While some US businesses have shifted to outsourcing practices to cut production costs, more successful companies have adapted for more flexibility in their manufacturing processes to manage costs and broaden their customer bases.
The High-Variation/Low-Volume manufacturing trend has become more prevalent making companies more financially resilient in difficult economic times.
Some advantages of High-Variation/ Low-Volume production are better tailoring to specific customer demand, improved responsiveness and lower inventory requirements for finished goods.
In addition, High-Variation/Low-Volume companies can often take advantage of contract work for limited or small quantity product runs from High-Variation/Low-Mix companies, which may be either domestic or foreign.
This flexibility provides High-Variation/Low-Volume companies the ability to make investments and continue to grow. These companies adjust setup and processing procedures to create simplified workflows by implementing lean practices into assembly procedures. As a result, High-Variation/Low-Volume manufactures have become more capable of withstanding economic downturns and changes in market spending.
Matsuura’s automated, lights-out production enables many companies to take on low-volume jobs for various industries. With a wide variety of work, minimizing setup times is key to success.
An emphasis on quick changeover—the ability to quickly convert from running one product to another—is essential for a manufacturer that has a highly variable mix of product.
High-Variation/Low-Volume is the rule in many industries. Successful shops are already implementing small lot size automation and these innovative companies are hard to compete with using conventional approaches and conventional machines.
Matsuura Machinery USA, Inc., located in St. Paul, MN is the U.S. subsidiary of Matsuura Machinery Corporation in Japan. Since 1935, Matsuura has been the forerunner in designing innovative technology and manufacturing solutions to a variety of industries around the globe. Matsuura Machinery USA, Inc. delivers unmatched excellence in 5-axis, vertical, horizontal, linear motor, multi-tasking CNC machine tools and machines with a powder bed metal AM platform with machining capability. Matsuura Machinery USA, Inc. provides the service, applications and technical field support that have always been the Matsuura standard for business.
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