XYZ recently sold 2 turning centres to a company which had previously bought top of the range Japanese machines because of the flexibility and productivity compared to one high cost machine
Customer Bill gives subcontractor Fred a hologram of the part he wants. Fred's molecular disintegrator extracts the hologram and produces the part in seconds. A retina scan confirms Customer Bill's identity and authorises payment to Subcontract Fred's bank account.

58 seconds, job done.

Bill thanks Fred and says I remember when that used to take two weeks.

'If I quote three minutes now the job will go elsewhere' says Fred.

Rather exaggerated you think, but the manufacturing industry has already moved a long way in that direction and continuing to do so.

Order books are getting shorter and shorter, quantities smaller and smaller, delivery dates closer and closer, more and more customers can't wait a couple of weeks so take their work elsewhere.

The two or three week order book is here to stay.

The two or three week order book is here to stay, but work for twelve months made up of 26 two weeks' worth of orders at any one time is just a profitable - if not more so - than the twelve months' work made from three month order books.

Have you actually run out of work, or just found that as the work is being finished more comes through the door?

The only significant difference between a forward order book for two weeks or for three months is that although a two week order book can be frightening at first, it almost always offers better margins.

To take full advantage of the changing market and to reap the substantial rewards (instead of enduring the misery) a subcontractor needs to be able to handle a variety of work quickly, efficiently, competitively and profitably by investing in CNC machines which are faster, have a lower piece part rate, higher throughput and greater versatility.

The investment does not have to be high: better to have a variety of machines such as a ProtoTRAK mill or a ProTURN lathe, which give fast production of one-offs and small batches and above all provide versatility.

For instance, XYZ recently sold 2 turning centres to a company which had previously bought top of the range Japanese machines.

Their reason was that two XYZ machines gave more flexibility and productivity than one high cost machine so provided better overall value even though the Japanese machine was faster.

One company which grasped the nettle and never looked back is Advanced Vehicle Design Ltd, which saw its business tumble by 80% following September 11th.

Bob Dixon, Managing Director and founder of the company, said 'In ten years of business, we have never seen such a sharp decline or such a rapid recovery.

I attribute the dramatic recovery to a change in the way we run the business, and that is almost entirely due to the purchase of two machines from XYZ Machine Tools'.

Another example is Kevin Edgington of GM Precision Engineering, who said 'If I had not invested in a CNC turning centre from XYZ, I would not have been able to keep the business going.

When I bought this company nine months ago the first task was to make a profit on the jobs we had and to free up machine time to take on the additional work.

Installing the XYZ turning centre has changed loss making jobs into profitable work and enabled me to quote for and win other work.

A small business like mine can run it for only two days each week and make it worthwhile.