Excerpt from “Process Management Thanks to Inventory Control,” by AmericanMachinist.com (May 22, 2013)
“You name it, CNC Manufacturing studied it: a thorough evaluation of its various production processes – and a tool management and dispensing system — made the shop more efficient and competitive…” — Robert Brooks of AmericanMachinist.com
At any given time, on any given work day, Edward (Sonny) Prince serves as a true jack-of-all-trades in his primary role as operations director for CNC Manufacturing Inc. in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania. “I might be doing machine set-ups, then programming, maintenance, overall process improvement, inventory management, operator training … back to set-ups … you name it,” claims Prince.
Such a diverse skill-set actually helped Prince to conduct (at the direction of CNC Manufacturing president Tom Walser) a thorough and effective evaluation of all CNC part-production steps. It was an aggressive approach by the company to eliminate costly process redundancies – and to control and standardize every step of its manufacturing operations, even while continuing to make its most complex products.
“Our plan was simple,” Walser began. “In 2009, at the height of the recession, we decided to be proactive, to closely investigate every single action we were undertaking related to every different thing we were making, particularly in regard to inspections and inventory control. Our goals: Lower our costs, (and) become far more efficient … which, most important, it would make us 100% better at competing once the economy improved. I can safely say our ‘corrective’ actions back then made us the successful company we are today.”
Read the entire article at AmericanMachinist.com
