Published

Moving your Shop Out of its Comfort Zone

Many shops are facing changing demands from their customers. In the article, we look at a second-generation, family-owned precision machined parts manufacturer that is making the internal and technological changes necessary to accommodate changes its customers are asking for.

Share

machining cell

Built by Always Precision around a rebuilt Cincinnati centerless grinder, this cell’s technical sophistication opened up new ways to think about manufacturing at American Turned Products.

Many shops are facing changing demands from their customers. In the article, “Automated Grinding Cell Adds Capacity,” we look at a second-generation, family-owned precision machined parts manufacturer that is making the internal and technological changes necessary to accommodate changes its customers are asking for.

Typically, centerless grinding is not found on the capability list of most screw machine shops. However, we are seeing many non-traditional operations added to the equipment list of shops across the board.

American Turned Products (Erie, Pennsylvania) is an example of this trend. One of its good customers asked if ATP could take over production of a centerless grinding job that the customer had been jobbing out. The part was out of ATP’s wheelhouse because of its weight, which was measured in pounds rather than the ounces the shop usually dealt with.

A good customer is a good customer, so ATP decided to take the job and invest in the production cell that could make it in the qualities needed. Click here to read the full story of how this successful application helped move ATP out of its comfort zone.