For small businesses and manufacturers, the past two years have been full of challenges, even ones that continue to cause production problems. Many companies can get the parts they order from their manufacturers because the manufacturers can’t get the raw materials to fill the orders. This supply chain disruption affects products, workers, and our economy.
One company, Plas-Tech Tooling is helping companies who rely on cast parts or components in their products and manufacturers a way to get around the supply chain bottleneck. By converting the cast item into a machined part. By way of production machining the part can be delivered to the buyer and production can get back to filling orders. The conversion process is a great workaround, and the podcast goes into details to explain what situations it would work best in and steps for an effective transition from casting to machined part.
Plas-Tech Tooling | www.plastechtooling.com
Small Business Talks Blog | Casting Conversion Post
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The current supply chain disruptions are
hurting American manufacturing becausemany companies cannot get the raw
materials necessaryto produce their products.
Companies that produce castings arefeeling the pressure of not getting
the materials to fill orders and arethus us slowing down production.
One company is helping by converting
castings into machine parts to get ordersand production lines moving again.
(00:23):
We're going to talk to one company
that specializes in cast and conversionand how they're helping manufacturers get
back to work todayon small business talks.
We're all familiar with the problemsthat the global supply disruptions because
(00:44):
of COVID has causedthe manufacturing community.
The question has come to light is.What do you do?
If you're a casting company and you make
parts that are cast,but you can't get the materials to do
that, how hard would it be to convertthe casting into a machine part?
To help us understand this better.
Today we've got Andrew and Dean Sanquist
(01:05):
from Plaza who are going to help uskind of understand how we do this.
So, guys, welcome to the podcast.Hey, Neil.
How neil,I think something would be helpful is just
so that people understandyour expertise in this area.
Tell us a little bit about your backgroundand how you kind of got into this world
and how long you've been doing things andwhat's your area of expertise has been.
(01:29):
Neil.My background has been in engineering.
Industrial manufacturing.
Engineering, to be exact.
Had a little bitof experience in assembly.
So I've understood a few of the differentpain points that people run into when they
can't get their partsand then been here at Plastic for the last
four or five years andcontinuing to learn every day.
(01:53):
I Nailed Dean Here.
I've been in the trade since
I've been cutting chips a long time andseen a lot of the problems that people
have had even before our cold times setin, which totally disrupted our supply
chain, wheresomeone's depending on a shipment
(02:16):
from China, Taiwan or wherever,and they don't know where it's at.
So we've dealt with this for decades,
and every manufacturerout there has seen this.
And some of the big points are,
what do you do about when there'sthat problem presented to you?
What Do You Do?
(02:37):
That's the whole key to it.
So I'm going to ask him to pose kind
of the way a manufacturer would lookat this and say, I've got castings I've
been getting from China,and because of these global supply
disruptions, my small business is notable to get the materials or the parts.
What options do I have?
(02:57):
Well, Neil, I figured there's aboutthree different opportunities.
You have do nothing,hope and pray the parts show up.
Generally, that's not a good option.
If you're in the purchasing supplychain of a manufacturing company.
That's pretty tough to explain to the headexecutives of the company that your
(03:20):
fingers were crossed and youwere hoping for the best.
So the number two option would be
is there something off the shelf thatcould be retrofitted machines
to make Duke or a short term,that's always an opportunity.
Or number three, can the casting bemade out of a solid machine part?
(03:46):
It might sound kind of crazy because therecan be a lot of contours and a lot
of different features of the partwhich require machining.
But this is where everyone needsto get together on the same page.
What matters functionality of the partas our aesthetics of the part important?
(04:09):
There's options, but the best thing is
just to get off your handsand do something about it.
I think this is something that's come upquite a bit because I know we've talked
in the past and this is why we even aredoing the podcast,
is that you've had a lot of peoplethat you've heard have had this issue.
Can you put your finger on how bigof an impact this is or right now?
(04:34):
It's been huge over the last two years
where there's been manufacturersshut down because of it.
We deal with very large companies,actually some Fortune 500 companies
that have had issues keeping componentsto the semi lines and it stopped them.
