SUBCONTRACTING WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT RESHORING
● Reduced transport costs – The rising
expense of shipping and importing is
compounded by distance. Air freight, for small
orders and prototypes, is especially costly;
● Smaller carbon footprint – Fewer transport
miles mean less fuel consumption and
greater environmental sustainability.
CHALLENGES & SOLUTIONS
Along with its benefits and savings, reshoring
may bring disruptions and costs, if the
business has to be substantially restructured
and reoriented. Make UK highlights the
following challenges: disrupted production;
extra load on managers; finding suitable local
suppliers; potentially higher energy prices; and
meeting planning regulations.
Says Dawson Shanahan's Les Reeves,
joint managing director: “To compete on
price, reshored businesses must increase
their efficiency and lower their production
costs by innovating and investing in new
production systems and technology. This
includes gearing up for the Fourth Industrial
Revolution (4IR). Another essential is
recruitment and training of staff. Britain has a
rich pool of talent on which to draw, but
manufacturers may have to pay more to
attract the right people.”
As a well-established element of its
business strategy, Dawson Shanahan works
with customers to address these issues,
eliminate supply chain risks and maximise the
advantages gained by reshoring. The company
can be found, along with many other likeminded
businesses, on the website
www.reshoring.co.uk (see also Machinery
article: www.is.gd/dicomu ). This has been
developed by Reshoring UK, a collaboration of
leading industrial associations, to help
manufacturers find trusted and accredited UKbased
suppliers.
An example of increased UK activity related
to reshoring can be found in the manufacture
of copper-based components. Dawson
Shanahan is one of the companies meeting
the demand for such parts, which are required
in everything from power semiconductor,
generation and distribution equipment,
solenoids and electro-valves, to electric
vehicles and, increasingly, electrified aircraft.
Central to Dawson Shanahan’s approach,
and vital to UK-based industry’s success, is
digitalisation based on constant capture of
real-time data through the Internet of Things.
Increasing automation and advances in
robotics, machine learning and artificial
intelligence also have a major part to play.
One expression of digital transformation at
Dawson Shanahan has been the use of
advanced metal-forming simulation software
to analyse and enhance tooling designs.
It replaces the much slower traditional
approach in which prototypes are created,
tested and tailored to their application by trial
and error. In addition to speeding up tool
creation and reducing time to market for new
products, it improves product quality.
Dawson Shanahan’s engineering director,
Mark Jennings, offers another suggestion for
reducing production costs and increasing
speed of delivery, while improving component
quality. He urges manufacturers to consider
precision cold forming. “Companies like ours
with a long history of using both cold forming
and CNC machining technologies are happy to
produce components by whichever method
gives best results in the specific application.
“Some people wrongly see cold forming as
just a way of mass-producing simple, cheap
parts like rivets, but today it is applied to
creating complex, high quality items for the
most technologically advanced of industries.”
Precision cold forming essentially involves
placing a blank into a die and then driving a
punch into it at high speed and pressure. This
enables moulding of the metal – at ambient
temperature – into precisely the same shape
as the punch and die.
“Precision cold forming saves time and
money in a number of ways. Firstly, it
minimises waste by shaping the metal without
removing material. Not only is it faster than
other methods, but it adds extra strength to
the resulting item. It enables complex
component design, for optimum performance,
by precisely reproducing the required shape.
Often this means that a part that was
previously assembled from several
subcomponents can be redesigned for quick
manufacture in one piece. In addition, it
creates fine surface finishes with little or no
need for subsequent machining, polishing or
other finishing processes.
“Reduction in metal waste can be 80% or
more, which is enough on its own to justify
switching methods in some cases. Taking the
other economies into account, total
manufacturing cost can be cut by as much as
70%. There are also energy savings, if cold
forming replaces a heat-based process.”
WHEN WASTE IS A KEY CONCERN
The company particularly recommends cold
forming for operations where metal waste is a
key economic factor. It is well suited to
manufacture of parts at medium to high
volumes – thousands or more – and it
certainly wins when fast turnaround times are
needed. It does require initial investment in
high quality tooling, but the cost should soon
be recovered through savings already outlined.
“Precision cold forming has much to offer
but it’s not a panacea,” Jennings concedes.
“There are some cases in which another
process may be the best choice, or in which
the optimum solution lies in a combination of
techniques. Partnering at an early stage with a
specialist whose expertise covers both cold
forming and machining will ensure that the
right methods are chosen and their full
benefits are achieved. Processes need to be
aligned effectively with each other and, where
necessary, component design modifications
will be suggested with this in mind.”
Looking more broadly at how Tier 2
engineering businesses can help
manufacturers achieve UK-based success,
he concludes: “Collaboration is key. Ideally,
discussions should begin long before the first
part is produced. Once we have a full
understanding of the customer’s
requirements, we review designs and work out
ways of simplifying production, cutting costs
and enhancing long-term component reliability.
Our co-operation continues after production
starts, as we look for opportunities to refine
processes, maximise quality and add further
efficiency. Importantly, we are able to
collaborate more easily and effectively
because we are geographically close and
readily accessible to the manufacturer.” ■
Precision cold forming and CNC
machining are offered by Dawson
Shanahan
18 December 2020 | www.machinery.co.uk | MachineryMagazine | @MachineryTweets
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