What is "In House"?

Just got a supplier capability request from a former/potential customer.

One of the parameters is CNC machine calibration capability in-house? incl Ball bar test.

If I have a guy that does that, can stop in whenever.. is that "in-house"?
It's available[FONT=&quot][/FONT] on site... Do I have to "own" the ball bar?

Don't want to ask too many questions of the vendor...

Thanks again.

3t3d said:

Just got a supplier capability request from a former/potential customer.

One of the parameters is CNC machine calibration capability in-house? incl Ball bar test.

If I have a guy that does that, can stop in whenever.. is that "in-house"?
It's available[FONT="][/FONT] on site... Do I have to "own" the ball bar?

Don't want to ask too many questions of the vendor...

Thanks again.

Click to expand...

In house, I would think is something that is self contained.

I have no idea why 'customers' need this much information

Sounds like the kind of thing a current supplier writes for the purchasing agent to cut down the competition

Seriously, at what size is that kind of capability cost effective?

The kind of customer that has customers where they need thousands of machines dedicated to a product run.
So, the questions make perfect sense for that customer planning a new job.
Standardized questions regardless of the size of this current project.

Sold them some orders in the ten piece size. Not Everything they do is equal to the GDP of a country.

Just looking for some better insight.

Thanks.

If they were using the strictest definition of "in-house", it seems to me that it would mean that the required equipment is in the building and ready for use at all times, and the people with the required skills are also in the building and ready at all times. A looser interpretation might be similar to yours, whereby it's available, but might require a phone call or advance notice. I think you need to fire back a question to ensure that you don't mislead them one way or the other. State what you have/how you operate, and ask if that meets their requirements.

I would think that they would want a separate independent inspection vendor doing it.

SigurdACVW said:

If they were using the strictest definition of "in-house", it seems to me that it would mean that the required equipment is in the building and ready for use at all times, and the people with the required skills are also in the building and ready at all times. A looser interpretation might be similar to yours, whereby it's available, but might require a phone call or advance notice. I think you need to fire back a question to ensure that you don't mislead them one way or the other. State what you have/how you operate, and ask if that meets their requirements.

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This is how I see it, that you have an in house tech with the necessary equipment. Something a shop on the small end is not going to have. Seems like they are trying to eliminate nothing but large shops.

I'm on the customer side and spent a (thankfully extremely short) time auditing new suppliers, and I would not consider that in house.

As a comparable example, one of the things we always asked stamping and plastic injection molders was "Do you have in house mold-making capabilities?" Even among places that used to make their tools on site, very few do now. So long as I got an answer that conveyed "We have reliable sources and nearby options if things hit the fan" then I was happy. At one of the nicer and more automated plastics places I audited the biggest machine in their tool room was newer cheap hardware store bench top drill press. Not even a Bridgeport or any lathe. On the other hand, you could look across the field outside the manager's office and see the independent shop that made 90% of their tools. They had other tool shops within a couple hour drive if for some reason that one couldn't help. Obviously we approved that part of the check and went on with our day.

It's a question. Answer honestly. It probably won't be any issue and if they do use that as an excuse they probably suck to work with at your volumes anyways.

*I've worked in a few plants that had a few hundred operators on relatively automated machines. Some with pretty good machinery repair departments. None of them would even consider doing their own ball-bar, you pay the local guy to do that for you.

The aviation industry considers "in-house capability" to mean you have the personnel, equipment, processes in place to do what's required. No waiting on a vendor to fix the problem or waiting on some vendor vetting process, like ITAR, to proceed.

I've designed some pretty big fixtures, made in some pretty remote locations, by
vendors.
We get them Chordaxed and other inspection techniques by an independent inspection lab.

Not the vendor.

Thanks everyone for helping me understand what this type of customer may be looking for.

3t3d said:

One of the parameters is CNC machine calibration capability in-house? incl Ball bar test.

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Some CNC shops build and maintain their own machines and would see savings at a large enough scale. I know of one machine shop with multiple locations that has over 1500 machines. Some CNC machine manufacturers produce parts for their customers. I worked at one of the latter and we had the capability to check any of our machines with our laser interferometer when needed. Most shops do not have that capability.

You need to consider the real possibility the person asking the question doesnt actually know what it means,but is something he needs to ask to cover himself.

Never thought there were so many interpretations of the term “in house”. I have always taken it literally meaning you don’t hire/contract anyone external to the company to perform that task.

Really basic example in my mind is maintenance. Meaning that you have a person or people on staff to perform that task. No external contractors.

3t3d said:

Just got a supplier capability request from a former/potential customer.

One of the parameters is CNC machine calibration capability in-house? incl Ball bar test.

If I have a guy that does that, can stop in whenever.. is that "in-house"?
It's available[FONT=&quot][/FONT] on site... Do I have to "own" the ball bar?

Don't want to ask too many questions of the vendor...

Thanks again.

Click to expand...

In house mean the Ball Bar is sitting on your shelf ready to go.

Another question will be whether your measuring instruments are currently calibrated. So if they wanted to see the Ball Bar they would expect it to have a calibrating certificate on the Ball Bar.

If you said no, and they were to ask "why not" you can say we can have a service here next day or in two days etc to calibrate the machines. It would be legitimate to point out the expense of owning a Ball Bar and the relative conveniance of getting an outside service in.

I have a Fadal that came out of a satellite manufacturing facility, there's a stack of Ball Bar test results in the back cabinet for every year it was in the facility, all provided by an outside service.. I think somewhere there's probably a calibration sticker on the machine.