So this is where getting the informationout there to buyers, to engineers that you
(04:59):
do have some opportunityto ease your pain.
Per say.
What do you do?
You need todiscuss the problems with manufacturing
companies such as ours, a job shopand we could steer you down the road.
What do you need?What do you need to get going here?
(05:21):
Is it generally a solid file in the part?
We can always look at a PDF file,
of course, to get started,to see if it's even an opportunity.
But that's a great way to get started.
Now with that, it's also goingto determine material selection.
The material selection is very important,but your cast material is not going to be
(05:44):
the same composition as a barstock or a rod stock of steel.
Some of them are casting aluminum.
Well, your bar stock is stilla different composition of that.
So you have to have an engineering teamthat's open to change is a big part of it.
Also
(06:05):
what we like to do is we'll reviewthe file, take a look at it and see what
can we do to expeditethe process of machining.
Cut cost, I mean,
costs are always the biggest playerin this because when a part is tasked,
it's generally a less expensiveparts of the machine.
The crazy features, the arch, the angles,
(06:29):
all of those features areeasy to put into a casting.
But now when you machine it,it takes a lot of time.
So we like to look at the part,how can this part be made?
So it's going to go downto how can we hang on to it?
In a machining center into a CNC lathe
and get the proper outcome whereif you're going to try to hang
(06:51):
on to a complete round sphere like a ball,little bit tough to put some features
on it because how do youhang on to the site?
So are some flats able to be put
on the part to help the fixed duringthe holding process on the part?
So once we go through that,if us and our customers can come to terms
(07:14):
on it, we like to go ahead and say,well, let's look at a test part.
Let's see what we can do out of like
material that's been approvedby engineering and here's what we got.
They would see the solid file that wegenerated first,
then we would go ahead and take those,create an NC file for machining center and
(07:38):
go ahead and cut the prototype and wecan look at it from that point.
What else needs to be done?
Are there changes that needto be made for manufacturer?
What else can we do?
Again, the biggest thing I stress on isthe cost and that I know is the big thing
that's going to chasepurchasing people out of it.
(07:59):
But the risk to the reward of not having
parts of shutting down manufacturingdefinitely cannot weigh it well.
And I think that's something people don't
realize is that when a manufacturingfacility shuts down that's a huge cost
and it usually can't be madeback up on something like that.
So let me ask you, what kind of a timeframe are we looking at here?
Because I know we're talking aboutchanging an entire process
(08:23):
and I know this is different dependingon the part and all that,
but kind of walk us through what cansomebody expect from a range of time
frames that it would take to convertsomething like this over a little bit?
We've actually done some things as quick
as a couple of days for a prototypein hand for a customer.
(08:43):
Depending if we got materialon hand that would work.
Possibly if it's not the right material,at least they get an idea.
Say if somebody is looking for a part meeton a 41 40, an alloy steel maybe we only
have cold rolled or hot rolled here,but we can get our machining processes.
We can go through all of the ifsand the what ifs as far as manufacturing,
(09:08):
get those bugs worked out,get a part in someone's hand.
In a sense we're creating a rapidprototype, if you will,
kind of like you're doingwith printers and SLA right now.
So with that, once the customer
goes through, thatdepends on the complexity of the part.
(09:29):
Absolutely.
Is the biggest driver of this isand materials off the shelf now
at the steel service centersor wherever it comes from.
We can throw all hands on deck in a matter
of a few days and maybe it's going to bea few weeks before some parts are ready.
(09:49):
But this is where you need to work.
Together with places such as usand the purchasing team from the customer,
what can be done, what'sneeded to be done, so on.
Okay, I think the next part of that wouldbe, okay, I'm changing a process.
(10:10):
How is this going to change?
What's the expectations I can have
for this part because it'snot cast, it's machined.
What should I expect from moving
from a part that was fully that wascast to a fully machined part?
What should I be concerned with?
Help kind of walk through,alleviate any issues.
(10:32):
Explain to us what the expectationsshould be for a customer.
