These days every manufacturer is advertising a new product which will out-last or out-perform their competition. The fact is, most of the time their claims are true. Technology in cutting tools has continually grown at a rapid pace, and often when a new product is introduced, it’s a matter of eight to twelve months before a competitor has reproduced or improved upon it.

In most cases the improvements to the product are either the ability to run at higher surface speed or better wear resistance. Although these enhancements can have a tremendous impact on productivity, we often become very “comfortable” with our machining processes and fixturing styles, and forget that there are other ways to reduce costs in the machining of a part. I have found this to be especially true on projects which start out slowly and, four years and a quarter of a million parts later, the process is still the same.

Many companies approach these situations through scheduled and structured “Kaizan” brain storming events, as a part of the “Lean Manufacturing” push. A local company had a group of parts which mirrored the above circumstances. Through some innovative thinking between the project team and the sales engineer, the cycle time was reduced by 50%. Some special cutting tools and custom built fixtures were required, but on top of the cycle time being reduced, the company was also able to remove two operations.

It’s times like this where consulting with your Sales Engineer can have a tremendous benefit to your organization. A different approach to a manufacturing process can have a huge impact on the bottom line.