When you’re manufacturing upwards of 100,000 components a week, speed and efficiency are very much of the essence.
“We’re running pretty much flat out, including nights and weekends,” begins Matt Birley, Director of Bromsgrove-based engineering subcontractor at Davturn Precision Turned Parts Ltd (Davturn). “We’ve got seven state-of-the-art machines, including sliding head CNC machines and fixed head lathes, all with bar feeders, going round the clock.”
The company has come a long way since it was founded by Matt’s father, Mark Birley, 25 years ago. “My Dad started by making automotive parts and fasteners. He had to beg, steal and borrow machines and tooling to build the company; however, we’re still here more than two decades later and are busier than ever.”
While Mark still leads the business, his sons Matt and Ryan are both heavily involved in its day-to-day operations.
Matt joined the company in 2007 and began looking for ways to modernise the machine shop: “When I started, we were using a lot of CAM auto and single-spindle machines. This required multiple setups and operations on different machines to get jobs done. We knew we needed to improve our processes if we wanted to stay competitive and grow.”
Ryan plays a key role in overseeing production and operations on the shop floor. “Ryan’s come up through the machine shop and knows the machines and our processes inside out,” Matt explains. “It’s a real team effort between us, and having that trust and understanding is a huge advantage in a fast-paced environment like ours.”
Davturn purchased its first CNC machine in 2009, a STAR Sliding head, and now has seven automated machines running lights-out, producing components ranging from ⌀2mm-51mm, in a variety of ferrous and non-ferrous metals. While the company has retained its automotive heritage, with several long-term contracts, it now also supplies many other industries, including general subcontract work, aerospace and HVAC.
However, with limited room to add more machines to the shop floor, the company’s most recent challenge has been finding new ways to reduce cost and maximise productivity from its existing footprint.
“Given the volumes we are working at, we don’t like to experiment with tooling too much – we tend to stick to what we know. After all, when you’ve got 100,000 parts to make in a week, you need to have absolute faith in your machines and your tooling, as any downtime can have a massive effect on fulfilling orders.
“However, just as we needed to modernise our machines all those years ago, we knew that, to stay competitive in today’s market, we had to keep exploring.”
What ultimately caught Matt’s attention was the launch of MSC Edge and its multipurpose solid carbide holemaking and milling tools, launched by MSC Industrial Supply Co. UK (MSC).
He continues: “We’ve been using MSC since day one for industrial consumables, but not really for tooling. However, when I heard about MSC Edge, I was very keen to give it a go. Due to the high-volume nature of our work, we have high tooling costs, so I was looking for something that could match our current output but help bring our tooling costs down.”
Matt initially trialled the MSC Edge 7.5mm carbide drills and was blown away by the impact: “We put MSC Edge cutting tools onto a long-term job, where we were typically getting about 15,000 parts per tool. Without really pushing it, we were able to get 13,000 parts from the MSC Edge drill. However, it was half the price of what we were previously using. So, given the number of tools we get through, this adds up to a massive cost saving for us. While it’s still early days, we know that we can push the MSC Edge drill further and reach 15,000 parts per tool.”
While switching over to MSC Edge cutting tools has helped to significantly reduce the tooling cost for that specific job, Davturn also noticed a reduction in cycle time. “On one job, the cycle time has come down from 23 seconds to 20. Three seconds might not sound a lot, but when you’re working with very high batch sizes, that saving quickly adds up.”
Looking to the future, Matt is already exploring how Davturn can further integrate MSC Edge cutting tools into its operations. “We’re hoping to trial a lot more MSC Edge tooling going forward. We use a lot of DCMT inserts, so we’re excited to try the MSC Edge range of indexable tools when it comes to market,” he concludes.
“Ultimately, we want to work with suppliers that can help us hit our production targets as efficiently as possible. We do that and we keep our customers happy. That’s why we choose MSC.”
For more information on MSC Edge, please visit: https://www.mscdirect.co.uk/msc-edge.
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