One of our clients was considering the potential cost savings of manufacturing parts overseas. They approached us to see if by working together we could keep both manufacturing and heat treatment in the UK.
Due mainly to energy and labour costs, overseas heat treatment costs were 40% lower than the UK for this range of transmission components. The client was manufacturing small bi-daily batches which we subsequently heat treated bi-daily.
On analysing the throughput, logistics, quality control and setup costs it was clear that the small batch approach was not profitable for either business.
With close co-operation and optimisation of material type and batch size production to suit furnace capacity we were able to offer heat treatment cost savings to the client of 35% on a range of products.
The batch sizes were increased between two and three times. This saved the customer setup time, and quality control, and reduced transport requirements, logistics and furnace capacity. This made the end result profitable and kept business within the UK.
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