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Re: Machine Parts Lead Time
Re: Machine Parts Lead Time -- Kelly Bramble	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: Zeeshan Hafiz ® 05/03/2007, 14:01:05 Author Profile eMail author Edit

I work for a machine shop now but I used to send lot of work to machine shops in past, what I have learned that all depends what field you are in and most importantly size of the part. Generally bigger parts are longer lead times averagly 6-8 weeks but smaller part are 3-4 weeks. It is a good idea to know the specailty of a machine shop. That helps turns around your parts faster. I would never send a part to a shop that would take 10-16 weeks.

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Re: Machine Parts Lead Time
Re: Machine Parts Lead Time -- Kelly Bramble	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: randykimball ® 05/02/2007, 11:21:26 Author Profile eMail author Edit

No.. I have some I use that are turning my work around within a few days, with large jobs done in 4 to 6 weeks. These shops are hard to find and are worth protecting. The main thing that I find effecting work turn around is prompt and consistant payment for work done. We pay net 30 with perfect record. When a payment to a vendor is late it is usually due to a missed paper work and is corrected the day of notification of the problem. THAT gets your work done at the "head of the class". The worst suggestion of your lifetime may be the catalyst to the grandest idea of the century, never let suggestions go unsaid nor fail to listen to them.

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Re: Re: Machine Parts Lead Time ... additional data
Re: Re: Machine Parts Lead Time -- randykimball	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: randykimball ® 05/02/2007, 11:42:26 Author Profile eMail author Edit

I have found that many shop have gone under leaving the work to the highly skilled and well established. Many shops went out and purchased too many machine tools and could not keep up payments in the lean times. And, many of those simply did not have the skills required to run a machine shop well. I am finding that one of the biggest problems is the loss of skilled old school machinist knowing how to do a large assortment of skill sets out of the trade due to age, death, and retirement. The younger operators are mostly CNC operators with out the wide range of skill sets required to run a shop. The current system does not reward nor systemize these operators to learn more than a narrow scope of the trade. In fact, I firmly believe most do not honestly have a clue how vast the trade is anymore. One way you can ALWAYS get work done in ANY shop on time and when you want it is to pay cash upon delivery. No matter what you hear, cash ALWAYS speaks to a machine shop owner with bills to pay. If you pay cash everytime, you will get attention and your work will be started the moment the materials hit the floor. In the past I was able to do this, I found all my vendor shop owners would stop what they were doing and tend to my every request with interest on the spot, no exception. Where I am now it is a large corp, so net 30 is as best as it gets, but still pulls power when they know they can count on being paid right at 30 days consistantly. While I have the attention of a few: Our steel making ability and our machine shop core are a valuable national resource (any country) that must be protected and nurished. Without them we are doomed. In a national emergency, if shop skill sets are not maintianed, they can not be pulled out of a hat.... they are just gone. We (USA) are NOT doing enough to assure the regeneration of this skill set.... period... a wake up call is due. I hope it is a small one and we take advantage of it. As I see it, without a wake up call, we are not going to "wake up". The worst suggestion of your lifetime may be the catalyst to the grandest idea of the century, never let suggestions go unsaid nor fail to listen to them. Modified by randykimball at Wed, May 02, 2007, 12:09:53

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Re: Re: Re: Machine Parts Lead Time ... additional data
Re: Re: Re: Machine Parts Lead Time ... additional data -- randykimball	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: Kelly Bramble ® 05/02/2007, 12:08:01 Author Profile eMail author Edit

Most of my current customers are within the Aerospace, Energy, Automotive and Medical industries. All design challenging parts to manufacture. These challenges are exotic materials (Inconel, high chrome steels), very tight tolerances (+/- .00001, flatness too 60 millionths). None of these organizations specify parts that can be manufactured with commodity manufacturing processes, though they could ligthen up on thier requirements/specifications in my opinion. Job shops that can handle tough parts are far and few between. Modified by Administrator at Thu, May 03, 2007, 10:00:54

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Re: Machine Parts Lead Time
Re: Machine Parts Lead Time -- Kelly Bramble	Post Reply	Top of thread	Forum

Posted by: Marky ® 05/02/2007, 07:29:34 Author Profile eMail author Edit

Yes they are Kelly. I recently had a small project with maybe 1/2 a dozen simple machined alum. & Delrin parts. Some shops wouldn't touch it....it was too small. I had to find a small model shop..couple of Bridgeports and lathes etc. He took the job no problem...delivered parts 2 week early (from 4 wks). This shop was reaping the benefits of the large shops no quoting....he's moving to a larger shop. I'll kindly pay you Tuesday..for a hamburger today....Whimpy

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