More than just the machining: representatives of a major consumer for machined parts describe what they are looking for when they evaluate a machining supplier

Modern Machine Shop, March, 2004 by Peter Zelinski

When Roger Parrish evaluates a potential machining supplier for Boeing, he may be interested in looking at a particular machine tool.

But he is much more interested in learning about the system within which that machine will be used.

That is:

* What QA procedures will allow the shop to consistently meet Boeing's quality targets?

* What scheduling methodology will let the shop make on-time deliveries coordinated with Boeing's manufacturing needs?

* And how will this shop manage both the quality and delivery of all of its critical subtier suppliers?

When asked specifically what machining capabilities are important for a Boeing supplier, Mr. Parrish does offer a couple of nuggets. High speed machining is one. And five-axis machining with a nutating head is becoming more critical, he says, because the steep angles on some of the newer monolithic components are too difficult to machine efficiently using a traditional A-over-B five-axis machine.

But he seems almost bored in giving these answers, mad the reason for this is simple. "Machining capability can be bought," he says. What cannot be bought is the organization, discipline, sophistication and culture necessary to make that machining capability work seamlessly in the service of the customer's needs.

This mindset represents a considerable departure from the way machining suppliers were evaluated no more than 10 years ago. Back then, the kinds of machining that a shop could perform provided the most relevant and straightforward yardstick by which a supplier company could be evaluated. Today, those machining capabilities count for much less, because other factors have grown in significance.

Three employees with Boeing's St. Louis, Missouri, military aircraft facility recently discussed their changing priorities when it comes to contract machining. Mr. Parrish is one of the supplier managers at the site responsible for complex parts. Two other managers there, Robert Goellner and David Raymo, are responsible for procurement of various commodities, machining included. While all of the information they provided for this article relates to Boeing St. Louis, there is a growing extent to which the needs of this one site reflect the needs of the company as a whole. (More on that below.) The information also has relevance to contract machining universally. Mr. Parrish no doubt summarizes the thinking of many major customers for machined parts when he stresses that while machining capabilities remain important, machining capabilities by themselves say less about you as a supplier than ever before.

Does your shop's brochure primarily consist of a list of what equipment the shop owns? If so, then it may be time to question whether that list is really telling prospective customers what it is they want to know.

Performance From Place To Place

Boeing St. Louis has about 75 active suppliers for machined parts. These companies manage any number of sub-tier suppliers. All of the Boeing sites together, military and commercial, probably have about 550 active machining suppliers. And while it used to be that suppliers served individual sites specifically, Mr. Raymo says that "today we are looking for much more of a 'Boeing focus.'" In other words, he does not want to see a superior level of performance given to one particular site in the company--not even his own. If a supplier receives 80 percent of its Boeing business from one site, it would be a cause for concern to see that the sites making up the remaining 20 percent receive a different level of quality or delivery performance. As Boeing works to become a more integrated company, any particular project today is likely to have personnel from multiple locations--engineers from St. Louis and Wichita, for example--working together. That means a supplier company should not have a production system that relies heavily on its connections to any one Boeing site. Instead, the supplier should be able to integrate readily with any Boeing location as needed.

That track record of service to other Boeing sites does indeed open doors. All Boeing facilities share a database of supplier information that records not only performance history, but also information related to more fundamental concerns such as the supplier's financial stability. The existence of an entry in that database saves Mr. Parrish and the others considerable time when it comes to evaluating a new shop. Last year, about ten potential suppliers made it so far through the evaluation process that they were paid a visit and studied by Boeing St. Louis personnel, and in all but one of those cases, the supplier had done work for some other Boeing site in the past.

Discipline And Diversity

Is it possible for a company with no prior Boeing experience to receive serious consideration as a potential supplier? The answer is yes. No particular machine tool would cause a company to stand out, but certain other characteristics would capture the attention of Boeing personnel, both at St. Louis and elsewhere. Those characteristics include: