At Metal’s, we can enhance the design of a semi-finished product or a complex assembly to optimize production at fixed costs.
By finding solutions tailored to clients' needs and suggesting specific improvements, we help reduce error margins and create high-quality products, ready for use or assembly. At Metal’s, our technical office can take charge of a project from scratch or even during its processing phase, identifying issues and implementing improvements to deliver a top-tier product, eliminating the risk of costly rework.
This is just one of the many advantages of choosing Metal’s as your sole project partner. We internally manage every production phase and supply chain aspect, providing clients with a product that meets their requirements, timelines, and agreed costs.
Optimizing production at fixed costs by reducing processing errors
At Metal’s, we actively participate in the process. When there’s an opportunity to improve a project, we suggest the best solutions to our clients. These implementations and modifications can also apply to ongoing production initiated by another supplier. In this case study, we explain how improvements can be applied to an in-progress project, enabling the client to reduce errors, waste, and processing costs.
Case and recommendation in brief: how to minimize fastening issues and rework
At Metal’s, we can intervene in a client’s initial design, proposing alternative components that positively impact production by reducing error margins and, consequently, rework and overall costs.
This was the case for an international client in the Food Processing sector that manufactures meat-processing machines. Due to fastening issues with screws, the client faced numerous product rework sessions, increasing both costs and lead times.
Our Proposal: caged nuts instead of screws
Our technical office carefully analyzed the client’s project and identified that the rework during part assembly stemmed from pre-drilled holes. This caused a series of mismatches and errors, preventing optimal fastening and leading to the production of custom components, which disrupted the initial cost plan.
To address this issue, we proposed replacing the pre-drilled holes with fastening elements like caged nuts, which allow for adjustment gaps during assembly. These nuts are known for their easy and quick installation on rigid structures of varying thicknesses (including significant thicknesses), making them an effective solution for this challenge.
The importance of internal processes to reduce errors
When a client entrusts us with the entire project as the sole point of contact, it allows us to have full control, oversee every phase, optimize costs, and improve operations while ensuring timely delivery.
For example, for the same client, we standardized the product welding process by setting parameters for semi-finished product preparation and calibration of the operation, ensuring consistency and reducing rework almost to zero.
When welding is not uniform and surface treatments are required, issues can arise (such as components needing finishing or even complete replacement). This often happens during shot blasting. If welding is not performed correctly, micro-holes can form on the surface, requiring rework, which extends delivery times and interferes with agreed costs. By standardizing the welding process, however, we nearly eliminated rework and provided the client with a product that met the requirements.
The advantage? Thanks to a well-programmed supply chain, capable of limiting unforeseen issues and errors, costs remain as agreed, along with delivery timelines and product quality.
“The management of the entire supply chain allows us to offer our clients a complete service, covering various stages of production and technical consulting. This way, we can control the entire process with careful planning to limit—and virtually eliminate—the error margin. The solution we offered to the client in this case study, which fully satisfied them, reduced unforeseen issues and rework, shortening delivery times and providing fixed costs. Thanks to the intervention of our technical department, the client solved a long-standing problem they had struggled with for years.” – Luca Regazzo, Technical Sales Manager.
The benefits of relying on a single point of contact for projects, even complex ones
Choosing Metal’s as the sole point of contact for your projects means relying on a skilled partner that, through complete management of the production process, can minimize waste, reduce costs, and ensure timely deliveries.
By entrusting us with the entire process, we gain a comprehensive overview. This allows our technical department to anticipate potential issues caused by the manufacturing process, suggesting effective alternatives and improvements to reduce errors, enhance operations, optimize costs, or speed up production.
Furthermore, we oversee every stage of the supply chain, coordinating suppliers, purchasing necessary raw materials, handling assembly when required, and conducting final tests. Once the product is completed and ready for shipment, we also take care of logistics and handling. We store the goods in our warehouses and deliver orders to the client’s facility, both in Italy and abroad, providing customized packaging and handling any necessary paperwork (including customs procedures) if needed. This way, the client can focus on their core activities, leaving the entire management to us.