Sure I can do that.
Probably the first thing, of course,
is to think about the material,the composition of material,
where you might not get the samecharacteristics as I've stated before,
with a material that is ableto be machine versus task.
But this is where the engineering team at.
(10:55):
Our customer needs to decide if there
needs to be an FDA studyagain or strength durability.
That again, is not on us.
That would be working with that customer.
One of the big things to remember
that a casting does,it's basically creating a shell.
(11:16):
It's pretty much what happenswhen you create a casting.
Now to go ahead and create that per seshell again, on a machine part,
you're might make a lot of extra machiningand costs for no reason.
So what I'm getting back to is,wait, what does the customer.
(11:38):
What are they okay, this is the big thing.
I guess if weight is the major
contributor, then yes,we're going to have to probably mimic what
the casting is pretty close,because I'm sure there's been some studies
and they've got weight restrictions,what they can deal with.
But working like, say,
(11:58):
with the engineering team canwork through these problems together.
Another big thing is the appearancemachining, the part made look clean.
Because if you've seen cast, cast steel,
cast aluminum, it's all porous lookingon the outside, all bumpy and rough.
Generally when we Machine, we're goingto have a better looking finish.
(12:20):
Again, might not mean anything to anybody,
but one of the good rules of thumb isto think about is the better something
looks, the more it'sprobably going to cost.
That kind of goes without even being said.
You want something polished up,it's going to cost more than if you're
okay with cutter barksand everything all over.
(12:42):
So is this part going to be onethat's going to be painted or coated?
Paint will help cover up, let's just say,
imperfections or cutter marksin the parts.
So if that's the case,that needs to be discussed upfront.
That what's going to happen to it.
(13:05):
In a cast part, you have draft
release angles, if you will, to help pullthe part out of the casting tooling.
Allow for easy ejection,if you will, coming out of it.
If our parts from Machine are going to be
(13:26):
more straight walk because it coststime and money to put those angles on.
So again, working back and forth together,what matters is there a clearance issue.
Does this wall A have to match upwith Wall B on the mating part?
Does that matter?
Again, working together on it
(13:49):
a lot of times I would consider this asa short term fix, but we've also done it
before where it becomes a longer termfixed because the customer says, you know,
this is actually working betterthan what the casting is.
We can't get castings.
The castings are not holding up.
(14:10):
It's a full circle here.
What availability, cost, appearance,
everything needs to playinto the game of this.
Now, with the Machine part, we can alsochange the total function of the part.
So if something the casting is operatingpoorly, performing poorly,
(14:32):
we can deal with that right now whilewe're going through this and say if they
have a half inch hole,but they kind of always wish they had
a five, eight hole for fluid passageor whatever, we can deal with that.
Instead of actually going all the way back
to China trying to geta tool change on it.
We can deal with those here very quick.
(14:52):
There's a lot of options.
I was going to ask you that because people
don't realize when you're doing casting,you got to have the mold made.
And it's like that's where a lot of yourexpenses in and it sounds you have more
flexibility to be able to kindof make those changes.
So if we're going to do it,
why not use the opportunitynow to go ahead and do this?
And I think you'd have cost savings there
(15:13):
to make improvements in the processto be able to do that.
You bet.Absolutely.
It's almost like going back
to the prototype stages even beforethe casting was built, if you will.
If we're working off a design
that we see where maybe wecould change it to save money.
(15:34):
If we can change it and we understandthe end usage of this thing.
That's why it's always great to deal
with the full assembly alsoso we can get our eyes on it.
If the customer allows us to see it,
we can get an idea of whatthis thing really does.
So we can also ask the smart questions.
Is there issues with this during assembly?
(15:56):
Is there a corrosion issues?
Are there areas that arewearing faster than others?
So we can actually ask those questions
because we've been prettyto the information.
This also sounds like communicationis an important thing.
This is not just something like here'sa drawing, just make this from that.
It really sounds like a collaboration
of both you and a clientto kind of walk through.
(16:20):
This isn't just like one type thing.
