The Great Recession that occurred fifteen years ago took its toll on many small to medium sized businesses. This certainly included the manufacturing sector and the metal fabrication industry. Since then we have had economic recovery. Manufacturing businesses once again have a great need for components that are fabricated quickly and to a high quality standard. If your company is now looking for a metal fabrication supplier or needs a prototype to launch a new product, it’s crucial to find the right partner for the job.
Cost Isn’t Everything
Companies frequently choose their suppliers, including their metal fabrication supplier, based on cost alone because keeping product costs down is a very high priority. However, while cost is an important factor in sourcing, the experience and capabilities a fabricator has are crucial, as are the quality of product it produces and how well it treats its customers. The following are three critical things to consider in a metal fabrication supplier.
Capabilities
Not all metal fabricators are the same. They offer different services and specialize in different processes. Many different types of metal fabrication capabilities exist. These include:
Cutting – There are many techniques to cut metal. Parts can be sawed, sheared, or cut with torches, CNC plasma, lasers, and water jets.
Bending – There are many ways to bend pieces, including manual or powered press brakes to coin or air bend metal sheet into shape. CNC-controlled press brakes are now capable of seamless and efficient operation with the right software.
Assembling – This involves joining the pieces using welding, adhesive binding, riveting, threaded fasteners, or more bending.
Design – Some fabricators also offer design assistance with new products, improving them and speeding up the time it takes to get them to market.
Experience
Experience can make all the difference in the world when it comes to your project’s success. An experienced metal fabricator will be able to identify problems and be able to solve them early in the process. Mistakes in measurement, for instance, can be enormously expensive and cause unwanted delays in production. Conversely, small improvements to a part’s design can reduce waste and cost. The benefit of experience is in both bypassing production problems and improving part design or process so the parts are produced efficiently and at a lower cost.
Capacity
A capable fabricator may still not have the capacity necessary to produce all of the parts that your company needs. Some shops may not be capable of handling large production runs, lacking either the right equipment or enough experienced employees. If you need large orders or short turn around times, be sure to find a supplier with that capacity.
When it comes time to decide which metal fabrication supplier to choose, ask yourself: Can the supplier meet all my company’s needs without any problems occurring during prototype runs or production? The wrong choice in supplier can cost you in terms of product issues, delivery problems, or unforeseen expenses. At D+M Metal Products we are proud of the work we do and have done in the West Michigan community for over 40 years. Call us with any questions you have about metal fabrication. We would be happy to discuss what we can do for your company.