something new and better."
Another important factor about Schawe's career, the fact that he's had positions in various Mazak departments, points to a key company philosophy. Mazak people, at every level, rotate to different jobs over the course of their careers so they become experts in several different jobs making them more flexible and more valuable, and more sensitive to the needs of other departments. The people of Mazak are multi-tasking, not just the machines.
With manufacturing operations in five countries (Japan, U.S., United Kingdom, Singapore and China), Mazak provides the widest range of advanced-technology equipment and systems for the productivity improvement of manufacturers worldwide. For more information, visit the Mazak's website at www.mazakusa.com.