It can be done quickly,but it seems like there's a lot
of communication to make sure this getsdone correctly, is what I'm gathering.
That is absolutely right.
We like to developthe relationship with the customer
and that might be from ahead of purchasing to a buyer that does
(16:43):
the average everyday ordering parts froman engineer, a sustainment engineer.
A lot of times it's good to get all thoseideas and all those
thoughts corralled so then we can cometogether for the common good at the part.
And what can we do?
(17:04):
It's better to have everybody at the sametable at one time than to go back and try
to create 15 meetings and ask the sameredundant questions back and forth so
we can a lot of problemsin a quick order that way.
Excellent.
What should a business consider after
they've changed the part from somethinglike a casting to a machine component?
(17:29):
I guess the big thing is what'sthe customer's perception?
Are they okay with it?
Is it a scene part that's where again,I go back to aesthetics.
It doesn't matter.
Does it not matterif there's a part that let's just say if
it's going from aluminum to steel,if that's an approved change
(17:51):
from engineering, well,are we having an issue that steel is
retaining heat too much wherealuminum likes to dissipate heat.
So those type of thingsneed to be thought about.
The big thing would be that is the end
user who's purchasing the product,are they affected?
(18:16):
Do they have a voice in it or not?
I guess again, that'snot for us to determine.
That's for their team to do it.
Now the other thing to think about is
bringing back to the US from overseas
(18:39):
the covet time happened.
This is people can say this is oncein a lifetime, but I'm getting the feeling
that we're going to see more and moreof this supply chain interruptions as we
go through our next point of our liveshere where fuel prices are hurting.
(18:59):
Shipping container costs from overseas
customers do not have to alsoput six months or a year's worth
of inventory on the shelf because they'recoming on a container from wherever.
This is where we can be the short term
resolve or it could evenbe the long term resolve.
So this is where again, working together,
(19:25):
I can't stress it enough that's honestlythe communication is the key, number one.
And I think you're right.
I think this is something we haveto take a look at because again.
Down shop waiting for a part is not going
to help anybody and it really comes downto I think one of the things you've
demonstrated just in our conversation isit helps to have somebody that is
(19:45):
knowledgeable from the machining sideof things because you know how
that operation works and you know howto be able to convert from casting and you
understand the functionalityand like you said.
Understanding what the part is.
Understanding what they're going to be
using it for and seeing if it's a rightfit for somebody on something like that.
You bet that's right.
(20:06):
Collaboration of our team here
with design, with ourtool makers here myself,
we can help work through these problemsand head off at the past.
A lot of them that
probably someone in purchasing,not even realizing what's going on.
(20:27):
Where we can have the ability to workwith our engineering team is big.
I think the last couple of give youthe last couple of minutes here is to kind
of come up with kind of a summary ofa company, you've got my attention,
what should I be looking for, what arethings I can start moving this process?
(20:52):
In other words,what should I be looking at?
You've kind of gone through the process,you've gone through a lot of the things.
What would be my next steps,
what should I be my next stepsand what should I expect?
I guess if it's a potential customerof ours,
we need to make communication firstand probably nondisclosure agreements need
(21:15):
to be signed so we're privy to printsand files to start having discussions and
that's probably where we need to startbecause we just need to protect
every entity involved in thisneeds to be taken care of.
That's where we need to get started,have the conversations that way.
(21:38):
We've got a website where someone cancontact us through that phone, whatever,
but I guess the best thing is just reachout and let's just see if there's
an opportunity where wecan help each other out.
I'm going to include the link to yourwebsite in the description of the podcast
so people, they can go ahead and get incontact with you to be able to do that.
(21:59):
Great.
Any other final thoughts?
Some of the things that Andrew and I have
been over time and time again isthis might not even just be one part.
It may be two or three parts that gointo an assembly or welding.
Don't just think it's one item.
It may be a multitude of detailsthat make up an end part.
(22:22):
So I just don't think it's one thingif you have an assembly, have a weld,
and have a group of parts thatare troublesome getting you in,
or just say bad parts that comefrom China that are just not working.
Let's talk about the whole thing.
