A leading commercial aerostructure manufacturer faced significant challenges with their steel fastener operation. Their existing process involved two separate operations: one with two tool blanks—one for facing and one for chamfering—and a second spot drilling application. This approach was not only extensive but also costly, requiring 25 minutes per tool change and setup. With four setups a day, this amounted to 16.3 hours per week, or roughly 850 hours annually. The associated production costs were staggering, exceeding $63,000 annually, purely for setup time. The manufacturer turned to us for a solution that reduced the complexity of setting the two tools in the first operation, along with eliminating the second operation altogether.

When confronted with this challenge to reduce the tools required and streamline the operation, GWS had the perfect solution. We introduced ThriftPoint, a custom turning solution designed to meet these exact needs. ThriftPoint not only eliminated the second operation but also reduced the tool blanks required in the first operation, significantly optimizing the process.

This switch reduced the tool change time from 25 minutes to just 5 minutes, an 80% decrease in tool change time. The weekly tool change time went from 16.3 hours to just 3.3 hours a week. This annual reduction of 676 hours, billed at the shop rate of $75/hour, led to annual savings of over $50k!

The customer was so impressed by the ThriftPoint custom turning solution and its innovative design that led to such a large time and ultimate cost savings. Not only were we able to meet the customer’s request, but we were able to save them a large amount of time and money.

Interested in finding out more information about our standard and custom tools? Consider contacting the experts who make Custom Come Standard, and let us find the perfect cutting tool for you. Just send us an email at sales@gwstoolgroup.com to get started!