Nobody likes to lose money—especially not tens of thousands of dollars! But that’s exactly what you risk when you withhold critical information from the shop you turn to for precision machining services. No, we’re not talking about drawings, 3D models, tolerances, or materials. (Although all that information is important, too!) We’re talking about the manufacturing history of your part.
How can knowing and sharing your part’s manufacturing history help you save money and prevent lost sales?
Keep reading, and we’ll tell you.
The $40,000 Communication Gap: A True Customer Story
A customer recently placed an order for an uncommonly complex part with extremely tight tolerances. We’d already discussed the part at length with their engineering team, and everyone involved had agreed that our planned approach would be successful.
However, when we got to work on our Anaheim machine shop floor, our team discovered that it was impossible to machine the part as discussed. The customer’s engineers didn’t understand what was wrong. They assured us that, in the past, their in-house team had successfully manufactured the part as ordered.
But how?
What followed was month after month of back-and-forth with the customer’s engineers until, one day, one of their machinists picked up the phone. We described the effort we’d invested and explained that we were unsure how to move forward with this part. And that’s when the bomb dropped:
“Oh, no,” said our customer’s machinist, “that’ll never work.”
At last! We knew we were finally talking to the right guy.
“We tried that,” he explained, “but we didn’t have any success until…”
And that’s when this highly experienced and knowledgeable manufacturing pro explained precisely how his team had machined the exact same part in their own shop—and it was nothing like the approach our teams had originally agreed upon.
A simple communication gap had cost this company nearly $40,000 in labor and materials, delayed order fulfillment, and lost sales.
So what’s the moral of this story?
Your Part Has a Past—and We Need to Know What It Is!
Institutional knowledge is great in theory, but crucial information must exist outside people’s heads so that it can easily be passed on to necessary parties. Failing to document changes to a part’s design or information about previous manufacturing missteps and learnings can result in a needlessly long and drawn-out process that ultimately costs you money.
Why? Because when you enlist a third-party partner for precision machining services that you once performed in-house or outsourced elsewhere, they’ll assume all the relevant details about your project are included. If key information is missing, you’ll wind up paying your manufacturing partner for labor your team has already performed, such as troubleshooting manufacturing and assembly issues or undertaking research and development on a new project.
And while you’re paying for that added labor, your customers will be waiting for the products you can’t sell as you wait for the parts you need to make those products.
By sharing your part’s full history with your new precision machining services supplier (in this case, us), you can avoid known pitfalls and ensure a seamless and efficient experience.
This Customer Saved $140,000 Thanks to Clarity and Collaboration
When there is clear communication, ample documentation, and close collaboration from a project’s outset, we not only meet our customers’ expectations but can also help them improve their processes and save money. For one customer, that savings significantly impacted their bottom line.
This particular customer assembles devices for the medical industry. During a visit to their shop, our president made a manufacturing suggestion that dramatically simplified the shop’s assembly process. In fact, Bob’s recommendation enabled our customer to save $140,000 per year, all thanks to some simple shop-to-shop communication!
Document All the Details, and We’ll Deliver Great Results
If you’re looking to transfer a part’s manufacturing to a new supplier like Moseys Production Machinists, double-check your documentation and confirm that you’re sharing every detail of your part’s manufacturing history, including:
- Information on prior rejections
- Defective material reports
- Non-conformance reports
Along with helping us perform exceptional precision machining services that meet your expectations, these details enable us to communicate clearly with our outside vendors, such as heat treating specialists. With the big picture in front of us, we can work collaboratively to achieve superior results every time.
