Choosing a machine shop partner can be one of the most daunting tasks when it comes to the manufacturing industry. When your finished product's quality is determined by the makeup of its individual components or tooling, a machined part can mean the difference between a satisfied customer and one confused as to why his or her product is not working. That process of manufacturing starts with identifying the quality of your suppliers, most important of which is your go-to machine shop.
As a qualified machine shop with its roots dating back to 1971, our team at D&R Machine is dedicated to assisting all companies with decision making related to the machining industry. Here are our insights from the customer's perspective that can streamline the process of selecting the most ideal machine shop to partner with.
Finding Potential Machine Shops
For both small-scale and large-scale businesses, finding machine shops can be an either obscure or easy process depending on your location. Areas and sectors with plenty of industrial production and factories can be a hotspot for machine shops due to easier availability for probable clients. With some businesses not being primarily located nearby to a machine shop, especially for basic office environments, machine shops might not always be nearby. While it is important to use easily accessible resources like Google or Yelp to find reviews, machinists you partner with should ideally be ones that specialize in your specific industry. For example, an aerospace company would likely be better off finding a shop that has direct and established experience working in the aerospace industry to effectively fabricate parts held to military-standard specifications.
When it comes to your particular niche or industry, a good method is to leverage word of mouth and networking to find first-hand users of shops known to be qualified and trusted. Discussing with coworkers, contacting colleagues in your network within your area, or even simply calling up potential shops listed in search engines can be a strong start to finding a probable partner. This can cut down time wasted on less-than-ideal shops that may not be the right fit for your business.
Additionally, location is another factor that plays into machine shop selection. Whether or not you require inspection during the machining or at all need to have a machine shop close to your production center will likely limit your business's options for a partnership. When quality of machined parts needs to be compromised with accessibility of the machine shop with your facility, it is important to identify if it is critical for a shop to be close by or if you can select a shop independent of location.
While finding potential shops is the first step into establishing a partnership with a machine shops, the most arduous task is vetting the shops you find to determine what company is the best fit to support your operations. It all comes down to one critical factor—credibility.
Credibility: What criteria defines a quality machine shop?
Machine shops can deliver components and parts over wide range of industries—this broad scope can make it difficult to find a particular shop that fits your requirements and specifications, especially when it comes to complex geometries or tight tolerancing.
Consider the following list of factors, of which we will discuss in detail in the paragraphs below:
Capabilities and Equipment
Quality Control
Lead Time
Production Flexibility
Reputation
Capabilities and Equipment
Assessing a shop's capabilities should be the first step when selecting a machine shop. Ideally, a machine shop should have in-house access to mills and lathes to be able to machine a large majority of relatively simple geometries out of raw material. It is most common for shops to use CNC (computer numerical control) machining technology to maximize accuracy and reduce human input to control randomness in manufacturing.
All machine shops should be able to provide their smallest tolerances per machine, as these would represent the maximum accuracy that the shop can achieve. Depending on the parts you require, tolerance capabilities will be the most important factor as certain shops may not be capable producing parts held to the strict tolerancing you require.
Complex shapes may require the use of multi-axis machines such as 4-axis mills, 4-axis lathes, and 5-axis mills. These can be used in order to facilitate the production of machined parts that are difficult for standard 3-axis machines to produce or make the process of machining a particular part available where a standard CNC machine would be ineffectual.
Quality Control
Your chosen machine shop requires strict quality control for all parts along with the capability to inspect these parts with calibrated measurement tools and equipment. A suite of inspection tools should include sets of calipers, micrometers, height gages, gage pins, radii and angle gages, and plug gages among other tools. A coordinate measuring machine, or CMM, is an expensive but extremely useful tool for inspection that machine shops can house for quality and inspection purposes.
Machine shops can also hold certain certifications that confirm that their operations are conducted in line with an industry's best practices for manufacturing. These include, but are not limited to, ISO9001 for general manufacturing processes and AS9100 for specialization into aerospace parts. If your industry identifies a particular manufacturing and quality standard, finding machine shops that maintain their certification will help narrow your search for a ideal machining partner.
Lead Time and Logistics
For many companies, incorporating a machine shop into a supply chain can be a difficult process depending on how large-scale of an operation a shop needs to conduct to output parts for a client. While larger machine shops may have the capability to handle large-scale production, these same shops can also be susceptible to long lead times with other orders.
Consulting with a machine shop directly can give insight in whether or not that particular shop can handle your orders and to gauge if can handle the work capacity required at that specific time to get parts on time. Paying for expedition of a production cycle can also be a solution for accelerated lead times.
Production Flexibility
Determining whether or not your operations require short term or prototype-scale runs as opposed to long term production cycles can help you identify whether or not you should partner with a smaller or large-scale shop.
Prototype machining involves short runs for a handful amount of parts, typically being one-off deliveries to the customer. These short runs are flexible in the sense that these parts are not required multiple times over an extended period of time but are important for immediate deliverables.
Production machining are typically long cycle runs for established manufacturers that require many parts and components for their operational processes. Larger machine shops have more space to house the machines to mass-produce components and may not be able to provide one-off services as opposed to long cycles of machining parts repeatedly.
When considered production flexibility, ask the potential machine shop what their capabilities are and how many machines they have. Depending on their current equipment, they may be able to handle medium to large orders. With smaller orders, it may be more beneficial to contact a smaller shop that is not burdened with fulfilling long production cycles which can allow you to get a short-term job finished in shorter time than it would be from a larger machine shop.
Reputation
If the shop you find can fulfill the majority of your needs based off the above criteria, chances are the shop is also known to be reputable by other customers. It is common to reference customer reviews on public platforms such as Google, Yelp, or Trustpilot. These services can direct you to shops that are highly rated by customers and can dissuade your team from partnering with a shop not particularly seen as professional.
Among reviews and ratings, an analysis of the potential machine shop's work history from pages such as their website's gallery can allow you to see their work without having to go into the shop. While not being the most accurate means to determine if a shop is the right fit, viewing previous work history can show whether or not their previous products are in line with what you intend to request a quote.
Conclusion
With a wide set of criteria to review before making your partnership decision, it should go without saying that choosing a machine shop partner is an involved process that requires a lot of research to minimize a wrong decision. Despite the necessary burdens required to find the right shop, a proper machine shop will pay itself forward with parts delivered on time at pristine condition to the specifications of your drawings.
If you are currently looking for a machine shop partner, our team at D&R Machine can help with fulfill short or long run cycles of machined parts to the tightest tolerances in the industry. With ISO9001D and AS9100 certifications, we are no stranger to machining critical parts and components for the aerospace and manufacturing industries. For more information regarding any machining services, contact us today.
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