In a perfect world, everything goes precisely to plan. Your drawings are spot on. The precision engineering company manufacture the parts at a competitive rate. Assembly ensues, the product ships, and it sells.
Wins all round and everybody rejoices! But…
Is the following closer to what really happens?
Your business is short-staffed, doing more with less. As a design engineer, you have more than one project going at any given moment. Your engineering supplier of choice just went bust, leaving you scrambling for a new partner that can turn around an order quickly and on budget.
So, what next?
Well, when you think about it, your old supplier wasn’t so hot anyway. You could submit perfect blueprints and specifications, but his parts never quite matched your drawings.
Hidden cost number one – drawings or 3D CAD model?
Each time your old supplier produces a part, there always seems to be something wrong – a hole missing or anodising forgotten. Of course, if he works to model, with CAD this does not happen.
Anyway, eventually, he produces the part to spec and the show goes on.
But (and this is a pretty big but), after his second or third failure, he starts to charge you more for each prototype claiming you make “design changes.”
Not very fair, yet you need to keep the project moving, so you accept the additional charges. This added cost eats into your margin and there’s not so much rejoicing on product launch.
Hidden cost number two – capacity?
Your precision engineer gets it right, but the project scope widens. When you originally bid for the contract, you planned to make 10 final pieces.
Now you realize this product has the potential to really turn heads. You need to make 100 final pieces. But your precision engineer informs you he does not have the required capacity. He can make 10 pieces at a time, but won’t reach your goal of 100 until the end of the year…
This delay imposes another hidden cost because it slows production to a standstill.
Grrrr, frustrating and there is even less rejoicing.
The solution is in 3D…
You need a precision engineering supplier that can deliver quality and expertise on time. Because imprecise prototypes, faulty parts and limited capacity are hurting your business
There’s a simple solution, ditch the drawings.
Choose a supplier that works from 3D CAD models. This technology enables your engineer to see the part from all sides. Any mismatch between your design and the prototype, like an overlapping surface boundary, can easily be corrected prior to production.
By the time you take delivery, your part, made to model, is finished perfectly. Leaving your bottom line undented! Some rejoicing can return.
CAD Model and right first time!
If your supplier is not getting it right the first time, the delays cost you money. Your precision engineering partner should give you what you want, when you want it. Choose a supplier that will manufacture to the tolerance required for your components, provide proven engineering expertise and deliver guaranteed quality on time.
You can save yourself time and grief by searching for a new precision engineer that can give you the three things you need – quality, expertise and delivery one time.
You can only get that from a partner with the machines, software, expertise, and inspection capacity to deliver perfection on time. Once you have formed this partnership, you will wonder why you ever worked with anyone else