As you may have gathered from the title, the news is the POSITIVE kind, not so much because last week I managed to close 4 contracts in 3 days, which is nevertheless a very positive thing, but because all 4 machines are the MULTICENTER model, the range of flexible machines which I believe still have plenty of unexpressed potential.

These four MULTICENTER machines, all sold within a 72-hour time span, will go to different customers: looking at them in detail, the smallest of them has 15 employees and one work facility, while the largest one has a workforce of more than 1000 employees and 9 production facilities worldwide.

This fact made me curious, so I started to analyse all the deals in question, re-reading the reports and the various needs of each single customer, in an attempt to understand why such different types of companies chose the same solution: the 3-SPINDLE MULTICENTER.

WHY DID A 15-EMPLOYEE COMPANY

AND ONE WITH OVER 1000 EMPLOYEES BOTH CHOSE THE MULTICENTER?

As already mentioned, there are very different kinds of companies, in terms of number of employees, organisation, and so on.

But after a while, I began finding many similarities even between different companies. Below is a list of the six main ones.

The first area concerns lot sizes: in all cases we find that, compared to the past, the end customer is ordering smaller and smaller lots, thus creating problems with the existing machines.

In these cases the machines are TRANSFER forcing you to carry out long retooling times for a few thousand pieces.

Once the machine is tooled, since you are already producing the 2000 pieces requested by the customer, you produce an additional 8000 to make the lot cost-effective, storing the extra pieces in the warehouse and hoping for a re-order.

Needless to say, increasing your stock levels is NEVER a positive thing, since modern production techniques consider everything stored in the warehouse as WASTE.

The second area which I observed in all the companies taken into account is the increased complexity of the piece to be processed.

In the past, components were much simpler, but in order to be able to move to markets with less competition, the components necessarily become more and more complex.

TO BEAT THE COMPETITION: MORE COMPLEX COMPONENTS ARE PRODUCED AND IN SMALLER LOTS

 

The third area shared by many companies is the need to produce these components in a single clamping, to avoid doing two, three or, in certain cases, four re-workings in order to complete the entire process. This is because every time a piece is re-worked, accuracy is lost in terms of the previous process phases, in addition to incurring logistical costs.

The fourth area is the desire to be certain that the processed pieces are burr-free. With the MULTICENTER technology, thanks to the large number of tools available, operations can be added for the de-burring, through chip removal, or through tools that take advantage of high pressure coolant.

The fifth area refers to easy machine tooling: compared to the TRANSFER machines, which are veritable monsters, the MULTICENTER is a simple and user-friendly machine. Tool changes are fast, leaving all the tools in the magazines and quickly changing the four part clamps.

The sixth area is the price of the 3-SPINDLE model, which is the lowest in its category with a base price of € 499,000: even with all the accessories, it is still the most competitive on the market thanks to the way it is mass-produced, instead of upon customer requests. In just a short time, we have installed more than 100 machining centers. Our delivery terms are also the best offered on the market, with an average delivery of 3-4 months from the date the order is placed:

THE MULTICENTER IS THE ONLY MASS-PRODUCED MACHINE OF ITS KIND: IT HAS THE LOWEST PRICE IN ITS CATEGORY, THE HIGHEST RELIABILITY LEVEL AND THE BEST DELIVERY TERMS (3-4 MONTHS)!

So, I have listed the 6 aspects which I found to be common to the companies to which I sold the 4 MULTICENTER machines last week. These 6 aspects will bring the following advantages to these companies:

• FASTER RE-TOOLING = MANAGEMENT OF SMALL LOTS
• PROCESSING OF MORE COMPLEX PARTS = NEW MARKETS
• SINGLE CLAMPING = GREATER ACCURACY
• IN-PROCESS DE-BURRING = ELIMINATION OF MANUAL OPERATIONS
• USER-FRIENDLY = FEWER PROBLEMS IN TRAINING PERSONNEL
• LOWEST PRICE IN ITS CATEGORY = UNBEATABLE COST PER PIECE

The six points shared by the companies that decided to purchase the MULTICENTER last week are points which many other companies also have in common.

These companies however, instead of searching for new instruments in order to deal with the new requests of the market, often spend their time complaining and remembering the good old days; after all, there is a crisis going on…

A CRISIS CAN BE SEEN AS AN INTERRUPTION IN DAILY HABITS AND BEHAVIOURS WHICH WE EXPECT TO HAPPEN IN THE FUTURE!

If the expected behaviours do not happen, we start to feel a lack of control over the situation; this destabilises us and leads us to have doubts about the future, raising the stress level.

Stress is nothing but the “modern” word for fear, since today it is not nice, or even cool, to say that one is scared…. while being stressed out nowadays is ‘cool’.

If you think about it, if we stopped people on the street and asked them whether or not they are stressed, the majority of them will answer yes.

WHAT DOES ALL OF THIS HAVE TO DO WITH THE MULTICENTER?

The MULTICENTER is a machine that originated from a crisis, an interpretation that PORTA SOLUTIONS has turned into reality by listening to the needs and complaints of customers who find themselves having to deal with a market that has changed significantly since 2008 and will never go back to the way it was.

So, the crisis presents you with a huge opportunity, the possibility to take advantage of the new needs of the market, provided you use the right tools, as incidentally you have already done some decades ago, when “stress” was not allowed to take over.

So, my personal wish is to immediately start to analyse which new tools you need in order to face this new market in a tangible and serious manner, a market that formed after the crisis and that we will have to become accustomed to or, better yet, learn to take advantage of so that your company can be as successful as possible.

As always, I will ask you to examine and answer the following three questions:

WHAT WOULD CHANGE AT YOUR COMPANY IF YOU INSTALLED A  MULTICENTER IN ORDER TO PRODUCE SMALL-MEDIUM QUANTITIES IN RECORD TIME?

…AND WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU KEEP USING THE SAME MACHINES YOU HAVE ALWAYS USED IN THE PAST?

WHAT WOULD BE THE RISKS FOR YOUR COMPANY IF YOU DID NOTHING AND SIMPLY POSTPONED YOUR DECISIONS?

REQUEST THE BOOK “FLEXIBLE PRODUCTION” BY CLICKING HERE!

Maurizio Porta
Expert in Flexible Production