Kaizen is a Japanese word that has been taken to refer to the philosophy of continuous improvement, and it’s important for every business, whether you’re a department store or a parts manufacturer. Kaizen often focuses on eliminating waste, and it’s a philosophy that can be applied to every aspect of your business. One such aspect is machine placement. When you first open a manufacturing plant, you tend to put machines wherever you have space. You get a new machine, you plop it down in an open spot, and you do the same with the next machine. Before you know it your shop lacks any coherent setup, and looks more like machine confetti.
The reason this is a problem is because it seriously hinders efficiency. If you reorganize your machines, suddenly CNC turning takes place in one area, milling, drilling and capping in another. The tools that are needed at each area are close at hand and can be changed over quickly. The different sections of your shop can be arranged so that production flows from one to the next in a logical fashion. Suddenly your employees spend less time walking back and forth from machine to machine, and less time searching for the tools they need. That time is then invested back into your manufacturing process.
When you reorganize your shop to be more efficient, not only do you shave seconds and even minutes off of your production process (read our blog post about the Power of 1 Second), but you also create a better work environment. Your employees become less fatigued, and less frustrated from searching for the tools they need. Applying Kaizen principles to your facility setup is just one way you can gain more out of each day, without increasing work hours.
What makes a manufacturer successful? The answer to that question is innovation. Now, that’s not new knowledge. The relationship between innovation and success in manufacturing is well understood. But many people limit this to mean only product innovation. But innovation in process can truly take your manufacturing enterprise to the next level.
The secret comes down to 1 second. By reducing 1 second from your manufacturing process, you can increase your profits exponentially. Say you increase the feed time on one of your machines by 1 second, then you use that machine to make 5,000 parts. You’ve completed those 5,000 parts 5,000 seconds sooner, which means you can start on the next part 5,000 seconds sooner. If you need to make 3,000 of that next part, by the time you finish you’re 8,000 seconds ahead of the game. Multiply that across the course of a year, across millions of parts. Then think about if you had ten of that same machine running. Now you’ve gained ten seconds, multiplied across the same parameters.
What’s remarkable about removing one second is that you get more out of a day. Your workers can work the same hours and put out more products. You can keep the price of your products the same but make more profit because you can supply more customers.
1 second can be saved in a variety of ways. It can be taken out of the downtime between switching tools. It can be achieved by investing in a $10 insert that’s better suited to the material you’re working with. It can simply be a matter of installing a better program on the same machine. And it can be achieved without touching any machines by making the importance of 1 second an integral part of your employees’ mindset. No matter what avenue you pursue, you have to continuously strive to find that second.
Many times the importance of 1 second is overlooked because people see it as inconsequential. But the power of 1 second is exponential. It means increased trust from your customers, and increased profit for your company. It can take your business to a new level, because suddenly you can get more out of the same exact ingredients. You can work the same hours and charge your customers the same amount, and suddenly make more than you were before. The secret to success in manufacturing comes down to 1 second.
Part of being a successful manufacturer is having the right tools for the job. These days, that takes more than filling in every pouch on your tool belt and making sure your machines are up to date on maintenance. As computers become increasingly integrated with machines, having the right software becomes essential. There are a lot of great programs out there, but none that does everything—so we took it upon ourselves to develop one, and we call it TITAN.
In manufacturing, everything comes down to paperwork. You can make a great product, but if there’s a problem with the paperwork, it becomes a problem for everyone. That’s the crux of TITAN: It will allow you to log all of the pertinent information in the necessary formats for the entire production process. It will take you from RFQ to finished product all in one continuous string. That means that you can trace any part back to any stage in the process with ease. This traceability is integral to gaining ISO certification.
The question of whether you’re a Mac or a PC has made its way to the manufacturing floor. There’s currently no software that bridges the gap between the two operating systems. If you have all Macs and one PC, or vice versa, establishing an integrated software system becomes a major challenge. For that reason, we made our first priority designing software that works across all hardware platforms. We’re even working to make it tie in to iPads on the manufacturing floor.
TITAN will do away with the old fashioned system of going from spreadsheet to spreadsheet. With it, you’ll be able to keep track of material certifications, plating certifications, billing, time clocks, scheduling and a whole lot more. It can even be custom tailored to your unique operation. Software this comprehensive is a new concept for machine shops. It will take a lot of the hassle out of becoming ISO certified, and allow your business to stay competitive in a global marketplace.
Right now, we’re still putting the finishing touches on our TITAN software. Over the course of the coming months we’ll provide updates, and delve deeper into the program’s many features.
We have a lot of experience here at Mid-West Screw Products, spread out across nearly every industry you can think of. This gives us the ability to see potential opportunities for our clients’ products in markets they may not have thought of entering.
