Advantage Aztalan

Modern Machine Shop recently published a great story about Aztalan Engineering titled Aztalan Aims for Rapid Adjustment. Aztalan is a contract manufacturer based in Lake Mills, Wisconsin that specializes in precision complex parts. The story chronicles the company’s transformation from standard manufacturing, in which a part is moved from station to station across a shop’s floor, to cellular manufacturing. The company’s goal is to differentiate itself from competitors while shortening lead times. Aztalan accomplished this by grouping four CNC machines that were already being used for long-term production runs into a dedicated short-run rapid prototyping cell that became the key to their Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM) strategy.

Building the Short-Run Cell

To build its short-run cell, Aztalan moved four CNC machines that once stood across the shop floor from each other into a U-shaped configuration in the middle of the floor. These machines include an LB3000 EX horizontal lathe and a GENOS M460-V vertical mill from Okuma. The manufacturing cell uses the GENOS M460 as its workhorse, capable of producing various part features quickly.

Aztalan machines a variety of parts in its short-run mill, mostly from stainless steel and aluminum (as shown in the photo above). For a recent job involving a stainless steel part with a variety of holes, the hole pattern was programmed in 15 minutes and then the part was machined in one hour.

Turnaround Time Creates Advantage

President and CEO Dirk Maroske conveys how turnaround time creates a competitive advantage. “If you are very, very fast, it’s not always about prices…in the segment that we are in—precision machining, with very tight tolerances—it’s a little bit more expensive. When the buyer has to buy, say, custom-engineered products, they typically are already late when they get the request for purchase. Then they basically reach out to their supply chain. And then who do you go with? The ones who can turn it around right away.”

Reducing Prove-Out Times

The cell also uses software from ESPRIT (a member of Partners in THINC), which enables Aztalan to import almost any design file from any software package and prove out the part virtually. Technology such as this enables shops to dramatically reduce prove-out times, especially when they’re running very complex parts on multi-axis machines.

Well Positioned

Kudos to Aztalan for their innovations. Between the company’s ability to quickly turn around high-quality prototypes and short-run parts, and the QRM culture, they are positioning themselves well, both now and into the future.

Learn More: Aztalan has a history of innovating to increase their competitiveness. Take a look at the story Efficiency for Precision Short Runs – It’s All in the CNC Control to learn more.

This article first appeared in Modern Machine Shop.