~Precision Machining Global Outsourcing Cost Cutting..! 1

[Sonicpixy]

Greetings from U.K.!

I’m not entirely sure where best to post my issue here on this site. I had initially considered the "Machines & Machining engineering Forum" section however, having given things a second thought felt that perhaps it would not be looked upon favourably there since it has concerns related to that industry sector.

I have recently been trying to find a precision machining company here in the U.K. and the United States that can make parts from detail drawings that I have produced for a project I've been working on (It's for an 1/8 scale model car Serpent 950).

The parts have been mostly specified for Titanium alloys and there are at least 30, many are multiples off amounting to approximately 60. I am of the opinion that owing to the material and the complexity of some of those parts that a machine shop with EDM facility would be beneficial.

Thursday 22nd of this month, I received my first quotation from a company in West Sussex that has done work for the likes of BAR F1 team and Indy NASCARS and I was astonished to find that this quote was in excess of £8,800 excluding VAT so over £10,000.

Having made comparisons between some of those parts quotes, I noticed some strange anomalies in that a simple part basically a washer with a face groove in it - and what in my view I could if I had a non-CNC lathe to do it make it in 15 minutes including setup - cost approximately a third of a part which had multiple machining processes to make it (turning, boring, milling, die cutting and possibly EDM work).

I am concerned since this company has apparently built a reputation for itself here in the U.K. among these specialist race teams and I feel that any further quotes here could also result in Tobacco money type sponsorship "..I don't care how much it is, just get it done for Friday" extortionate costs (the guy charges over £30.00/hour just to look at the drawings, which I have designed and spent the best part of December till last month producing tirelessly night and day only getting about four hours sleep at best for no money) .

As a consequence, I have been giving serious thought to getting my work done either in Eastern Europe or Asia where I envisage there is the potential for more realistic and fair assessments.

This morning, by means of a search engine, I discovered a company that seems to have its core management operations based in Indiana U.S.A. It claims to act as an interface between design engineering companies in the West and various overseas manufacturing services in Eastern Europe and Far East Asia (to name Poland, Czechoslovakia, Korea, China). It uses a term to describe this service ‘Global Outsourcing’

The company in question is called Prosna (

http://www.prosna.com/mach-process.htm).

Now what I would like to know is has anyone here had any dealings with this company or indeed any other company offering such a service.

Further, has anyone here dealt directly with a precision engineering manufacturing company or companies in the former Eastern Europe or Asian regions?

If so I would be very interested to know what kind of service one can expect. Is it really a simple and cost effective means of getting a machining job done as against dealing with a company in the West offering such a service particularly for one off small batch parts (I note Mr Dyson has recently opted to seek such manufacturing services in Eastern Europe too because of appreciable savings in labour cost)?

Is there any possible risk involved dealing with those in Eastern Europe?
Can they be trusted if approached without the aid or assistance of an alleged experienced global outsourcing service?
How can reputable companies in these areas be identified?
What can one expect with customs import duties when one has parts made for oneself abroad?

Thank you in advance for your attentions.

I shall look forward to receiving your suggestions and any relevant experiences you may have however simple.

 

[GregLocock]

A slight tangent

You'll probably find that going overseas with such a small order is more trouble than its worth. I think your cost problem is that you approached the wrong sort of company to do your work.

Ti is pretty easy to work with these days, so long as you are using a decent machine. My favourite machine shop prefers working in TiAl6V4F89 to SS316, despite the enormous disparity in yield stress.

Therefore I'd look around for a small local machine shop with a modern machining centre. A good place to look is an industrial estate near a shipyard that has closed down... many toolmakers 'invested' their redundancy payouts in setting up a machine shop, and then compete with each other to the extent that (admittedly twenty years ago) it was cheaper for me to get parts made than make them myself.

Having said all that, my current employer gets many big precision machined parts made in the Far East, and is presumably happy with the price/performance/delivery aspects.

Cheers

Greg Locock

 

[EngineerDave]

This is very interesting, I will mark this for comment later based on my own experience.

 

[ischgl99]

What tolerances are you specifying your parts? If very tight, then the costs will be very high. The company you requested a quote from may have a full work load already and gave you the high quote because they are not interested in the work.

There is a small company I know of in England that might be interested in quoting the job for you,

http://www.stevenson-engineers.co.uk

If they can't do it, I'm sure they could recommend someone that can.

Mike Bensema

http://www.dutchmenservices.com