through to the finish in a good state, it can be costly. Start evaluating the quality of a
High-speed molding machinery offers an advantage when it comes to lead times.
machining cells on the shop floor or must be scrapped for defects such as shrink and inclusions. This plays into the overall cost of dealing with a supplier. Once
machining time and labor have been put into a part, if it falls out, the cost cannot be recaptured. It is one thing to have the lowest per-piece price, but if castings cannot make it
metalcasting supplier by looking at the types of samples pictured on its website and the level of complexity these images indicate. The next best place to look is the quality con- trol (QC) area on its website. This can tell a lot about how seriously a company takes quality. Look for useful information about how many QC people are on the plant floor and what inspection instruments are used. It is difficult to judge a met- alcaster’s reputation wholly online. Try to contact its other clients for more information. Keep in mind, however, that they are not always easy to find. Next, ask the metalcaster about
the level of QC and how its online samples were produced. Find out if first article inspection is a standard practice, if QC uses a coordinate measuring machine, the frequency of checks, and what happens when they encounter an issue. It is always worth speaking to people from the quality group to ascertain that the quality is sufficiently high.
Assess Capabilities
Assessing capabilities is an im- mediate way to differentiate between metalcasting suppliers. Molding capability is an im-
portant factor that says a lot about a metalcasting facility. Size and weight ranges may be critical to requirements, but line speed also is important. The number of molds per hour indicates the ability to deliver requirements quickly. Anything that can reduce lead times is attractive to most purchas- ers. At the height of the economic crisis, average lead times were 4-6 weeks. Now they are back to 12-16 weeks, and reducing this is difficult. Lean companies should not want to wait 16 weeks for a part. Modern high-speed molding machinery of- fers an advantage. As castings become more com-
plex, technology becomes more of a factor. It can set one metalcaster apart from those that have been
38 | METAL CASTING DESIGN & PURCHASING | Nov/Dec 2012
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