General Products performs several tests, per customer orders, to ensure dimensional compliance.
and understand its full requirements. According to its general guidelines for suppliers, price, quality, on-time delivery and location are the most critical components in determining viable suppliers. “Obviously, price is important, but logistics are critical,” Newby said. “Today, the cost of fuel and trucking really drive the choices. If you have a facility in Mexico, you
The machine shop has both automated and operator-run machining lines at its Angola, Ind., facility.
are not going to be driving castings back and forth.” According to Newby, General
Products audits all suppliers to ensure they have the internal sys- tems and processes in place to make 100% on-time deliveries. Suppli- ers must be in compliance with the QS9000 standard or a comparable quality program. “We demand first pass yields over
99%,” Newby said. “[Solidification software] is practically required, but it’s program-specific.” According to Angola plant man-
ager Dolores Bredemeyer, the biggest issue General Products has with cast- ing suppliers is porosity. “[For some programs], we get into them and porosity and scrap is sky high,” she said. “We plan our capacity for some scrap, but when it becomes excessive, we have to do something…[like] make design changes to reduce porosity or put [the porosity] in a diff erent place so it doesn’t aff ect the machining.” General Products fi nds some
metalcasting facilities that want to squeeze it out of the loop entirely and install in-house machining. Newby said the industry saw an uptick in the number of metalcasters that were bringing machining in-house 10-15 years ago, though now the number is in decline. “We’ve come across a couple of
foundries that aren’t transparent, and we don’t work with them anymore,” he said. “Now, the economy is coming back, but capital is tight. [Metalcast- ers] have capital invested, and hori- zontal machining centers cost half a million bucks. Rather than take on the risk, they are fi nding it more advanta- geous to contract with us.”
@ 30 | METAL CASTING DESIGN & PURCHASING | Nov/Dec 2011
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