(22:43):
Let's just open it all up for discussionand see what we can do together.
Again, thank you very much.
It's been very helpful,and I hope people are listening,
see the value in this and get someknowledge and that this might be
a solution to the situationthat they happen to be in.
Andrew Dean, thank you verymuch for being on the podcast.
(23:04):
Yup, thank you.Take the time.
Okay, thanks again.
The current supply chain disruptions are
hurting American manufacturing becausemany companies cannot get the raw
materials necessaryto produce their products.
Companies that produce castings arefeeling the pressure of not getting
the materials to fill orders and arethus us slowing down production.
One company is helping by converting
castings into machine parts to get ordersand production lines moving again.
(00:23):
We're going to talk to one company
that specializes in cast and conversionand how they're helping manufacturers get
back to work todayon small business talks.
We're all familiar with the problemsthat the global supply disruptions because
(00:44):
of COVID has causedthe manufacturing community.
The question has come to light is.What do you do?
If you're a casting company and you make
parts that are cast,but you can't get the materials to do
that, how hard would it be to convertthe casting into a machine part?
To help us understand this better.
Today we've got Andrew and Dean Sanquist
(01:05):
from Plaza who are going to help uskind of understand how we do this.
So, guys, welcome to the podcast.Hey, Neil.
How neil,I think something would be helpful is just
so that people understandyour expertise in this area.
Tell us a little bit about your backgroundand how you kind of got into this world
and how long you've been doing things andwhat's your area of expertise has been.
(01:29):
Neil.My background has been in engineering.
Industrial manufacturing.
Engineering, to be exact.
Had a little bitof experience in assembly.
So I've understood a few of the differentpain points that people run into when they
can't get their partsand then been here at Plastic for the last
four or five years andcontinuing to learn every day.
(01:53):
I Nailed Dean Here.
I've been in the trade since
I've been cutting chips a long time andseen a lot of the problems that people
have had even before our cold times setin, which totally disrupted our supply
chain, wheresomeone's depending on a shipment
(02:16):
from China, Taiwan or wherever,and they don't know where it's at.
So we've dealt with this for decades,
and every manufacturerout there has seen this.
And some of the big points are,
what do you do about when there'sthat problem presented to you?
What Do You Do?
(02:37):
That's the whole key to it.
So I'm going to ask him to pose kind
of the way a manufacturer would lookat this and say, I've got castings I've
been getting from China,and because of these global supply
disruptions, my small business is notable to get the materials or the parts.
What options do I have?
(02:57):
Well, Neil, I figured there's aboutthree different opportunities.
You have do nothing,hope and pray the parts show up.
Generally, that's not a good option.
If you're in the purchasing supplychain of a manufacturing company.
That's pretty tough to explain to the headexecutives of the company that your
(03:20):
fingers were crossed and youwere hoping for the best.
So the number two option would be
is there something off the shelf thatcould be retrofitted machines
to make Duke or a short term,that's always an opportunity.
Or number three, can the casting bemade out of a solid machine part?
(03:46):
It might sound kind of crazy because therecan be a lot of contours and a lot
of different features of the partwhich require machining.
But this is where everyone needsto get together on the same page.
What matters functionality of the partas our aesthetics of the part important?
(04:09):
There's options, but the best thing is
just to get off your handsand do something about it.
I think this is something that's come upquite a bit because I know we've talked
in the past and this is why we even aredoing the podcast,
is that you've had a lot of peoplethat you've heard have had this issue.
Can you put your finger on how bigof an impact this is or right now?
(04:34):
It's been huge over the last two years
where there's been manufacturersshut down because of it.
We deal with very large companies,actually some Fortune 500 companies
that have had issues keeping componentsto the semi lines and it stopped them.
So this is where getting the informationout there to buyers, to engineers that you
(04:59):
do have some opportunityto ease your pain.
Per say.
What do you do?
You need todiscuss the problems with manufacturing
companies such as ours, a job shopand we could steer you down the road.
What do you need?What do you need to get going here?
(05:21):
Is it generally a solid file in the part?
