Tips for Investing Intelligently When Upgrading a Shop on a Budget

Question:

If you were starting up a new shop or improving a shop on a tight budget, where do you think money is best spent on the process to have the biggest impact on quality and consistency?

Miller’s Answer:

Having recently brought up my own shop, this is something I can closely sympathize with; however, my approach is no different than what I would recommend to a more established or profitable shop. Just because you are on a budget does not mean the approach to smart shop investments changes. The goal is to invest intelligently on the things that can help the most. In this context, we are searching for more affordable, incremental gains, rather than big splashy investments. The more we can stretch money and stack small wins, the more we can eventually have more capital for bigger upgrades down the road. With this in mind, here are a few things I would consider with each dollar you may spend:

If I am on a budget, is the overall cost something I can afford? Is the thing I am looking to improve a durable good or a perishable good? Durables would be lasting items like workholding, gauges or machines. Perishables or consumables would be cutting tools, inserts or cutting fluids. Is the cost a short-term or long-term cost? An example would be a one-time swipe of the company card or something that needs to be financed. Is the impact of this improvement going to be immediate or take some time to realize? Finally, to what degree will this impact my operations? A high impact might be significant quality or accuracy enhancements that change your shop’s capabilities. A low impact might be a simple operator quality of life improvement. While important, it may not change anything with regards to quality or throughput.

Whenever I am looking for process improvements, I do my best to view the entirety of the system, not just a single component. So, I will offer some ideas for different aspects of the process, and then offer some cost-effective ways to improve each one.

For machinery, an entirely new machine platform or automation platform will not be the budget-friendly option you seek. However, I often find shops underutilizing their machines and functionality, so it’s always free to learn more and use the machine to its fullest potential. Retrofit options like a tool setter are also a great way to incrementally improve an existing asset.

Fixturing and especially modular workholding can be quite impactful for your operation as well. Ease of changeover, faster setups and more repeatable clamping are all important to part quality, but this option can get pricey very quick. The good news is you can acquire this over time. Perhaps you can buy a base plate this month, and some of the top tooling next month and work this into a longer-term budget strategy. By year’s end you will have a full shelf of high-quality workholding options to quickly move from job to job. 

Quality control is an interesting area where you might see cost-effective improvements. Namely, doing more of it with the gauges you already have and perhaps adding a couple key pieces. The purpose of this is to collect more data on your operations to better inform investments in other areas. Nowadays, data is king, so you may be surprised at how consistent some things are, and where your deficiencies really exist.

When it comes to consumables (namely, cutting tools and coolant), I honestly do not recommend a shop on a tight budget to spend a lot of money here at first. The reason is, neither of these things last. To be very clear, both items are vital to successful processes; however, cutting tools will eventually wear out, and coolant will go bad. In the interim, though, tools can be resharpened, and coolant can be skimmed and cared for more diligently until money frees up and you can step up the quality in both areas and make each last longer.

Lastly, I want to mention toolholders. Through a lot of personal testing, I am always surprised the impact tool holders have on a process, but it makes a lot of sense. They are that first critical link between carbide and machine and as a durable good it’s a smart investment. A solution that can suppress vibration, improve balance and minimize runout can drastically improve tool life, and surface finish and make tools cut true to size, which all directly impact quality for the better. The great news is that these improvements dovetail perfectly with the above point about budget carbide. Good toolholders will make these tools cut better until better options can be sourced, and it future proofs the investment in new tooling and new machines and — like the workholding — it’s something you can work on over time until the magazine is full.

A final point I want to make is that starting a new shop, or working on a tight budget, is not an easy endeavor, especially in an industry as precise as ours. I had a professor in college preach that “Every digit you add beyond the decimal point is another zero to the price!” While I’ve never personally fact checked this, we can all understand that improvements that move you from 0.005" to 0.0005" are not cheap. Don’t try to do it all at once and bury the shop in debt. It’s very important to never lose sight of the end game, which is productivity and profitability through a series of small gains day by day.