Assembly - November 2008 - (Page 47) tolerance for downtime. We need to know what period of time you expect your spares to cover—how long can you tolerate the machine being down awaiting a part you don’t keep in stock? For example, if the delivery for a shear punch is two weeks, and you can’t afford two weeks downtime waiting for the punch to arrive, you should keep the punch in stock. Production Rate The machine we build will run at or above the gross rate we quote, and will meet the short-term efficiency numbers in our proposal. The long-term efficiency and overall equipment effectiveness are up to you. See the sidebar entitled Overall Equipment Effectiveness for a sample calculation. We use sound engineering principles and quality components to build good machines that meet your requirements from the time they are installed on your production floor. You can only expect to realize your productivity goals over the long term if the equipment is operated by properly trained and motivated individuals. Warranty and Training There are hundreds of parts in some of the machines we build, and they have never been assembled in exactly the same combination before. An occasional part failure should not be a surprise, nor does a failure have to be a catastrophic event. Please understand that all failures are not warranty issues; indeed, some are not machine issues. Some failure scenarios are: commercial part fault, commercial part applied incorrectly, a software or controls glitch, output rate deterioration, product quality deterioration, operator error and improper maintenance. The first three are definitely warranty issues. The rest are the result of improper training or inattention to the task at hand. Personnel training issues that are responsible for machine failures can be traced to second- or lower-generation training. It has been shown repeatedly that the farther one gets from the original trainer, the less effective the training. If the personnel that we trained for you transfer or leave, you may want to ask us to come in and train your current workforce. Help Us to Help You Many of us in the special automation industry who have survived the recent manufacturing shakeups do an excellent job of supplying high-quality processing systems at reasonable prices, but we need your help for us to help you. Get us involved early. Tell us what you expect to gain from your new equipment purchase, treat our relationship as a true partnership, and take the initiative in maintaining the productivity of your new equipment. And through it all, let’s continue to work together and use our collective innovation to keep the manufacturing base in the United States strong and agile. A 679 METRIC KNOBS for a cleaner environment COMPLIANT RoHS Request your free catalog All Metric Small Parts www.amsp.biz T. 516.302.0152 F. 516.302.0153 www.assemblymag.com November 2008 / ASSE M B LY 47 http://www.amsp.biz http://www.techno-sommer.com http://www.amsp.biz http://www.techno-sommer.com http://www.assemblymag.com
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