16 tips to help you save millions of dollars
Established stamping suppliers provide you with stamping cost reduction guide
Sipxmach, a professional stamping die and stamping manufacturer in China, introduces 16 ideas to reduce the cost of stamping parts from various aspects, including material selection, stamping part design, tooling, procurement and supplier management. I hope I can give you some inspirations on Chinese purchasing.
1. Material selection
When choosing stamping material, do you still use the material selection of old products?
Perhaps you could consider more viable material options?
In the case of volatile metal prices, you may find room to cut costs in a material you haven’t considered before.For example, 1050 annealed spring steel can be used to replace microalloyed steel.
Recently, we were contacted by an old customer who asked us to evaluate cost-cutting opportunities for our current product.
They originally chose 4130 alloy steel, taking into account the durability requirements of the time. Now that the requirements have changed, durability is no longer an issue.In order to reduce the cost of stamping parts, we recommend general steel as an alternative.
According to the current price of metal materials and the performance requirements of stamping parts, material replacement can ensure the performance strength of stamping parts while reducing the cost.
2. Similar parts
Are there similar stamping parts in the product? Whether the existing similar stamping parts can be modified to meet the requirements?
Sophisticated company will often set up stamping parts database, recommend the design from the database to select existing parts. In addition, similar stamping parts can be combined, so that the cost can be greatly reduced.
3. Improve material utilization
What is the current material utilization rate of stamping parts?
Can the material utilization be improved by optimizing the structure or layout of the stamping parts? If not, the stamping part design and die structure need to be re-evaluated to maximize material utilization.
4. Tolerance definitions
Are the default tolerance recommendations used when drawing the stamping parts?
On the premise of not affecting the performance of the product, as far as possible to relax the tolerance requirements of the stamping parts to save huge cost.Tolerances can be relaxed mainly in the sample stage and in small batch production.
5. Design review
Is it necessary for a third party stamping expert to provide Suggestions and feedback to the design during the stamping part design review?
Design reviews are not just for design engineers. Bring in a stamping specialist to join the review. Their years of expertise will allow them to quickly identify opportunities to reduce costs and save you more time.
6. Packing
How many of your products can be packed in one container?
On the basis of considering the design requirements of stamping parts, the capacity of each packing box is increased through local design modification.In addition, current packaging materials and designs should be evaluated with the packaging engineer to determine whether design modifications can reduce costs.
7. Specification requirements
If the stamping part needs to conform to certain specifications or standards, you are aware of the latest version of the specification or standard to identify any changes that may benefit the stamping part design or production process.
If the stamping part design no longer needs to conform to these standards or specifications, consider modifying the design to reduce costs and increase productivity.
8. Performance requirements
By analyzing the current performance of stamping parts, design changes can be made to reduce the cost.
When the stamping has been in use for some time, you should have a lot of reliable data on the performance requirements of the product. At this time, the original performance requirements or not reasonable? Can load requirements or cycle time be reduced?
9. Design safety factor
What was the safety factor of the original design?Is it too high?
If the design load requirements have changed or are lower than the original design requirements, there is an opportunity to modify the design to reduce the cost.
10. Die life
Current stamping production needs to often stop line maintenance and replacement of parts? If this happens, you should re-optimize the design to eliminate unnecessary wear and tear.
The auto industry is estimated to spend $700 million a year designing, testing and modifying or repairing molds for its latest models. About half of the total cost goes to repair unexpected errors that cause wrinkles, cracks, excessive thinning or other defects.
11. Simplify mold processing
Optimize the design of stamping parts to reduce the complexity of the die while avoiding the need for regular maintenance of the die.
For example, replacing square holes with round holes can greatly simplify mold processing requirements, which will reduce mold processing time and mold parts costs.
12. Reduce labor
If your stamping part is that kind of simple small parts, then do you need to return labor when production? The choice of manual operation of large quantities of simple products, high cost, long time, will directly affect the cost of stamping parts. Consider using a supplier’s automated production line or having fewer human teams.
13. Secondary processing
If the stamping part needs to be processed again and involves multiple processes, try to complete all the stamping part processes in the same supplier. This not only saves transportation costs, but also avoids the accountability difficulties caused by quality problems.
14. Project management
The stamping supplier you choose should have strong project management skills. Otherwise, they will not be able to respond to your request in a timely and accurate manner and ensure its reliability. There are additional costs.
15. Professional familiarity
Ensure that current stamping suppliers understand your area of expertise.Usually, stamping parts need to be matched with professional technology. Skilled vendors can help analyze your designs and make effective recommendations.Otherwise, you will spend a lot of time training your suppliers.
16. Production
Did you review the original design as production increased?
As production increases, product design needs to be optimized to increase production efficiency. If prototyping methods are still used (such as CNC sheet metal), consider using tooling to reduce costs.
Do existing metal stamping suppliers have the capacity to increase production? Some suppliers are only suitable for small batch production and cannot produce large quantities. The price of small batch production is totally different from that of large batch production. If the production method of small batch is still used and the price of small batch is paid when the quantity is large, it will cause a lot of cost waste. When selecting stamping suppliers, ensure that they are capable of prototyping, low volume production or high volume production.