Category: Blog

A project we completed for an equipment manufacturer (OEM) demonstrates the positive side effects of being closely involved in the customer’s production process for seven years and, along the way, building collaborative relationships with their operations, engineering and purchasing groups.

Large-format, heavy-steel fabrication has been a Schaffer Manufacturing core competency since Barry Schaffer started the company in 1993.

Selecting the optimal fabrication method (laser, fiber laser, water jet, CO2, oxy-fuel, punch) is always a function of variables like operating cost, sheet utilization, material type, thickness, edge-finish requirements, and tolerancing. But the best solutions in outsourced fabrication also depend on a supplier offering multiple metal handling options.

Aggressively adopting advanced technology has been a strategy – across all Schaffer Manufacturing metal fabrication operations – since the early days of the company.

Sourcing the metal fabrication that is involved in bringing a new product to market can be significantly more effective when an OEM goes beyond routine, cost-focused supplier quotes and holds out for a “big picture” production partner.

There is a saying here at Schaffer Manufacturing that metal fabrication should not be a “black box” operation. In other words, you don’t simply feed in the print and out comes the part.

After several years of manufacturing mining-industry products in Wisconsin – using Schaffer-fabricated components – an OEM customer moved its operations to another state. The heavy fabrication and assembly work, however, has remained here with Schaffer Manufacturing in Wisconsin.

When you consider the entire supply chain roadmap involved in taking a manufactured product from development to delivery, materials and production labor easily represent the vast majority of the total cost.

In custom metal fabrication, every movement on the shop floor is an opportunity to enhance lean manufacturing – by removing waste – in order to help customers take cost and time out of their supply chains.

“They were slow to respond to inquiries, took months to return bids, and were largely unwilling to make investments to manufacture the parts he needed.” That observation from a Fortune magazine article on the “reshoring” trend – and its positive impact on U.S. manufacturing health