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Steel Service Center Purchases 3700 ATC to Help Fabricators who need a Second Resource
Today, O'Neal is a flourishing steel service center with over 20 metal service centers across the nation, and is becoming one of the largest family-owned companies in the industry. They place great emphasis on being committed to serving the customer. Recently they've made a decision to produce fabricated parts for fabricators and manufacturers. They purchased a W.A. Whitney 3700 ATC for their Birmingham facility. This machine is a combination plasma/cutting and punching machine, designed to handle steel plates up to 120 inches by 63 inches and 3/4 inch thick, weighing up to 1,000 pounds. The purpose of this acquisition is to help fabricators who need a second resource. The 3700 ATC is equipped with a TRUECut oxygen plasma cutting system which gives dross free cuts. At O'Neal 70 percent of the work done on the 3700 ATC is contour cutting, so the efficiency of TRUECut is a real plus. According to Bill Jones, Executive Vice President, "The advantages of TRUECut are lower costs per part, higher quality finished parts with little or no clean up, longer consumable life for lower operating costs and improved straightness of cut." The 3700 ATC is also equipped with a 40-ton punching capacity. With hydraulic punching, maximum punching force is available through the entire stroke, and using sheared tooling decreases the punching force required. O'Neal also uses a lot of shaped and formed tooling. About 40 percent of the time they operate the rotary ram on the 3700 ATC. The rotary ram can index all the tooling, increasing tool and machine utilization. An 18" by 24" drop door, located next to the plasma torch for removal of parts enhances the material handling and efficiency of the 3700 ATC. About 50 to 60 percent of the parts O'Neal fabricates go through the drop door. All of the 3700 ATC capabilities have helped O'Neal become a number one supplier for companies who need to outsource their work to be more productive. Bill Jones explains, "Rather than invest in unproductive equipment, companies are outsourcing processed parts." Bill cites a major company who needs help at times to smooth out their production process, instead of having peaks and valleys. O'Neal provides them with a secondary source and allows them to be more flexible. Shirley Fagan, Marketing Services Representative says, "We want to be proactive and responsive to our customers needs. We actually give our customers a sample part and ask them to feel how smooth the edges are. They're amazed at what they see and feel. When we get a job from a customer, we'll send them a pilot part to make sure it's okay. When we receive their approval, we feel that they're under the assumption and we're under the obligation to provide every part exactly like that one. We do all the inspection and quality checks. They don't need to inspect anything they get." The management at O'Neal doesn't consider the 3700 ATC to be operated in a job-shop environment, like running one or two piece orders. They want larger production runs. Craft O'Neal states, "It's very definitely a production machine for us. We feel this machine is so fast we can take production parts and really be profitable. Another feature often overlooked, says O'Neal, "Is the way slugs are conveyed away from the parts. That's a great asset on this machine." When asked why O'Neal purchased this type of equipment O'Neal explained, "When we acquired Weissman in Waterloo, Iowa we noticed they had been quite successful with the Whitney punch/plasma machine. We also spoke with some major customers and asked them if we got this equipment, could we expect to get business from them-the answer was yes. It was kind of like a field of dreams. That's what did it for us," O'Neal continued, "we knew we needed the 3700 ATC Punch/Plasmaor a laser." After more investigation with O'Neal plants in Waterloo and Louisville it was agreed that O'Neal needed a 3700 ATC. If you need to punch holes you definitely go with a punch/plasma machine. "The 3700 ATC has allowed us to go into some businesses we were not able to get into because we couldn't be cost-effective," comments Jones. "If we were going to provide cost-effective parts for our customers, we needed a 3700 ATC, otherwise they would probably be better to retain the work in house, or outsourcing to someone who has equipment equivalent to the 3700 ATC." For the most part the 3700 ATC has allowed O'Neal to go to major manufacturers and reduce their costs on parts. Jones says, "Basically, we're not setting up as a job shop, we're manufacturing in an effort to take cost out of their products, and improve the quality. This should allow them to focus on what they do best, which is normally the design, manufacturing, assembly and marketing. Customers want to move away from the nitty-gritty events; also they're moving away from purchasing raw material. They don't want to do sawing, cutting, punching, and forming. They would rather purchase parts ready to go into assembly or pre-assembled parts." Jones says. "I think a major trend in manufacturing, particularly of heavy products that require a lot of inventory and lots of processing, is to outsource. We're providing a lot of kits which include all the parts necessary for the end product." Jones continues, "We are beginning to see some fabricators do the same thing. Large structural fabricators are beginning to outsource base plates. We fabricate bar grating, something we have been doing for years. Many fabricators will outsource that part, but again it's not something that's a core competency of theirs. It slows down their production. They're beginning to outsource a lot of those items, as they realize they don't really have expertise in these areas. I don't know when outsourcing started but it's been significant for our business. I think it's a proven method or philosophy where companies can take a lot of costs out of their products. They also improve their quality. They've also been able to dramatically increase the amount of production with the same people, same square footage, and because of these savings their investment dedicated to producing parts is no longer necessary. Now all those resources are used to improve their assembly and shipping. Now our customers can show a reduction in new-product time to market," states Jones. "We also have stronger relationships with our clients. We understand their goals, objectives and measurable results." O'Neal is a ISO 9002 Company, which provides them as a model for quality assurance. O'Neal is committed to serving their customers. (Used with permission from Metal Fabricating News, Jul - Sep, 1996)
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