We can always look at a PDF file,
of course, to get started,to see if it's even an opportunity.
But that's a great way to get started.
Now with that, it's also goingto determine material selection.
The material selection is very important,but your cast material is not going to be
(05:44):
the same composition as a barstock or a rod stock of steel.
Some of them are casting aluminum.
Well, your bar stock is stilla different composition of that.
So you have to have an engineering teamthat's open to change is a big part of it.
Also
(06:05):
what we like to do is we'll reviewthe file, take a look at it and see what
can we do to expeditethe process of machining.
Cut cost, I mean,
costs are always the biggest playerin this because when a part is tasked,
it's generally a less expensiveparts of the machine.
The crazy features, the arch, the angles,
(06:29):
all of those features areeasy to put into a casting.
But now when you machine it,it takes a lot of time.
So we like to look at the part,how can this part be made?
So it's going to go downto how can we hang on to it?
In a machining center into a CNC lathe
and get the proper outcome whereif you're going to try to hang
(06:51):
on to a complete round sphere like a ball,little bit tough to put some features
on it because how do youhang on to the site?
So are some flats able to be put
on the part to help the fixed duringthe holding process on the part?
So once we go through that,if us and our customers can come to terms
(07:14):
on it, we like to go ahead and say,well, let's look at a test part.
Let's see what we can do out of like
material that's been approvedby engineering and here's what we got.
They would see the solid file that wegenerated first,
then we would go ahead and take those,create an NC file for machining center and
(07:38):
go ahead and cut the prototype and wecan look at it from that point.
What else needs to be done?
Are there changes that needto be made for manufacturer?
What else can we do?
Again, the biggest thing I stress on isthe cost and that I know is the big thing
that's going to chasepurchasing people out of it.
(07:59):
But the risk to the reward of not having
parts of shutting down manufacturingdefinitely cannot weigh it well.
And I think that's something people don't
realize is that when a manufacturingfacility shuts down that's a huge cost
and it usually can't be madeback up on something like that.
So let me ask you, what kind of a timeframe are we looking at here?
Because I know we're talking aboutchanging an entire process
(08:23):
and I know this is different dependingon the part and all that,
but kind of walk us through what cansomebody expect from a range of time
frames that it would take to convertsomething like this over a little bit?
We've actually done some things as quick
as a couple of days for a prototypein hand for a customer.
(08:43):
Depending if we got materialon hand that would work.
Possibly if it's not the right material,at least they get an idea.
Say if somebody is looking for a part meeton a 41 40, an alloy steel maybe we only
have cold rolled or hot rolled here,but we can get our machining processes.
We can go through all of the ifsand the what ifs as far as manufacturing,
(09:08):
get those bugs worked out,get a part in someone's hand.
In a sense we're creating a rapidprototype, if you will,
kind of like you're doingwith printers and SLA right now.
So with that, once the customer
goes through, thatdepends on the complexity of the part.
(09:29):
Absolutely.
Is the biggest driver of this isand materials off the shelf now
at the steel service centersor wherever it comes from.
We can throw all hands on deck in a matter
of a few days and maybe it's going to bea few weeks before some parts are ready.
(09:49):
But this is where you need to work.
Together with places such as usand the purchasing team from the customer,
what can be done, what'sneeded to be done, so on.
Okay, I think the next part of that wouldbe, okay, I'm changing a process.
(10:10):
How is this going to change?
What's the expectations I can have
for this part because it'snot cast, it's machined.
What should I expect from moving
from a part that was fully that wascast to a fully machined part?
What should I be concerned with?
Help kind of walk through,alleviate any issues.
(10:32):
Explain to us what the expectationsshould be for a customer.
Sure I can do that.
Probably the first thing, of course,
is to think about the material,the composition of material,
where you might not get the samecharacteristics as I've stated before,
with a material that is ableto be machine versus task.
But this is where the engineering team at.
(10:55):
Our customer needs to decide if there
needs to be an FDA studyagain or strength durability.
That again, is not on us.
That would be working with that customer.
