ShopSolutions Case Histories of Manufacturing Problem Solving Large-Part Turning Gives Shop Huge Advantage W
hen Claude Barber, founder of Plant Machine Works Inc. in Baton Rouge, LA, passed away in 2006, his son Tom (Tommy) Barber officially took ownership of the shop that, at the time, specialized in repair work for the petrochemical and paper mill industries. While Tommy had basically zero experience in the day-to-day operations of the shop—having instead pursued a career in teaching and coaching sports—he successfully continued and expanded upon his father’s legacy to build Plant Machine Works into a shop that stands out from the competition by way of its large-part machining capabilities. Tommy Barber, now owner and president, desperately wanted to differentiate the shop when he transitioned it into one that provided machining services as well as the estab- lished repair work. While doing so, he believed that the key to success would be to offer a niche machining service. In deter- mining what that should be, he looked closely at all the other general machine shops in the immediate area. What he found was that all of them had small and medium-size machines, so, he decided the shop’s niche would be to go big, literally, and he acquired one of the largest CNC horizontal boring mills with a 78" (1981-mm) table and 55,000-lb (24,948-kg) workpiece capacity. At the time, it was the biggest machine of its kind in the state. Barber’s initial plan with the machine was to pursue line- boring work in the large-gearbox market—gearboxes as big as a 15 × 15' (4.5 × 4.5-m) room. However, six months prior to actual installation and as the shop prepared for the huge new machine, the word got out, and Barber’s phone began to ring non-stop with incoming work requests.
Tommy Barber, Plant Machine Works owner and president, shows 4143 steel mechanical inner sleeves for the oil and gas industry turned on the shop’s Mazak Quick Turn Nexus 350 in only 40 minutes. The same operations used to take 1.5 hours on the shop’s other equipment.
ally line bored a gearbox, nor have the other two huge boring mills we’ve since purchased.” As the shop’s large-part machining business—mostly mill- ing work—continued to surge, Plant Machine Works grew to its
“The machines have not only significantly improved part accuracy, they’ve allowed us to continuously reduce our turnaround times.”
“Every major oil company imaginable called,” said Barber. “Before our boring mill was even on the ship making its way to the United States, we had purchase orders to machine large parts, none of which had anything to do with gearboxes. And ironically, that particular machine, to this day, has never actu-
current 73 employees and 55,000 ft2 (5110-m2 ) facility with an
increasing number of these existing customers requesting that the shop also do large-part turning work for them as well. So in keeping with its newly established large-parts-making niche, Plant Machine Works invested in a turning machine with
December 2013 |
ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com 37
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84