We had one client who was developing a cane for the elderly that would act as a simpler, less awkward replacement for a walker. The cane was to have an anodized aluminum finish. For those who don’t know, anodized aluminum finishing is a process with a large color palette. We saw an easy-to-use device that could come in a rainbow of colors, and we thought that it might be fit not just for the elderly but for children as well. Often times when small children break a leg or sustain an industry that inhibits walking, crutches can be intimidating and difficult to use. The cane offered a much more age-appropriate alternative, and it could come in green, blue or pink.
This is just one of many examples. In July’s “Our Patented Approach to R & D” blog, we discussed an idea for a skateboard that went on to be used in instrument transportation as well. The valve developed as part of the fire extinguisher discussed in that blog went on to find a home in military applications. On another project we were able to modify a client’s firearm manufacturing process to produce different aesthetics to accommodate military and law enforcement agencies, all of which have strict aesthetic guidelines. We were able to modify that process in such a way that even though the manufacturing was more varied, there was no cost increase. We don’t just alert our clients to potential markets, we help them get their products there.
When you’ve spent so much time developing a product for a particular application, it can become difficult to see the forest for the trees. When you work with Mid-West Screw Products we make sure you’re aware of the world of possibilities that exist for your product.
In our last blog we talked about working with our clients to develop new ideas that many times lead to patents. We also work with our clients to fix problems they have with existing products or processes. These jobs come to us in a variety of ways, such as clients looking to outsource parts they used to manufacture themselves, or looking for an alternative to their current manufacturer. Once we get these projects in front of us we can approach them with the benefits of a fresh eye and years of experience.
We had one client who was involved in molding a very expensive part. The client’s manufacturing process left them with a need to scrape away excess material after molding. The scraping was delicate work, while the scraping process was anything but. This resulted in the client throwing away 70 – 80% of the finished product. We were able to take a look at the process and make an improvement that cut out the need for scraping. Now the molding process produces zero defective parts.
Solutions like these yield many benefits. No wasted product means no wasted money. Those savings are passed on to the customers. Additionally, 500% more usable product means that our client can sell to a larger customer base, thus increasing their own profits.
These are the types of solutions we pride ourselves on providing. We’ve tweaked everything from manufacturing processes to product designs, all to optimize output and product quality.
Here at Mid-West Screw Products, we have a lot of patents hanging on our wall. Some of them have the names of our clients on them, but there’s something else they share in common—they have our name on them as well as part of the design team.
The people who come to us are some of the most creative on the planet. They have ideas born from experience: a skateboarder proposing a removable fifth wheel on a skateboard to perform more tricks or to help beginners; a hydraulics professional looking to apply hydraulic liquid flow principles to fire extinguishers in yachts and ships. They know there’s a need for these things, they know they should exist, but they don’t know how to make them real.
And that’s exactly why they come to Mid-West Screw Products. We go above and beyond doing R & D work for our clients, all to bring their ideas to life. Turns out that removable skateboard wheel also had another great use: it’s now in service on traveling cases for musical instruments, allowing musicians to put the wheel on when they’re moving, and take it off so they can stack their amps on top when they reach their destination. And the fire extinguisher with the hydraulic flow principles? It can now be found in most yachts and ships over 100ft long.
These are just two of many examples, another being a unique holding method than can be used in machining around the world, and we’re working on more new designs as you read this. So come let us help you get your invention out of your head and into the world.
Here at Mid-West we’ve learned that people coming to us for the first time don’t know exactly what we do. This could be due to the fact that we don’t have sales people—we let our work do our marketing for us. Most of our business comes from referrals by our clients. But for those who happen upon us without that word of mouth primer, we’d like to let you know who we are—and that’s the best job shop around.
We are a custom job shop dedicated to making a variety of parts to our customers’ prints and sometimes even sketches. Whatever part you need, we can make it. Whether you have an idea in your head or a fully realized design and the blueprints to go with it, we’ll fabricate your part. We’ll quote for 1 to 1,000+ parts. We’ll offer design assistance for user functionality and ease of manufacturing. We’ll make material recommendations. And if you have a part that’s already been designed and refined and you’re just outsourcing it to us for fabrication, we’ll turn that part around exactly to your specifications.
We’ve been around for 66 years, and that expertise is why so much of our business comes from our experience on former jobs, and the word of mouth those jobs have garnered. We’ll take you from an idea in your head to a finished product that we can then stock. Or we can simply be a part of your production process. Our business is machining and improving every aspect of a part, and our mission is to exceed our customers’ expectations. So come work with us, and join our unofficial marketing team—our customers.
