Rathburn Customer Solution #17
BECOMING THE PREFERRED OUTSOURCE PROVIDER BY GETTING IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME.
A local manufacturer had been machining their own parts in-house for a number of years but found market demand for their products outpacing their ability to produce quality parts at the new volume required. The customer needed to find a new partner who could not only meet their quality demands but also ramp up quickly to both address the backlog issues and help the company prepare for a new product launch only six months away.
Outsourcing should be as easy as in-house production.
A key to meeting quality, timing, and pricing challenges is making sure we are aligned from the start. Because we understand the challenges a customer faces when first outsourcing a part, Rathburn made it a priority to sit down with the customer’s Design and Quality Engineer to understand all the key characteristics and fit, form, and function requirements on what turned out to be five initial parts. We identified customer clarifications to the prints and work through mutually agreeable design and manufacturability enhancements even before the first PPAP, and without a price increase.
This allowed Rathburn to get ahead of the desired changes so that PPAP parts were perfect in the first run.
We met the challenge and invested in the future.
The Rathburn team committed to getting the items right from the start, which enabled our customer to overcome their backlog and focus on new products.
Our customer was then able to make a seamless transition to outsourcing with Rathburn without a line shutdown or quality distractions.
Due to the success of the relationship, Rathburn invested in new Citizen Swiss equipment and technology to deliver even more complex components and to meet increased demand for this customer in the future.