400,000 Screws a day..."One man operation"?

[standardparts]

Apology if this has been posted before. Lots about this vid that is interesting--beyond the standard OSHA violation observations (Japan has different regs?).....

So the vid implies a one-man operation. Have to figure heat treating and plating is being sourced out.
Main thing was how close was this to the goal of an order coming in electronically/phone/mail and then with only the alleged intervention of one person it goes out the door.

BTW---His shoes are shined.

 

[FredC]

The factory of tomorrow will only have one operator and a dog. The man's job will be to feed the dog and the dog's job will to be to bite the operator if he tries to adjust a machine. I guess this operation is close to the shop of tomorrow.
Puzzled by the man wearing a mask, I only wear one when a secretary is here, when by myself not.
Another observation the floor has to be clean to roll that roll of wire across it. Dirt would foul the heading operation.

 

[Booze Daily]

I used to do work for a cold heading shop. They made rivets though. Millions and millions of rivets.
That's a good video.

 

[kenton]

The factory of tomorrow will only have one operator and a dog. The man's job will be to feed the dog and the dog's job will to be to bite the operator if he tries to adjust a machine. I guess this operation is close to the shop of tomorrow.
Puzzled by the man wearing a mask, I only wear one when a secretary is here, when by myself not.
Another observation the floor has to be clean to roll that roll of wire across it. Dirt would foul the heading operation.

At least one camera person was there.

 

[GregSY]

I've mentioned before, a local guy runs a grimy machine shop with his wife. He has several old non-CNC screw machines and nothing looks newer than 1960 or so. Usually tries for 1 order per year. He bids on jobs that call for a few million screws or other fasteners, and when he gets a contract he sets up and runs wide open until the job is done. That's 2 or 3 months worth of work, then they take the rest of the year off.

He's able to win bids because his overhead is practically zero...everything is paid for and taxes are low since his shop is a dump.

The example he gave was he received a contract to make two different specialty screws that went in Chrysler/Dodge transmissions....he sold them for a little under a dollar each which came to over $2M income and his outlay was in material and plating costs (and presumably cutters and cutting oil and electricity etc.

 

[Larry Dickman]

keep in mind, his workforce will quadruple when school lets out

 

[FredC]

At least one camera person was there.

Yeah,
I should have seen that.

 

[implmex]

Hi Guys:
Can you imagine spending your whole working life there?
Just the noise would drive me nuts, never mind the thankless task of doing the same shit every damned day for decades.

He's a better man than me!

Cheers

Marcus
www.implant-mechanix.com
www.vancouvewireedm.com

 

[3t3d]

Anybody remember Dobie Dave, from Texas?
Who else here has a similar setup?

 

[FredC]

A shop over here ran a billion pc order. The same order was placed with several other shops as the end user did not want to put all his eggs in one basket, also there is not further discount after you get to a billion pcs. This was many years ago and his profit margin was less than a penny each. If I remember right, it was about 1/4 of a cent.
I would guess it is about the same for the fellow in the video. Takes a sharp pencil to not make a bad mistake on bidding something like this.

 

[cmccull166]

A shop over here ran a billion pc order. The same order was placed with several other shops as the end user did not want to put all his eggs in one basket, also there is not further discount after you get to a billion pcs. This was many years ago and his profit margin was less than a penny each. If I remember right, it was about 1/4 of a cent.
I would guess it is about the same for the fellow in the video. Takes a sharp pencil to not make a bad mistake on bidding something like this.

 

[cmccull166]

I would use the buy it now.....

 

[Mtndew]

keep in mind, his workforce will quadruple when school lets out

It's Japan, not china.

 

[standardparts]

Hi Guys:
Can you imagine spending your whole working life there?
Just the noise would drive me nuts, never mind the thankless task of doing the same shit every damned day for decades.

He's a better man than me!

Cheers

Marcus
www.implant-mechanix.com
www.vancouvewireedm.com

Never worked in a big manufacturing plant?--quiet is not a good thing.

Same thing every day......first week in and many say 'it's just temporary', or ' just a month or so until something better comes along'.....next thing 'ya know they are pulling the pin after 30 or more years.

But yeah...not every one is cut out for assembly line type work.

 

[GregSY]

All of those tools and machines are old school but also well thought out and well made. But still....someone took a lot of time to come up with that operation, and just keeping it running - maintenance, breakage, cleaning - must take a healthy chunk of time and effort. Also known as 'hard work'.