Due to the competitive climate in which many want to become the leader in manufacturing parts with worldwide recognition, it is believed that every manufacturer wants the same thing: that is, how to increase the manufacturing efficiency, how to create workpieces of good quality, and how to reduce the manufacturing cost to the minimum. Therefore, in this interview column, we gather 4 leaders in Cutting Tool from 4 brands so that we can get their perspectives which are worth considering with the hope that many entrepreneurs can use their ideas in their industrial applications successfully.
Q1: As one of the leaders in cutting tool, what is your managerial approach which makes your organization different yet meets the demands of your customers?
– Mr. Yuthana Thanabhusest, Managing Director, Iscar (Thailand) Ltd.
It is the policy of our headquarters IMC Group to find ways to help customers reduce manufacturing cost and increase profit. Our company is committed to investment in R&D and we have over 200 experienced engineers to develop tools to increase the productivity. We launch new products every 2-3 years and our products show higher efficiency as well as higher durability which our customers and manufacturers want. We also have much experience in provide service to our customers.
– Mr. Yuji Goto, Executive Officer, General Manager, International Overseas Sales Dept., Ns Tool Co., Ltd.
Our company’s product is a cutting tool called an end mill for precision work. It is very fine and is easy to use, so how to use the tool becomes very important. We select the tool best suited to the customer by not only making business responses such as product PR but also holding meetings on the customer’s technical problems or new projects. We also contribute to reducing costs by proposing cutting conditions in all processes from the beginning to the end for improving roughness of the milled surface and shortening the milling time.
– Mr. Poramate Pisitattakarn, General Manager, TaeguTec (Thailand) Co., Ltd.
We are the top brand in Japan and we aim to provide a one-stop service to offer the maximum value to our customers who use our products. We have many projects such as Line Improvement, Cost Reduction & Control which have been adapted for over 10 years. We have shown that just advertising a product cannot meet the demands of customers and it cannot grow a business. We not only communicate with our customers but we also work with our customers in order to find a way to increase the productivity and to reduce cost, which is tailored for each customer. Therefore, our customers understand and work alongside us for a long time. We develop our Application team continuously in order to provide better solutions to our customers. We are confident that our customers can manufacture workpieces with the lowest cost of production.
– Mr. Oliver Zimmerer, General Manager, Walter (Thailand) Co., Ltd.
We pay considerable attention to the “Just-in-time” principle and we do everything to meet the demands of our customers in time. We also provide engineering service to our customers by doing “Turnkey Improvement” when their workpieces are highly complicated. In addition to the fact that we have experienced engineers in Thailand, we can still send workpieces to Singapore and Germany for further inspection because we have many case studies of problem-solving with highly complicated workpieces. Therefore, our engineers can apply their knowledge and skill in the manufacturing process in a holistic manner. We also have distribution center in Singapore and we can dispatch our products directly to our customers every day.
Q2: To what industry do the majority of your customers belong? And when the manufacturing innovation becomes more and more complicated and complex, what approach do you have to solve such problem?
– Mr. Yuthana Thanabhusest, Managing Director, Iscar (Thailand) Ltd.
The majority of our customers belong to the Japanese automotive industry which is the main industry of the nation. Therefore, the development of our tools needs to meet the requirements of our customers. We must emphasize that our customers must manufacture their products with higher efficiency and there must be no interruption due to lack of tools. We have tools in our stock ready to provide to our customers 24 hours 7 days. Therefore, our customers have trust in us and our Market Share is at the Top 5 level.
– Mr. Yuji Goto, Executive Officer, General Manager, International Overseas Sales Dept., Ns Tool Co., Ltd.
A certain manufacturer of metal molds for automobile interior parts requested an end mill which can be used for 10 hours. Though the currently used 2-flute ball end mill is cheap, after being used for 10 hours in finish machining, it fails to finish the milled surface beautifully due to wear. We proposed a 3-flute ball end mill with an improved tool life and cutting conditions faster than conventional. In addition to an improved milled surface, the milling time can also be shortened down to 6.5 hours.
Though 3-flute ball end mills are more expensive than 2-flute ball end mills, the total cost can be significantly reduced. In a case example of a customer who performs parts processing, at his request to eliminate the hole drilling process, we proposed a high-efficiency-machining end mill which is capable of hole drilling and end milling at the same time. This resulted in shortening of milling time ⇒ costs reduced.
– Mr. Poramate Pisitattakarn, General Manager, TaeguTec (Thailand) Co., Ltd.
