Simple Solutions That Work! Issue 9

This article examines how repurposing (re-remanufacturing) older equipment and breathing new life with the latest technologies at greatly reduced costs and faster lead times can meet a foundry’s investment goals. As of this writing, the good news in the foundry industry is operating at high capacity. Many foundries are seeing sales growth in 2018 as they continue to be busy quoting new and future business. As typical, when our industry is chugging along, the rest of the country’s economy is typically expanding; which creates staffing problems, existing equipment capacity is stretched, and new equipment solutions are timely and require time consuming planning and increasing capital investments. In response to the cycle of life challenges the foundry industry is facing, many foundries must base their new equipment purchases to address increased productivity requirements, improve quality, simplify operations, and remove labor. Capital projects that address these factors will have lasting impact to the long-term profitability of the business. Many of our customers are contacting us with interest in large projects, such as new molding systems and core machine cells, that both require labor saving solutions. As we work together with simultaneous engineering practices to specifically define the business goals with solutions that thoroughly analyze the project’s impact, many of our customers plans stall due to budget constraints or lengthy lead times. It appears very likely that the early planning process is based on outdated or unrealistic cost estimates, which lead to an infeasible project that cannot meet the fiscal investment objectives or outcomes. Secondly, by the time projects become approved, vendors lead times have lengthened and again put the project feasibility into jeopardy. An alternative that may make sense for many facing these same obstacles is to consider how repurposing or remanufacturing older equipment to meet the technological standards of today’s new machinery. Recently we’ve completed several major projects that are based on repurposing existing foundry equipment that met the stated goals at sometimes up to 50% of the cost for new equipment. The machines are outfitted with all current state-of-art controls and modified to meet the full range of productivity – in some cases with more flexibility than any new machinery available today. Here a two example projects that led to faster lead times, lower overall project costs, and JERRY SENK President EQUIPMENT MANUFACTURERS INTERNATIONAL, INC. ARTICLE TAKEAWAYS: • Remanufacturing existing machinery to today’s modern specifications • Added productivity with additional ancillary solutions that take advantage of latest technology BENEFITS OF REMANUFACTURED MACHINERY SOLUTIONS 44