“ When we came out with the next generation of mounts, we made the castings thinner because we had more expertise about the weight loads ” —Joe Dolack
wall mounts, articulating mounts and standalone mounts, among other things. About 30-35% of the parts that go into those products are aluminum
die castings: wall brackets, arms and other components, most often found on articulating mounts. “Typically, when we’re developing
a new product, we go to castings for an aesthetic look,” Potts said. The remaining parts used in the mounting assemblies primarily are stampings, which Peerless also produc- es in-house along with its die castings. “We have had a big transition, where
30% of what we were selling we were buying in China,” Potts said. “We made the transition back. Now, we’re making 100% of all our metal here. We are the only true manufacturer in the industry. Everyone else is a distributor.”
Lead Timing Is Everything Aurora, Ill., is more than 6,500
miles from Beijing, China. The fl ight between the two cities is almost 14 hours long. The boat ride for the goods Peerless was ordering was about 30 days, according to Eble, a fact that eventually made the out- sourcing arrangement untenable. “When a part is being made in Asia,
there is cost to the on-boat time,” he said. “And if there is a quality issue, you don’t know until they get here.” For professional mount customers,
lead teams are everything. They want the mounts now, Potts said, and they aren’t going to wait 30 days after they place their order. And when you’re buying parts from overseas, the 30-day on-the-water time might be only the tip of the iceberg. The supplier might have the parts on its manufacturing fl oor for an additional 30 days, and its supplier might have it on the fl oor for a period of time, as well. Potts said that after several years
After examining each of its aluminum die castings individually, Peerless determined it could produce them economically on two 600-ton diecasting machines.
26
dealing with suppliers in China, the company has come to appreciate the total landed cost of the products it was buying, rather than the individual piece price. That cost includes third party quality inspection, defect rework,
MODERN CASTING / February 2011
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