When we quote you a lead time at Focused on Machining, you can be confident that we’ll meet it.

That’s because, unlike many shops that base their quoted lead times on instinct alone, our aerospace machine shop takes a much more strategic approach. Specifically, we leverage our ERP system to build a detailed schedule that accounts for many factors—from material sourcing and outside processing to our shop’s internal capacity.

The Nuances of Scheduling Precision Machining Jobs

Quoting a lead time requires us to consider the factors in our control (i.e., our precision machining capacity) and those outside our control (i.e., material sourcing and outside processing). 

As you can imagine, the factors outside our control can be trickier to account for. The scheduling system we developed helps us with both.

Material sourcing and outside processing 

When shops miss their quoted lead times, often it's because they failed to factor in shipping times. To avoid this issue, we enter the standard shipping time for each new vendor we set up in our ERP system. 

If we’re sending parts across the state of Colorado for anodizing, the shipping time might be only one day. However, if we have to send parts out of state for a unique process like electropolishing, that’s a minimum of 2-3 days in transit (each way), which tells us we need to account for almost an entire week of shipping time. 

The same logic applies when sourcing materials. If a material is in stock and the supplier is near our Denver machine shop, they might be able to get it to us in three days. If we need a material from a supplier in Arizona, we’re likely looking at closer to 5-7 business days. 

Internal precision machining capacity 

With our ERP system, we can look at work already scheduled on every machine in our shop to quickly answer questions like: What job is currently on X machine? How long will it take? When will X machine be free? 

Sometimes, we identify a gap in the schedule. For example, we might see that the part we’re working on will finish next week, and the part scheduled behind it isn’t due for another month. 

If a customer needs a quick turnaround on a prototype machining job, we may be able to move it ahead and still get all the scheduled jobs completed on time rather than blindly going in order. We can make these strategic decisions because of our diligence in entering the due date for each order and scheduling each machine individually. 

How Our ERP System Calculates Accurate Lead Times

Although there are many factors to consider, calculating lead times is quite simple with our ERP system. 

When we get a PO, we plug in the due date (the date the customer needs their parts) and other important details about the project. Because we have already entered the standard shipping times associated with materials and outside processes, the system will automatically subtract those days from the due date. 

For example, if the parts need to be plated by a vendor in Kansas with a total shipping time of four days, the system will subtract four days from the due date. 

We’ll then factor in how long it will take the vendor to plate the parts and subtract that time until we determine the actual number of days we have to complete our internal precision machining processes and the “must leave by date” (the date by which we need to send the parts to the plating vendor to ensure on-time delivery to our customer). 

Accommodating expedited lead times

We also use our ERP system to quote expedited lead times. For instance, if a customer needs their parts in three weeks, and we know there will be one week of outside processing and shipping, we can arrange to pay the vendor an expedite fee to turn the parts around faster to meet the customer’s required due date. Understandably, our expedite prices are higher than our standard prices for this reason. 

Mitigating Issues to Ensure On-Time Delivery

We proactively communicate with outside processing vendors to ensure they meet their quoted lead times, which is essential for keeping us on track for on-time delivery. However, material sourcing can be more challenging to manage due to the overall unpredictability of material availability. 

A supplier may tell us they can get us a specific material in two days, and we’ll include that in our quote. But if the customer takes a couple of weeks to get us a PO, the material may no longer be in stock, potentially impacting our quoted lead time.

We encourage customers to submit POs soon after receiving a quote to avoid these outcomes. We apply this same sense of urgency when processing POs. When we receive a PO, we aim to have it entered into our system within one business day, which includes ordering the material. 

If you’re unhappy with other shops’ lead times and on-time delivery rates, we encourage you to reach out to Focused on Machining. We can deliver most parts in 4-6 weeks, and when we tell you that, you can trust that we’re not pulling those numbers out of thin air. 

Request a quote from our aerospace machine shop!