One of the big things to remember
that a casting does,it's basically creating a shell.
(11:16):
It's pretty much what happenswhen you create a casting.
Now to go ahead and create that per seshell again, on a machine part,
you're might make a lot of extra machiningand costs for no reason.
So what I'm getting back to is,wait, what does the customer.
(11:38):
What are they okay, this is the big thing.
I guess if weight is the major
contributor, then yes,we're going to have to probably mimic what
the casting is pretty close,because I'm sure there's been some studies
and they've got weight restrictions,what they can deal with.
But working like, say,
(11:58):
with the engineering team canwork through these problems together.
Another big thing is the appearancemachining, the part made look clean.
Because if you've seen cast, cast steel,
cast aluminum, it's all porous lookingon the outside, all bumpy and rough.
Generally when we Machine, we're goingto have a better looking finish.
(12:20):
Again, might not mean anything to anybody,
but one of the good rules of thumb isto think about is the better something
looks, the more it'sprobably going to cost.
That kind of goes without even being said.
You want something polished up,it's going to cost more than if you're
okay with cutter barksand everything all over.
(12:42):
So is this part going to be onethat's going to be painted or coated?
Paint will help cover up, let's just say,
imperfections or cutter marksin the parts.
So if that's the case,that needs to be discussed upfront.
That what's going to happen to it.
(13:05):
In a cast part, you have draft
release angles, if you will, to help pullthe part out of the casting tooling.
Allow for easy ejection,if you will, coming out of it.
If our parts from Machine are going to be
(13:26):
more straight walk because it coststime and money to put those angles on.
So again, working back and forth together,what matters is there a clearance issue.
Does this wall A have to match upwith Wall B on the mating part?
Does that matter?
Again, working together on it
(13:49):
a lot of times I would consider this asa short term fix, but we've also done it
before where it becomes a longer termfixed because the customer says, you know,
this is actually working betterthan what the casting is.
We can't get castings.
The castings are not holding up.
(14:10):
It's a full circle here.
What availability, cost, appearance,
everything needs to playinto the game of this.
Now, with the Machine part, we can alsochange the total function of the part.
So if something the casting is operatingpoorly, performing poorly,
(14:32):
we can deal with that right now whilewe're going through this and say if they
have a half inch hole,but they kind of always wish they had
a five, eight hole for fluid passageor whatever, we can deal with that.
Instead of actually going all the way back
to China trying to geta tool change on it.
We can deal with those here very quick.
(14:52):
There's a lot of options.
I was going to ask you that because people
don't realize when you're doing casting,you got to have the mold made.
And it's like that's where a lot of yourexpenses in and it sounds you have more
flexibility to be able to kindof make those changes.
So if we're going to do it,
why not use the opportunitynow to go ahead and do this?
And I think you'd have cost savings there
(15:13):
to make improvements in the processto be able to do that.
You bet.Absolutely.
It's almost like going back
to the prototype stages even beforethe casting was built, if you will.
If we're working off a design
that we see where maybe wecould change it to save money.
(15:34):
If we can change it and we understandthe end usage of this thing.
That's why it's always great to deal
with the full assembly alsoso we can get our eyes on it.
If the customer allows us to see it,
we can get an idea of whatthis thing really does.
So we can also ask the smart questions.
Is there issues with this during assembly?
(15:56):
Is there a corrosion issues?
Are there areas that arewearing faster than others?
So we can actually ask those questions
because we've been prettyto the information.
This also sounds like communicationis an important thing.
This is not just something like here'sa drawing, just make this from that.
It really sounds like a collaboration
of both you and a clientto kind of walk through.
(16:20):
This isn't just like one type thing.
It can be done quickly,but it seems like there's a lot
of communication to make sure this getsdone correctly, is what I'm gathering.
That is absolutely right.
We like to developthe relationship with the customer
and that might be from ahead of purchasing to a buyer that does
(16:43):
the average everyday ordering parts froman engineer, a sustainment engineer.
A lot of times it's good to get all thoseideas and all those
thoughts corralled so then we can cometogether for the common good at the part.
