How Much Time Does Your Fabrication Process Require?
The whole purpose of outsourcing your metal fabrication process is to leverage resources and skills you can afford to host in your own production line. In
this case, the time to delivery is crucial, as it will help you plan the rest of your project. This gives rise to the biggest question everyone has in mind before signing a contract: how long will the fabrication process require?
While most reputable fabricators will try to give an average time to delivery, it is important to understand that the time to delivery will always vary depending on a variety of factors. Here are some things to consider when estimating how long it will take to get your product.
The Fabricator’s Efficiency
Each metal fabricator has a specific efficiency and throughput score. This will depend on the level of automation and number of skilled staff on the production line. Inspect your potential fabricators well before signing a contract. Backing up the manager’s estimated time to delivery with your own assessment of the production line’s speed and efficiency is a good way to come up with your own delivery time.
Reputable workshops will always try to meet deadlines at all costs. You should be willing to pay more for such trust especially if your project can’t afford a lag from untrustworthy fabricators.
The Complexity of the Process
Complex custom builds or very large projects (heavy fabrication) can take more time to deliver. The complexity of the order will also be an issue even if it is something the custom fabrication company has handled before. Complexity means more parts to machine or create and join before creating the final product. These extra steps will have a profound effect on the project’s time to completion. The complext projects add more steps in the process. The larger sized projects require additional time to manuver and to complete… they are bigger.
How to Be Sure of How Much Time Your Fabrication Process Requires
With the time to delivery being a product of project complexity and fabricator’s capability, the best way to putting a figure on this is by discussing your project with the shop’s production manager.
By discussing what you want with an insider who understands the fabricator’s capabilities, you can manage to determine a precise time of delivery. Even though it is right to push for a figure that fits your schedule, a good fabricator should draw a line between possible times and impossibilities.
To avoid running out of time, consider beginning your process as early as possible. If your own project is well planned, you can afford to order that custom fabrication months or weeks in advance. Most fabricators worth their salt will always meet even the biggest projects with quality as long as they are working on a realistic deadline.
