The 10 most used key words in web research for this specific production topic are:

1. REDUCE STOCK LEVEL
2. QUICK CHANGE OF PRODUCTION
3. FLEXIBLE MACHINERY
4. FLEXIBLE MACHINING CENTERS
5. SMED MACHINE TOOLS
6. PRODUCE ONLY SOLD QUANTITIES
7. LEAN MANUFACTURING
8. MEDIUM LOTS PRODUCTION
9. FLEXIBLE CELLS PROCESSING
10. LEAN PRODUCTION

If you notice, these words do not specify an increase in production or volume.

They all refer to a problem: the researching of flexibility that is nowadays necessary.

Large quantities of all the same products are gone.

Today is about winning the challenge of producing to order medium-small lots.  It is becoming more important: we have to become flexible, but we still have to be quick in serving the final costumer.

A lot of companies, to meet these needs, rush headlong into flexible machining centers, but lose sight of speed!  So, the step, or rather the error, is to increase stock levels to be able to respond quickly to customers.

INCREASING THE STOCK TO RESPOND QUICKLY TO COSTUMERS IS A MISTAKE!

Apparently, increasing the warehouse is done with a good intention, in order to respond to the final customer quickly and without losing the order, but the “damage” can affect the company structure.

First, the warehouse is taxed at the end of the year , and therefore, at the fiscal level, having a high value is not an advantageous situation.
The more stock I have, the more it costs me to take inventory, and the more it costs me in terms of space, cleanliness, and order.

Basically, the bigger it is, the more problems there are. Having a lot of stock also involves the risk of possible errors on sales forecasts which, if they prove to be wrong, cause inventories of the material not sold.
Or, even worse, if the final customer asks you for a change of the piece and you have already produced it, at your own risk, there is a big problem.

I have customers who have produced more than they should.

Now they would have some innovations to introduce on their product, but first they had to “take out the old warehouse”, which is difficult to place and therefore, in fact, the consequence is to delay the entry of the new product, slowing down the company.

Another story that occurred with a customer concerns the regulation that regulates its sector, which has been changed. This customer had inventory inventories and it cost him less to throw away everything rather than modify the existing product.

With the introduction of the LEAN MANUFACTURING, coming from the AUTOMOTIVE sector and born in the Toyota environment, the way of working of production companies is reversed.

Today, the aim is to reduce stocks as much as possible and produce only sold goods. This way of working brings lots of advantages but also some problem with the production.

The new laws of producing according to this method are: be flexible (typical of the machining centers) and produce quickly not to rely on the warehouse, the work center here fails …

THIS SYSTEM EXCLUDES AUTOMATICALLY THE COMPETITION OF EMERGING COUNTRIES, ASIA FIRST, THAT CAN’T WORK LIKE THIS

However, if this way of production is applicated in a classic production company, it puts stress on the organization and relationships between people, generates frustration and loss of motivation. You can decide to change the way you do, but if the tools you have available are backward and inadequate, the situation can only get worse.

Analyzing the data of the YOUTUBE videos, I learned that the most visited video is the MULTICENTER that has reached 4,000 views !!

Google Analytics’s data historically showed that the greatest interest was in high-production transfer machines.

Today even these data reveal a trend reversal. This inversion of trend, which comes directly from the users of machine tools, shows that they are no longer looking for machines that produce as quickly as possible, but machines that are very flexible, quick to change, and quick to adapt to the demand of the market.

I also point out that not only has there been a trend reversal of one product compared to the other, but, comparing the last 12 months with the previous 12 months, the number of people who visited the site and the Blog (www.flexible- production.com) grew by 22.6%.

The web is used more and more to find solutions to problems, whether it is simply to find a hotel, a store, or a product, and also to find the solution on how to produce in a flexible way.

THIS IS WHY THE MULTICENTER IN THE LAST 20 MONTHS PASSED THE TRANSFER

The Multicenter is the right machine to meet these new requirements, in fact it is based on a TRANSFER technology: the 4-station pallet is rotary like a TRANSFER, therefore fast to produce. Instead of simple transfer units, 3 real independent MACHINING CENTERS were used with tool change and B rotation axis. This is to guarantee flexibility.

THE MULTICENTER ALLOWS YOU TO FILL THE WAREHOUSE… WHY?

THANKS TO THE FLEXIBILITY OF EQUIPMENT AND
THE SPEED OF PRODUCTION

Here are summarized the strengths of the machine in line with the new requests coming from Google searches:

• VERY FLEXIBLE, IT ADAPTS TO ALL THE PIECES TO WORK (MAX 120 TOOLS)
• SUPER FAST TO RETOOL: CHANGE PIECE IN 15 MINUTES
• FAST IN PRODUCTION: 3 SPINDLES ALWAYS IN THE CUT
• REDUCED EQUIPMENT COSTS
• LOWEST INVESTMENT COST OF THE CATEGORY

This machine can be metaphorically connected to a phone and it can produce FAST with retooling time of 15 minutes.

A dream that will make the relationships between your managers ideal. Typically the commercial and the production do not go very in tune, because it is here that normally happens the clash, or rather, the meeting between the demands of the market and the internal organization of the company made of people and machines.

MARKET BY ONE SIDE, PEOPLE AND MACHINES INSIDE YOUR COMPANY

These are the main variables, and when one changes, the others, to keep the company in balance, must also change. If this does not happen, then come the clashes, when, meetings should be held to understand the roads to take.

Below are the three questions that I asked one of my customers who uses the MULTICENTER.

Incidentally, let’s give real names and surnames, because there are too many endorsements that praise certain products that are entirely made up.

The funny thing is that it is never possible to verify them, and this aspect, which is the result of science-fiction marketing, upsets me a great deal!

Why? Well… Because there is no signature at the bottom of these endorsements; no one knows who this super satisfied customer is and, because of privacy laws, you are not allowed to know… This is a typical gimmick!

SO, WHAT DID I DO?

I simply asked my 3 questions and then asked for permission to publish the answers as an endorsement (in compliance with privacy laws) with all the necessary references so that anyone, even you, can contact the person/company in question and verify the truth of what is being reported!

Insert here your e-mail address
to immediately view the testimonials!

Maurizio Porta
Expert in Flexible Production