Customers who delay supplier engagement.
"Valley floors to open doors - it's two way ya know. "
Collaboration is key. We have all heard it. But how many companies ACTUALLY DO IT.
Let's go back a step, and set the scene before the new age of AI. I grew up in the South Wales Valleys, hilly, rugged and towards the end of the valley, a large amount of manufacturing still lingered. Old school machinists, fabricators and the forge masters site.
Good, gritty engineering where the smell of oil and grease permeated the air. Smelt like something was happening. Men with blue flame retardant overalls, grizzled and daunting as a young man entering the industry. “How do I learn what they know and moreover, learn quick!”
Countless hours punching holes in plate, cutting on the big green Pearson and folding on an old Keetona which what felt like a colossus of a machine at the time, fabricating steel beams - red oxide aplenty all whilst backlit by the bright arc of someone MIG welding in the far corner.
It felt alive. An eye opener perhaps.
Communication occurred with machinists face to face. Fabricators talked issues through, there was a buzz. The “just get s**t done” buzz. Agile perhaps - not that we knew that was the term for it then - but mods were done live, at the turn of a heel and adapted to the customers needs or perhaps that of manufacturing issues that arose.
Fast forward to today. The rise of AI has taken hold and COVID happened, companies adapt. But how do we take an essence of the yesteryear and make it work seamlessly for the now.
Well this is where things have become rather disjointed.
As a small engineering consultancy - we see it, week in week out. But rather than sitting back, we spend a great deal of time steering our clients to ensure they see this important topic. Without good collaboration, fluid movement of information back and forth and a general lethargy to want to push forward, nothing improves.
So how do we do it.
Build relationships - real good relationships. Be almost in the pockets of your suppliers. You want to know how they do it. Why they do it the way they do. What’s a nuance in their field and how can a design change to fit as you intended but can become more manufacturable.
Understand the detail. Not just your design. You know that inside out. But “How many consumables are your suppliers going through to turn that piece of alloy 600”, How easy is it to weld those together?” “Is there access”?
Step away from CAD for a moment. Its great. We know it - but just step back and watch that model come to life. Use your hands to build what you have pumped so many hours on. Feel it, smell it and understand now what it takes to make it from a blank canvas, albeit a piece of bar or sheet.
Build it - fail - learn fast - repeat. Trust us, it’s the secret sauce. p.s. it’s super s**t at the time but it gets better.
Email = good. WhatsApp = getting there. A call is better. Talk it through. They don’t bite - they actually want to help you. Sure, you may want to capture the points from the call formally - but that call is like gold.
Some of these points are easy to implement - others have a HUGE internal culture overhaul implications perhaps - But we strongly believe its another ingredient that make things work efficiently.
CAD has come a long way - we use many platforms all with pro’s and cons. And it’s no secret we have a go to - Onshape.
But why did we chose them over all the others. Well the collaboration tools allow a two way door between us and the suppliers. Live, single source data - freedom to comment, and over a call, it’s like we are sat with them.
Be a positive disrupter.
It’s healthy - often needed. It turns the tables on what we think is the way it should be done. CAD should do this too and Onshape does this in spades.
There are many ways to do things - but sometimes we can all get stuck in a rut. And we feel it's time to move out of this rut and get back to talking and collaborating like we used to. AI can support us and help us. But it doesn’t build good meaningful relationships that can help bolster a design, bring efficiency gains to each aspect and nothing replaces the physicality of something.
Author: Gregg Bennett