MONOZUKURI (Manufacturing) at Ahresty

The die casting process essentially consists of smelting aluminum alloy, then using a die casting machine to fill a prefabricated mold with the molten metal. The molten alloy is then solidified to create a cast. This casting process—which uses aluminum alloy as the basic raw material—involves two state changes, from solid to liquid, and then back again from liquid to solid; and presents difficulties in terms of both manufacturing technique and quality control. The machinery and molds used must therefore include the necessary functionality (and methods for injecting the molten aluminum alloy). This means that not only infrastructure management, but also proper maintenance is essential, to ensure that the machinery—which is subjected to increased wear and tear and becomes more likely to break down the more it is used—is always maintained in the same, optimal state. We work every day to predict and prevent breakdowns before they occur, and have standardized these processes as proprietary production technologies.
Our molds also play an important role in producing good quality products, and a variety of die casting wisdom and expertise is accumulated in their design. When designing out molds, we utilize various CAE (computer-aided engineering) techniques—including thermal analysis, solidification analysis, molten metal flow analysis and stress analysis—to achieve “built-in quality” in our designs, offering superior predictability and control. However, all molds inevitably suffer from thermal fatigue, and because they are made of metal they have a limited service life. For the duration of their service life, it is very important for us to ensure that they function as intended. Maintenance of equipment, machinery and molds is a basic part of controlling quality in our production processes. We implement a continuous upward cycle in which everyone who is involved in the production process thinks, acts,confirms the results of their actions, and then goes on to raise the level of the standards we work to.
At Ahresty, our corporate philosophy is to “take pride in our work, respect theory and experimentation, value originality and invention, and offer superior products and service to our customers.” We believe that theory, experimentation, originality and invention are truly essential to the further advancement and evolution of our MONOZUKURI efforts. At Ahresty, it is our mission to create good quality products, and to establish a system whereby only good quality products can be produced. The Ahresty Production Way is our solution for accomplishing this mission. It is an implementation of OPCC (Optimal Process Condition Control), which clarifies optimal production process conditions.

Ahresty’s Tokai Plant with its array of heavy-duty die casting machines

What underpins our MONOZUKURI is high-level awareness and great ambition

Implementing the Ahresty Production Way is the pursuit of perfection in MONOZUKURI. For all of the products we manufacture, we can create better products by thinking, creating and working to improve our creations. MONOZUKURI is underpinned by high-level awareness and great ambition; and by everyone working in the same direction, along the same vectors.
At Ahresty, we also engage in various initiatives for the cultivation of human resources. We hold global RST learning sessions, based on an educational system whereby personnel can learn skills and knowledge in the same way at any of our global locations. We also conduct kaizen (or “improvement”) activities for the purpose of increasing production quality and productivity. Personnel do not only acquire skills and knowledge, but also learn to observe what is going on in the manufacturing workplace, to ascertain the current situation by analyzing data, and to implement kaizen using methods such as regression analysis, orthogonal arrangement and response surface analysis.
As we continue in our pursuit of perfection in MONOZUKURI, we hope that each and every one of our employees will grow, and develop into valuable human resources who will play key roles in the Ahresty of the future.

The Global Kaizen Meeting, where engineers from all of Ahresty’s global production locations come together under one roof to identify and work through possible improvement points