thunderskunk
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Nov 13, 2018
- Location
- Middle-of-nowhere
Hey guys,
How do I connect with a customer who needs high volume milling work with CMM inspections completed?
The short and skinny: I set myself up for what I thought would be a good high-mix, medium volume one-man-band job shop. I had connections with shops I'd worked with in the past and some help from a few mentors got my foot in the door. Unfortunately everything from that era turned into RFQs for really low-volume one-off jobs. I learned a lot, but I couldn't reasonably keep up. A lot of my "good ideas" turned out to be wasted investments, and some things turned out to have immense benefits with small costs. I enjoyed working my own shop, but I also enjoy working for someone else and letting them pay me too. I don't regret it; my employer is awesome.
Yet I still have the shop: a Robodrill, 5-th axis table, tool probing, fancy tooling system, and a Renishaw Equator. I have my own projects, but I've found it faster and easier to knock them out on a bridgeport.
High school graduates soon, and I've got some kids I want to snag to run parts. Right now, I've got nothin for a new guy. There's great programs out there to pay half their wages in Vermont, but I don't have work I can leave them with; it's all programing and layout intensive.
Does this customer exist? How do I go about finding and connecting with them? I'm aware this would involve a low margin; a lot of folks here have alluded to high volume being a boring and not-so-profitable venture. I think we could excel at boring; with the Equator, I could employ SPC and really dial in a process. I can palletize part loading. I could use the tool probe to manage tool life. All the good stuff. If I can get the spindle turning and gainfully employ a shop hand, I'm at least back in the saddle.
As a note: I'm located in northern Vermont. I commute to central NH every day, and have frequented Connecticut in the past. My PM profile and Tapatalk have marriage issues and keep telling me I live in the A-land islands.
How do I connect with a customer who needs high volume milling work with CMM inspections completed?
The short and skinny: I set myself up for what I thought would be a good high-mix, medium volume one-man-band job shop. I had connections with shops I'd worked with in the past and some help from a few mentors got my foot in the door. Unfortunately everything from that era turned into RFQs for really low-volume one-off jobs. I learned a lot, but I couldn't reasonably keep up. A lot of my "good ideas" turned out to be wasted investments, and some things turned out to have immense benefits with small costs. I enjoyed working my own shop, but I also enjoy working for someone else and letting them pay me too. I don't regret it; my employer is awesome.
Yet I still have the shop: a Robodrill, 5-th axis table, tool probing, fancy tooling system, and a Renishaw Equator. I have my own projects, but I've found it faster and easier to knock them out on a bridgeport.
High school graduates soon, and I've got some kids I want to snag to run parts. Right now, I've got nothin for a new guy. There's great programs out there to pay half their wages in Vermont, but I don't have work I can leave them with; it's all programing and layout intensive.
Does this customer exist? How do I go about finding and connecting with them? I'm aware this would involve a low margin; a lot of folks here have alluded to high volume being a boring and not-so-profitable venture. I think we could excel at boring; with the Equator, I could employ SPC and really dial in a process. I can palletize part loading. I could use the tool probe to manage tool life. All the good stuff. If I can get the spindle turning and gainfully employ a shop hand, I'm at least back in the saddle.
As a note: I'm located in northern Vermont. I commute to central NH every day, and have frequented Connecticut in the past. My PM profile and Tapatalk have marriage issues and keep telling me I live in the A-land islands.