And what can we do?
(17:04):
It's better to have everybody at the sametable at one time than to go back and try
to create 15 meetings and ask the sameredundant questions back and forth so
we can a lot of problemsin a quick order that way.
Excellent.
What should a business consider after
they've changed the part from somethinglike a casting to a machine component?
(17:29):
I guess the big thing is what'sthe customer's perception?
Are they okay with it?
Is it a scene part that's where again,I go back to aesthetics.
It doesn't matter.
Does it not matterif there's a part that let's just say if
it's going from aluminum to steel,if that's an approved change
(17:51):
from engineering, well,are we having an issue that steel is
retaining heat too much wherealuminum likes to dissipate heat.
So those type of thingsneed to be thought about.
The big thing would be that is the end
user who's purchasing the product,are they affected?
(18:16):
Do they have a voice in it or not?
I guess again, that'snot for us to determine.
That's for their team to do it.
Now the other thing to think about is
bringing back to the US from overseas
(18:39):
the covet time happened.
This is people can say this is oncein a lifetime, but I'm getting the feeling
that we're going to see more and moreof this supply chain interruptions as we
go through our next point of our liveshere where fuel prices are hurting.
(18:59):
Shipping container costs from overseas
customers do not have to alsoput six months or a year's worth
of inventory on the shelf because they'recoming on a container from wherever.
This is where we can be the short term
resolve or it could evenbe the long term resolve.
So this is where again, working together,
(19:25):
I can't stress it enough that's honestlythe communication is the key, number one.
And I think you're right.
I think this is something we haveto take a look at because again.
Down shop waiting for a part is not going
to help anybody and it really comes downto I think one of the things you've
demonstrated just in our conversation isit helps to have somebody that is
(19:45):
knowledgeable from the machining sideof things because you know how
that operation works and you know howto be able to convert from casting and you
understand the functionalityand like you said.
Understanding what the part is.
Understanding what they're going to be
using it for and seeing if it's a rightfit for somebody on something like that.
You bet that's right.
(20:06):
Collaboration of our team here
with design, with ourtool makers here myself,
we can help work through these problemsand head off at the past.
A lot of them that
probably someone in purchasing,not even realizing what's going on.
(20:27):
Where we can have the ability to workwith our engineering team is big.
I think the last couple of give youthe last couple of minutes here is to kind
of come up with kind of a summary ofa company, you've got my attention,
what should I be looking for, what arethings I can start moving this process?
(20:52):
In other words,what should I be looking at?
You've kind of gone through the process,you've gone through a lot of the things.
What would be my next steps,
what should I be my next stepsand what should I expect?
I guess if it's a potential customerof ours,
we need to make communication firstand probably nondisclosure agreements need
(21:15):
to be signed so we're privy to printsand files to start having discussions and
that's probably where we need to startbecause we just need to protect
every entity involved in thisneeds to be taken care of.
That's where we need to get started,have the conversations that way.
(21:38):
We've got a website where someone cancontact us through that phone, whatever,
but I guess the best thing is just reachout and let's just see if there's
an opportunity where wecan help each other out.
I'm going to include the link to yourwebsite in the description of the podcast
so people, they can go ahead and get incontact with you to be able to do that.
(21:59):
Great.
Any other final thoughts?
Some of the things that Andrew and I have
been over time and time again isthis might not even just be one part.
It may be two or three parts that gointo an assembly or welding.
Don't just think it's one item.
It may be a multitude of detailsthat make up an end part.
(22:22):
So I just don't think it's one thingif you have an assembly, have a weld,
and have a group of parts thatare troublesome getting you in,
or just say bad parts that comefrom China that are just not working.
Let's talk about the whole thing.
(22:43):
Let's just open it all up for discussionand see what we can do together.
Again, thank you very much.
It's been very helpful,and I hope people are listening,
see the value in this and get someknowledge and that this might be
a solution to the situationthat they happen to be in.
Andrew Dean, thank you verymuch for being on the podcast.
(23:04):
Yup, thank you.Take the time.
Okay, thanks again.
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