Adding extra know-how

The company offers a great deal more than advanced cutting tools and tooling solutions; it also provides manufacturers with a range of bespoke business consultancy services designed to help them increase efficiencies, improve productivity and optimise their machining and manufacturing processes.

These services, underpinned by the company's experience and knowledge of the cutting process and the machinability of different materials have gained significant traction with manufacturers in recent years.

With more and more manufacturers embracing Lean manufacturing and implementing continuous improvement programmes across their operations, it seems likely that demand for Seco’s range of services will increase.

One of the most important, popular and successful is DCR or Documented Cost Reduction. Customers looking to benchmark existing machining processes (as opposed to an examination of their entire manufacturing process), can take advantage of a DCR.

With an emphasis, as its name suggests, on cost savings, DCR’s specifically focus on: tooling and cutting data such as time in cut; time out of cut and cost information (cost per part), including amortised hourly rates and variable costs; output per hour; tool use and tool consumption.

Using powerful, sophisticated and proprietary DCR software combined with in-depth discussions with the customer and observations made of the existing process, Seco engineers can help design, test, recommend and ultimately prove-out alternative cost saving solutions.

The ‘documented’ part of the DCR title sometimes may be overlooked as the eye naturally focuses on the ‘cost reduction’ element, however, having the cost reductions documented is important in that it demonstrates that Seco is prepared to back up its claims, and that the cost savings proposed have been systematically researched and can be achieved.

As part of this service Seco also keeps and catalogues all customers’ individual DCRs for future reference, so, should they be postponed or even mislaid, customers can retrieve their DCRs via Seco’s ‘My Pages’ online portal.

Seco’s Productivity and Cost Analysis (PCA) consultancy service is similar to a DCR but takes a wider, more holistic, view of a customer’s manufacturing methods, focusing not just on the cost of tooling, but on the total cost of production.

PCAs have become more popular with customers as they help identify where and how cost savings can be made across an entire manufacturing process.

Whatever the scope and scale of a PCA, Seco says customers are assured that it will be undertaken by an experienced engineer, and that the findings will be presented in a concise manner to aid customers in their decision making.

Both DCRs and PCAs are evidence of Seco’s commitment to effective knowledge transfer and knowledge sharing, and reinforce the company’s mission to be recognised by its customers as being a dedicated partner providing complete solutions for the metalcutting industry.

Seco Tools UK www.secotools.com/gb