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	Equipment World's Top 3 Innovations for 2006: Fleetguard User-Friendly Filter
	15 JAN 07 -- High performance plastics empower a host of creative design improvements Talk about a tough audience. Greg Hoverson, manager of advanced engineering and the lead product development engineer for Fleetguard’s new User-Friendly Filter was expecting questions when he went into a meeting in late 2004 to present prototypes of the filter for an internal review. What he didn’t anticipate was a salesman asking, “Will it pass my test?” and then proceeding to slam the prototype filter repeatedly on the desk and floor. Despite the salesman’s best efforts, the injection molded, high performance plastic filter proved unbreakable and continued to pass even more rigorous testing in lab and field trials. And when Cummins Filtration launched the new product in January 2006 it changed not only the way technicians grapple with the sometimes slippery chore of replacing oil filters, but it also advanced the way this industry thinks about the compatibility of plastic and metal. Unusual origins The idea for a plastic oil filter got its start in Bangalore, India, in February 2003. It was there that Pamela Carter, president of Cummins Filtration, in a meeting with representatives from General Electric became impressed with the advanced engineering and technology they were achieving with plastics. Shortly afterward, while doing “voice of the customer” meetings in California, the proverbial light came on. What customers were telling Carter was they liked their metal canister filters, but was there any way they could make them easier, cleaner and faster to get on and off? Carter had a hunch that injection molded plastic technology could hold the key to meeting these requests, and in the summer of 2003 brought the idea to the senior leadership team at Cummins Filtration. At first there was some skepticism. The company had earlier experimented with a composite plastic/metal filter without success. And the initial estimates were that it might take five years to develop an entirely plastic filter canister. But Carter pressed on and developed a cross-functional team comprised of an outside design consultancy, key engineers and marketing people within Cummins Filtration and people from Cummins (the parent company) who would bring diesel engine expertise. “One of the big catalysts for the initial push was a brainstorming session we had that summer with the cross-functional group,” says John Clevenger, director of global product and alliances. “That was one of the early milestones.” The benefits and features of the potential new filter were already fairly clear, thanks to the voice of the customer program. But the challenge to the team was to create a manufacturing process that will result in a product with those features at a price the market would accept. “From the brainstorming session we had over 100 potential concepts to sort through,” Hoverson says. “To manage all this we used our Six Sigma process. There were several good tools in there that allowed us to winnow those concepts down to the ones that met our targets best.” A second cross-functional team meeting narrowed the range of manufacturing concepts down to five, Clevenger says. “After that there was a pretty clear winner.” One of the reasons the group’s work continued to move forward was Carter made sure that the teams were composed of open-minded people. “There were reservations, concerns over whether the idea would work and how well it would be received,” Clevenger says. “And we had to work through those and that helped us make sure we had a solid product coming out of the analysis side.” The process was also aided considerably by the use of computer-based, analysis-led design. Rather than build and test multiple prototypes, the team used computer simulations to study each design’s strengths and weaknesses. “We had approximately 40 to 50 different design iterations on the computer, but only one hardware iteration,” Hoverson says. “That was key for us being able to move quickly through the development of this product.” By the end of 2004, the team had its first prototypes ready for real-world testing. In addition to tests in the lab – hydrostatic burst tests, vibration tests and dynamic impulse tests – the company put the prototypes through exhaustive field tests in conditions ranging from winters in Minnesota to the broiling heat of the desert Southwest. “We chose a mix of applications to test and a lot of off-highway applications in particular,” Hoverson says. “Part of that was to answer our questions about durability. We wanted to make sure in all environments, no matter how rough, the product would perform as we expected it to perform.” In late 2005 the team decided to solicit additional voice of the customer input and conduct an unusual test to answer any lingering doubts that the naysayers might have. They put two filters on the ground, one metal and the other a prototype of the User-Friendly Filter and ran over both of them with a Dodge Ram pickup truck. It flattened the metal product. The prototype was unharmed. In some situations the biggest skeptics for a new product launch are the salespeople who have to take it to the customers. But for Cummins Filtration skepticism was no longer an issue. “We had sales and marketing involved in the cross-functional team from the beginning,” Clevenger says. “So by the time we got ready to go to market they didn’t have any reservations. It was more about how we put the message together and do the best job of assuring the customers will accept the product. But in terms of objection and pushback, there was none.” For Carter, who first came up with the idea while traveling in India, the process of creating the User-Friendly Filter represents what the company is all about. “Innovation is one of our company’s core values, urging us all to apply creative ingenuity to make us better, faster first and price competitive,” she says. “Our User-Friendly Filter does just that.” The benefits of a plastic oil filter Changing oil filters on any type of engine is usually a simple thing to do. But until the Fleetguard User-Friendly Filter came along it has always been messy and more time consuming than it ought to be. And depending on how deeply the filter is buried among the other components you can sometimes twist yourself up in knots trying to reach or get an oil filter wrench around one. With the User-Friendly Oil Filter all these minor nuisances have gone away. By using a high performance plastic for the filter container the company was able to go to an injection molding process to form the filter canister. Traditional metal filter canisters are stamped out of thin metal and have a round bottom and smooth sides. The injection molding process however, freed Cummins Filtration engineers from the restrictions of this metal forming process and enabled them to build in three convenient features. A flat bottom enables technicians to set the full oil filter down without having to worry about it tipping over and spilling dirty oil. A 1¼2-inch-square recess molded into the base enables them to remove too-tight filters with a socket wrench. And ribs and a textured grip surface make it easier to install the filter by hand. Plastic female threads on the top of the filter also ensure that you won’t damage your engine’s filter stud should you accidentally cross thread it during installation. The plastic used for the User-Friendly Filter is not only lighter than metal, but it’s almost impossible to damage. Metal filters, from what Cummins Filtration customers told its engineers, can be easily dented in shipping or handling. Drop one on a concrete shop floor and the dent it takes renders it unusable. Much like the hard, dense plastic used in roller blade wheels or rolling suitcase wheels, the sides of the User-Friendly Filter are just about indestructible. Why I chose this product What makes this product truly innovative is that Cummins Filtration didn’t just stop with one improvement – making a plastic version of the same old metal oil filters that have been around for decades. Instead they asked themselves: “What more can we do with this material? How can we add additional value?” By listening to the voice of their customers, Cummins Filtration came up with the flat bottom, the ribbed grip surfaces and the recessed lug for easy removal – three attributes that will endear this company to mechanics and technicians for a long time to come. The other impressive aspect of this effort was Cummins and Cummins Filtration didn’t let what has been a longstanding concern in the engine industry about the compatibility of metal and plastic nix the idea from the start. Instead they saw that problem as a potential opportunity and invested in the R&D that delivered a high-performance plastic that answers the critics and exceeded expectations. Engine manufacturers face lot of challenges in the coming years, both regulatory and performance related. And it’s just this type of bold thinking and willingness to confront the old ways of looking at things that will lead manufacturers and their customers to success. Source: Equipment World Magazine