The last year has seen a dramatic slowdown in manufacturing in general. With no end in sight with regards to the current pandemic, it seems that this will be the case for some time to come.
This means that manufacturers and machine shops will need to look for ways to save money since adding orders for increased revenue doesn’t seem to be in the cards. Saving money with CNC machining not only puts more money in the coffers but can also give your company a competitive advantage by passing savings onto your customers.
In this article, we will go over several ways that using the right CNC machines will help you save money.
Fewer staff
The latest generation of CNC machines can do more with less. Though there is still a great deal of skill involved for the operator, there are fewer people required to produce parts on these CNC machines than in the past.
This does not reduce the standards of production. In fact, these new machines are far more precise so there is no downgrade in quality. Tasks can be far more complex than they previously were with no slowdown of output or additional staff needed to complete a project.
Increase in production
Greater output is still as important now during a downturn in orders as it is when there is a backlog. In fact, it may be even more important. The faster orders can be completed, the more that can be taken on later.
Many of the new CNC machines can work through the night with no slowdown in production. This can pump out the orders quickly so the shop is ready for the next order without any slowdown.
Happy customers
Accurate orders that are produced quickly and with a lower price point will keep your customers happy. This leads to fewer losses of clients over time which helps you save money. Not only are you still bringing in revenue, but there is less money spent trying to find new leads for customers. As lead generation can be quite costly, customer retention is very important.
With older machines, errors were part of the process. There was less precision so a certain number of defective parts would have been factored into the order. This was particularly true with the last of the products produced since this is when there would be less accuracy achieved.
More accurate orders can be done just about every time which gives your clients no reason to seek greener pastures and go to the competition.
Less waste
Wasted material is wasted money. The less accurate the machining process, the more waste is going to occur. With new, accurate CNC machines, the waste is minimal.
Besides the precision of the machine itself, there is also less room for human error to occur which saves even more material than production waste. There is more ability for the machine to reproduce the design data accurately and take human error out of the equation.