"We're very proud of our increased efficiencies," says CBS Vice President Bob Lawton. "Recently a customer required 18 new parts. They were all delivered in between 2 and 7 weeks – despite the fact that each one required its own tooling and engineering support."

 

Here at CBS, we regularly evaluate machined parts from castings to determine machinability from bar, plate or billet. This gives us complete control over the manufacturing process, thus reducing lead times and sometimes cost. When a casting is necessary, we design the tooling and work closely with the casting supplier to produce the best possible part. We use customer-approved vendors whenever special processes such as heat-treating and coating are needed to finish a part, and we now have 5 manufacturing engineers on staff to meet the needs of our current customers and accommodate for further growth.

 

CBS continuously looks for new ways to improve our processes, reduce the cost of manufacturing and keep more business in the USA. We've worked closely with CONNSTEP on a series of Lean initiatives, a few of them detailed here, that have helped us dramatically improve setup times, increase throughput and, as a result, become much more competitive in bidding on a wider scope of projects.

 

We continue to add cutting-edge equipment to our facilities, including an Okuma 4-axis horizontal machining center. This advanced equipment has helped push us ahead of the curve within the industry, allowing us to perform overnight "Lights-Out" manufacturing. This innovative method of machining means we can increase efficiencies and output volumes with the same fixed costs – and pass that savings on to our customers.