Before the Machine Runs: How Accurate CNC Plans for Successful Production
We believe the best results start with thorough preparation. Careful planning on our end ensures your part’s production stays on track from start to finish.
By collaborating with customers early to review project requirements and identify potential risks, Accurate CNC helps prevent unexpected issues before production.
Here’s how our planning process reduces risk and prevents surprises, leading to better outcomes for customers.
RFQ Review: Understanding Your Project Before Production Begins
At Accurate CNC, the RFQ review process is collaborative. We work closely with customers to ensure a complete understanding of their project requirements so all needs are met.
Reviewing CAD files, materials, finishes, tolerances, and other critical specifications ensures we are aligned from the very beginning of a project, speeding up the path to production.
Providing complete information upfront, including detailed drawings and specifications, helps create a smoother quoting process.
We use Paperless Parts to support this process. The software’s Requirements Review feature help identify important details such as tapped holes, inserts, tight tolerances, weld requirements, finishing requirements, and potential material challenges. These project details are then maintained within the RFQ for quick and easy access once the order is received.
This approach supports faster, more accurate quoting and allows our team to evaluate manufacturability early on to identify potential concerns before they become production risks.
Improving Manufacturability for Better Outcomes
Identifying ways to improve manufacturability during the quote review phase helps our CNC machine shop determine the most efficient approach for producing a part.
In some cases, small adjustments to design, quantity, material selection, or finishing process can help save a customer a significant amount of time or money.
Having these discussions early enables customers to make informed decisions before production begins.
Creating Transparency With Target Pricing
Target pricing helps create a more collaborative quoting process and provides transparency from the beginning.
After we review all part requirements, our team can determine whether the requested pricing aligns with the manufacturing approach. If there is a significant difference, we have a conversation to assess discrepancies and discuss possible solutions.
For example, certain finishing processes may have minimum quantity requirements. Anodizing one part may carry a higher per-part cost, while increasing the quantity to three or four can make the process much more cost-effective.
Conversations like this help customers better understand the factors that impact manufacturing costs and allow us to find the best path forward.
Risk Assessment: Preparing for Complex Projects
For larger or complex projects, our Idaho machine shop performs additional planning through a risk assessment process.
This allows us to identify potential challenges related to materials, production, scheduling, and logistics before manufacturing begins.
We discuss internal logistics for large parts and assemblies, including:
Is the required material available, and are there potential lead-time concerns?
Are all tolerances and features achievable with the available processes?
Will special tooling be required?
Are there any capacity concerns with the machines and processes needed?
Are there outside processes, like anodizing, powder coating, heat treating, or assembly, that need to be coordinated?
Does the customer’s timeline align with production time, finishing, and shipping?
For complex assemblies and large parts, shop floor management is involved to help determine the most efficient manufacturing approach. This includes reviewing machine availability, tooling requirements, scheduling considerations, and production constraints.
For example, a large aluminum component required multiple steps across different departments. A four-foot by eight-foot sheet of ¾-inch aluminum needed to be cut, machined, moved between departments, and hand-finished with hundreds of tapped holes. Planning how to move the part through the shop ahead of time helped prevent delays.
Planning for Better Manufacturing Outcomes
Our goal is to provide a seamless manufacturing process for every customer. This starts with careful planning before a part ever reaches the machine.
That is why our manufacturing process builds on a thorough planning stage where we take the time to understand each project, identify potential challenges, and develop solutions to ensure an efficient path from quote to production.
Ready to start your next project? Request a quote from Accurate CNC today.