It is obvious that the automotive industry still remains the major industry of our customers. We have a long experience in taking care of the customers in this industry. Some entrepreneurs might have a more complicated requirement than any common or standard products or they might want to modify the software or the cutting variables to meet their demands. As we are a specialized cutting tool manufacturer, we can analyze and synthesize such requirements and develop our products to satisfy the customer demands very quickly. We have our R&D team to design and our team of experts will develop the best Special Tool to do specific tasks in order to help our customers complement to their industry with the best available solution made by us.
– Mr. Oliver Zimmerer, General Manager, Walter (Thailand) Co., Ltd.
We have customers in different industrial sectors, such as automotive sector, aviation and medicine. Our customers in Thailand are from the automotive industry which is the main industry in many countries. On many occasions we learn that our customers cannot manufacture their workpieces in time because of their insufficient manufacturing capacity. However, buying an additional machine is a hefty investment. Therefore, a team of engineers from Walter will come to help increase the productivity of the whole process by reducing the manufacturing processes, increase the speed and improve the capacity of the machinery by up to 20-30% so that the machines can manufacturing workpieces in time for the deadline yet the quality stills meets the specified standards.
Q3: As a global brand, what approach do you have to develop the technology which meets the demands of the customers? And does the age of Industry 4.0 have an impact on your technological development? If so, how?
– Mr. Yuthana Thanabhusest, Managing Director, Iscar (Thailand) Ltd.
I believe that customers who are ready for the changes and can move towards the Industry 4.0 will get a lot of benefits, especially the increased productivity which requires diverse modern technologies. And the use of automation will reduce the tool wear rate and prolong the tool life because there will be a decrease in mistake. Our company ISCAR has developed tools to be compatible with the Industry 4.0 and we have predicted certain parts which will be manufactured in the future. This means that we never stop developing ourselves to provide the best manufacturing solutions to all our customers.
– Mr. Yuji Goto, Executive Officer, General Manager, International Overseas Sales Dept., Ns Tool Co., Ltd.
In Japan, in the face of personnel costs soaring and manpower shortage, automation is in progress. For 24-hour unmanned cutting, the end mill’s stable quality becomes important. It is because, if the quality of the end mill varies, the customer’s products as well become instable. Production with ‘stable quality’ is our role. Along with automation, requests for shortening the hand polishing time after milling or for elimination of polishing have been becoming more intense. This trend is not only in Japan but also from all over the world. By proposing a PCD end mill (polycrystalline diamond), we were able to realize a mirror-like finished surface by milling. Having predicted since about 30 years ago that the electronic parts of personal computer, camera, mobile phone, etc., will become more compact/higher-performance, we have been striving for the development of fine precision machining end mills.
– Mr. Poramate Pisitattakarn, General Manager, TaeguTec (Thailand) Co., Ltd.
The technological development of high-speed data communication has a great impact on the current manufacturing industry. We notice that a large amount of data can be used quickly, not just for communication nor for the sole purpose of commands. Machines can work with the operators in an unprecedentedly effective manner. Therefore, the quality of the cutting tool involves the precision and the highest level of manufacturing standards. As a result, TaeguTec has a larger base of customers because our business is to become the cutting tool manufacturer only. Apart from being Solution Provider as mentioned above, we also create partnership and become allies with other metalworking companies in terms of hardware, software and other special tools to offer “Total Solution Project” which can be really used among the customers. We have Taratorn Pro Center with various metalworking facilities. We can analyze the workpiece by our customers through the simulation and we can test it in our Workshop. Our customers will be given a training session and they can test the operation before they apply it in the actual manufacturing line. In addition, we and our partners can design a Manufacturing Line System” as a whole system integration with the most comprehensive approach.
– Mr. Oliver Zimmerer, General Manager, Walter (Thailand) Co., Ltd.
Walter never stops the development and we continue to develop new technologies. Due to the development of Industry 4.0 which requires automation as the driving force for the manufacturing, the consequence is that the machine must work continuously without any interruption. Therefore, the cutting tool must be highly durable.
Recently, Walter AG has developed an advanced cooling technology system called “Cryo-Tec” with CO2 and air in combination with minimum quantity lubrication (MQL). By using carbon dioxide as coolant, the temperature on the cutting edge of the tool is significantly lower than with conventional cooling methods. The temperature of the liquid CO2, stored in tanks behind the machine is around -56 °C. Thanks to this method, we can increase the manufacturing speed by 70% when compared to the manufacturing process with soluble oil coolant. Such technology is still new in Thailand although it is used in European countries and it is highly efficient, especially in ISO “S” materials.
