An enhanced level of service is as good a basis as any for
improving the success of an established business. In a
business environment where raw material costs are increasing
(and have to be passed on), customers are moving their
manufacturing off shore (often to China), and deliveries to those
customers who remain are late due to raw material shortages;
the service springmakers can off er is reducing. This is not
the recipe for success, but these factors are all outside your
control.
So, in these difficult times,
how can service levels be
enhanced? In other words, how
can you improve what is within
your control?
You could offer a free
design and development service
in the hope of capturing the bulk
orders when the development
process is complete. Unfortunately
this type of low-price or
free service, which requires a
lot of your time and expertise,
is not always being rewarded. The developed spring or, more
likely, the assembly into which it is incorporated becomes your
customer’s property, and promptly has its bulk manufacture
transferred to China, India, the Far East, Eastern Europe or
anywhere other than where your potential customer is located.
Hence, your loss-leader design service is generating profits
for competitors.
Is it time for the whole industry to change its attitude
toward this type of service? Does it make sense to have a loss-leading service that leads to losses? My local supermarket
off ers loss leaders (not free, of course) to attract more regular
customers who buy in bulk. Loss-leading services should
attract long-term sales and profi ts, as happens at my local and
successful supermarket, but not as in the spring industry.
This Cautionary Tale is taking on a rather negative view
of the spring industry – unless you are a springmaker in one
of the “low labor cost, low energy cost, deflated currency”
countries of the world that are
benefiting from the business
being transferred to you.
One positive aspect is
that there do not appear to be
many instances where advancing
technology has eliminated
the need for springs. The total
number of springs required
worldwide by automotive,
aerospace, white goods, electronics,
electrical, building
and every other industry does
not appear to be reducing. In
fact, it is probably increasing slightly because of the growth
in the Western and Japanese economies (1-3%), and in Eastern
economies (China 10%, India 6%).
So, what services can springmakers offer this growing
market? Responsiveness to local companies’ needs is obviously
one service that keeps many springmakers going and
ensures that, wherever a manufacturer is located, there will
be a springmaker nearby.
Quick response to needs is always appreciated, but put
together with technical information services, these are the most
important advantages U.S. and European spring manufacturers
ought to have over newly emerging competitors. Information
about whether your customer’s spring design is user-friendly
to manufacture, or at risk of fatigue, relaxation or corrosion
are all proactive services that could enhance your business.
There is no doubt that some spring designs are not efficient
– so why not off er a re-design at a price that refl ects that you
might have to assume design responsibility?
Information gained from your own experience of spring
manufacture is obviously most valuable and, supplemented
with the knowledge gleaned from these Cautionary Tales and other articles in Springs, should help you to supply a service
that surpasses anything available from your competitors who
are supplying American, Japanese, or European companies
for the fi rst time.
Another information service that you ought to be better
placed than your newly emerging competitors to supply is
dimensional and load data on your products with SPC analysis,
possibly direct from your load tester.
---
Mark Hayes is the Senior Metallurgist
at the Institute of Spring Technology
(IST) in Sheffield, England. Hayes
manages IST’s European Research
Projects, the spring failure analysis
service, and all metallurgical aspects
of advice and training courses given by
the institute. Readers are encouraged
to contact Hayes with comments about
this column, and with subjects that they
would like to be addressed in future installments, by phone
at (011) 44 114 252 7984 (direct dial), fax at (011) 44 114
2527997 or e-mail at m.hayes@ist.org.uk.