Your customers expect you to have an in-house inspection capacity and you’ve invested in coordinate measuring machines to improve your bidding position. Even though you have the measurement instruments and enough operators to keep up with your production, it may still make more sense to outsource your programming.
#1 Reduce Costs
Training your operators to use software such as PC-DMIS CAD++ is a significant investment, and you lose labour hours when you send them out of house. If you can save time and money by keeping your coordinate measuring machine programming in-house, companies like Canadian Measurement-Metrology Inc. offer CMM programming courses digitally that will cut down on the inconvenience of sending an operator out for training. E-course material also means that your investment isn’t completely lost when your operator leaves the shop. However, you can reduce these investment costs by contracting, and you don’t run the risk of losing the knowledge gained by training when the employee retires or moves on.
#2 Better Performance& Innovation
Most shops hire operator/programmers to run their metrology machines. Their primary concerns are keeping up with product lines and getting ahead of common inspection bottlenecks. They often do not have the time to stay up-to-date on software updates or innovative CAD practices. When you partner with a metrology shop like Canadian Measurement-Metrology Inc. for CMM programming, you get experts who live and breathe new developments in quality assurance and inspection technology. By contracting out, you get the most efficient use of software without having to invest in constantly training your own operators.
#3 Stay on Time
Contract programmers can support your existing operators with data input and guided inspection routes. They can modify your existing programs or write their own, read CAD files and blueprints, and perform reverse engineering tasks to create a CAD from a built component. Many software packages for coordinate measuring machines use cumbersome user interfaces that require manual data input. Contract services can help keep you up to speed when your inspection department is falling behind.
#4 Focus on Your Business
Your shop doesn’t have to do everything; in fact, you should focus on what you’re good at. You’re able to redirect your resources to the most valuable and profitable tasks in your business when you hire a professional CMM programmer with a metrology house. Save capital on “nice-to-have” training investments for the equipment and human resources that are absolutely essential to your business and to landing new contracts. Your business is at its best when it’s focused on its strengths, while bringing in experts to manage its weaknesses.
The basic questions you should ask yourself before outsourcing any activity apply to parts programming as well:
- Is it a task that you require in cycles or for occasional single runs?
- Is the skill specialized beyond your existing employees’ skills?
- Could employees who do have the necessary skills be more productive at another task?
- Are your in-house answers just not competitive enough?
If you can answer “yes” to these questions, start inquiring about efficient outsourcing solutions.