CONFIGURABLE COMPONENTS HELP REDUCE MACHINED PARTS PRODUCTION TIME, REDUCE COSTS

Misumi USA, Inc. (Schaumberg, IL), offers its configurable components, which they claim have exceeded customer?s expectations by helping them experience time savings of up to 60 percent on machined parts and cost reductions of up to 50 percent.

Traditionally, designers would draw up the proposed machine, then spec out as many standard parts as possible, before proceeding to the design and production of the custom parts needed. Whether produced in their machine shop or outsourced to a local shop or component supplier for custom, low-volume production, this process had attendant expense, time and higher associated machine maintenance cost, plus less modularity in the utilization of custom parts on other machine builds. According to ABCO Automation, Inc.?s Senior Mechanical Engineer, Dan Pescariu, ?We found that by reducing the amount of custom components per machine we are able to not only save time and money but are also able to produce machines that are more modular and offer better performance.?

Additional benefits of replacing custom components with configurable components are that configurable components typically translates to less design compromises and allows machines to be designed more modular. Not only do configurable components offer high-quality fit, but each part has their own part number that can be listed on the bill of materials so that when a machine needs maintenance, it is much easier and faster to change out the part, thereby reducing machine down-time.

According to Sean Fraser, Director of Dial Tool Industries Automation Division, ?We?re finding we often can reduce our design time on a particular section of a machine from 20 hours to 20 minutes by using configurable components from Misumi. The time savings for our engineers, plus the machine shop time and expense savings we realize are simply outstanding.? Furthermore, according
to Fraser, ?We can source configurable components from Misumi with no minimum order quantities and no set-up charges.? Additionally, the Misumi online CAD configurator allows engineers to download native CAD files and insert these files directly into their assembly drawings. All this time savings add up to higher productivity, reduced build time and dramatic component cost reduction.

The current challenging economic climate has increased competition and put cost pressures on manufacturers who in turn place pressure on suppliers, including the machine builders, to reduce costs without sacrificing quality, service and delivery.

www.misumiusa.com