Creating a Unique Experience While Meeting Specific Customer Needs
One of our customer’s had internal capacity constraints and needed to find a source that could provide relief for their Swiss Department. The desired part was high volume with tight tolerances and needed to be machined out of a material unfamiliar to Midway Swiss Turn. Special gaging was provided for the tight tolerances which were critical to the functionality of the component. Along with the machining challenges from a material grade and tolerance standpoint, there were new secondary operations that were extremely critical in the handling and packaging of this product. Previous shipments from other sources had been rejected by their customer for failure to adhere to the stringent handling and packaging requirements.
Another challenge that developed as we moved into volume production was availability of the correct material size. The original material size quoted was ½” outside diameter (OD). As time went on and volumes increased larger OD material had to be substituted due to ½” OD being unavailable. Adjustments had to be made for larger material with changes of up to 3/16” increase from original quote out of ½” OD.
Secondary operations included tumbling, cleaning, rust protectant (RP) application using wire pin baskets, 100% inspection of critical dimensions, drying, and packaging the finished product in plastic trays was critical to the acceptance of the product for the end customer. Prior to MST creating their custom process for this part the product had been rejected by the purchasing company solely based on the usage of excess RP.
After running the product for many months and developing an understanding of how this unique material machined, other opportunities with this customer developed. A part family of five different items were introduced to Midway Swiss Turn due primarily to their success in the machining of the material, capabilities to hold tight tolerances and the development of a streamlined secondary process with zero rejections by our client’s end customer.
Midway Swiss Turn treats customer confidentiality with the utmost importance. While a more thorough example may be helpful, in order to protect our customers and their products, we have intentionally omitted precise details so that their product and experience remains customized to them.