Cost considerations: Choosing tooling that is right for the job

In today’s fast-paced manufacturing environment, the development of cutting steels and tools is progressing at a rate never seen before in this industry.

A major contributor is the advancement in steel and so grinding and sharpening wheels are being developed to reflect the new metal or coating technologies. Taking this a step further, it seems obvious that a newly developed cutting solution will be next to support the better grinding wheels. That would amount to the perfect marriage. When all of these blend together, it puts you, as the manufacturer, in the best possible position to deliver the absolute best quality, industry-leading finished product.

Happily, the technology that once would have come at a higher premium now often costs the same or less thanks to economies of scale in supply.

What falls to you then is to understand the applications of the tools on offer. It’s critical for your profitability that you introduce the exact cutting material to match the application. You could over-capitalise on a more expensive knife but this investment will never be recouped because you can’t charge more for the product.

Alternatively, you could under-capitalise using an inferior knife and all it will do is turn out an inferior quality product that doesn’t meet your customers’ expectations. This, in turn, adds costs to your business.

Manufacturing plants must apply a keen focus to getting that marriage right between cutting tools and the applications they’ll be used for. Market best quality could be extreme and not serve you. Obviously, everyone wants to produce the highest quality product but it’s important to have a conversation with the right people who understand the critical links.

An example of this conversation could be around why a moulder is designed the way it is and how to achieve the best from it plus why a cutting tool is designed the way it is and how to achieve the best from it too. With the appropriate technical support and effective communication, knowing how these two items work together will produce a market leading outcome for which there will always be demand.

Ask yourself these three questions:

1. Are we using the same knife steel as we were using three years ago?
2. Have we changed our grinding wheel in the past two years?
3. Is the grinding coolant we’re using the latest developed solution for 2020?

If the answer is yes to question 1 but no to questions 2 and 3, then you really should look to have a conversation with us. We’d like to introduce you to a range of new technologies and explain the real benefits to your business.

The guy next door is doing this, so should you.