Utilizing Production Machine Shops Off Peak Time to Produce Economical Parts



Posted: Monday, August 17, 2009

by
Cohagan Engineering, Inc

Many large manufacturing companies produce their own products in house. These parts are scheduled to run at specific times between specific intervals to produce the desired lot quantity. When these productions are completed the machine sit at idle. These idling machines turn into large overhead burdens.

These large manufacturers offer Non Peak hour production opportunities at great savings thus lowering your product manufacturing costs. These machines are basically run at overhead burden cost. Offering great savings to a company requiring machining that has a little time on their hands.

The big problem with this price saving concept is a lot of manufacturers do not advertise downtime. One has to find manufacturers that produce products similar to there own because a shop will not retool its machines for no charge. Once a list of suitable shops is found, the next step would be to contact either the manufacturing engineer or the shop foreman. One must understand that their parts would be run on the manufacturers off time leading to a longer lead-time than a normal machine shop.

An example of this concept is a small machine shop that manufactures racecar suspension components. These components are made from 7075-t6 Aluminum and machined completely in house using Vertical Machining Centers. They are built to complement the assortment of parts made for their limited production custom racecars. With a production run of only 20 25 cars a year they can manufacture the required suspension components in a couple days per week. For the remainder of the week the machines are sitting at idle waiting for the next production run. This small company then utilizes the off time to offer job shop machining services to other local manufacturers.

Cohagan Engineering Inc is also another great example. They manufacturer portable machine tools including portable line boring equipment and portable milling machines. Their in house machine shop includes a Vertical Machining Center, a manual lathe, Hydraulic Broaching machinery and a handful of secondary operation equipment typical to all machine shops. Cohagan Engineering offers manufacturing services at a greatly reduced hourly rate. This is because the manufacturing services are after production runs when a machine would normally be at idle. These idle times and reduced rates can bring what was once an out of budget project a reality.

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