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Suburban Tool Cuts Lead Time, Competes Globally
 Tucked away in Erie, Pennsylvania, is Suburban Tool & Die Co., Inc., specializing in close tolerance and complex tooling for a wide array of customers and markets. The company’s name is misleading, though, as it fiercely competes for business outside of American suburbia on an international stage. Suburban Tool’s processes and strategies have continued to evolve, even if their name hasn’t, allowing the company to become a global player in the die/mold industry.
“In the late ‘70s, early ‘80s, there were approximately 30 molders in Erie County alone that required the design and building of tools,” says David McGuire, president of Suburban Tool. “So you could have a regional customer base and be very satisfied. As tool making became more competitive, it became necessary to go further afield. We recognized that we didn’t just have to compete regionally or domestically, but we had to compete on an international basis.”
To accomplish this, Suburban Tool realized it would need to have excellent engineers, manufacturing and sales personnel on board, says Robert Suprynowicz, vice president and founder of Suburban Tool. They also wanted to complement their processes with the best equipment available. “We had always heard that Makino was a respected industry leader,” Suprynowicz says. “So after thorough research, we purchased our first Makino SNC64. We didn’t have the machine on our floor for two months before we knew that we needed to purchase another one.”
It wasn’t long before Suburban Tool had an assortment of Makino machines in operation, including two SNC64 graphite milling centers, EDNC65 and EDNC65S Ram EDM machines and a V55 vertical machining center. Now armed with the capability to produce in days what used to take weeks, Suburban Tool is confident that it can drive out manufacturing costs to be even more competitive on the world’s stage.
Competing Globally [back to top]
Suburban Tool builds molds used in various processes in multiple markets, including the automotive, transportation systems, aerospace, electronics, business machinery, cosmetics and medical industries. These customers expect exceptional surface finishes and tight tolerances, and are always seeking competitive prices and delivery times.
Michael McGuire, Suburban Tool’s sales manager, says that the worldwide marketplace has given customers reason to expect lower prices. To remain competitive, Suburban Tool has to drive costs out of its manufacturing processes and continue to reduce lead time.
When the first Makino SNC64 was installed, it was complementing other CNC machines. Despite an increase in workload, Suburban Tool was able to reduce the load on the other machines and let the SNC64 perform the work of two or more competitive machines. “Things like that have to drive costs out of your operation,” says Kurt Suprynowicz, the company’s purchasing manager. “We can see it happening just in the reduced hours, the quick turnaround on tools and the performance on individual jobs. We know it is there.”
 Quick turnaround is a phenomenon that is getting harder to achieve because tooling has become more complex and requires longer design times. This, coupled with reduced lead times, means less time on the floor for machining. David Myers, the company’s chief engineer, says that the Makino equipment “allows us to juggle that time around and get it done with twice the amount of volume that we were producing two years ago. We are constantly trying to get molds built in six weeks or less, and there are a lot of companies throughout the world that can’t make six-week deliveries. That’s one reason why we’re busy right now—we do things quickly.”
According to Jeff Rzepka, Suburban Tool’s manufacturing manager and CAM specialist, delivery times were once expected in 10-plus weeks. He says that the unattended EDM machining, and faster milling capability of Makino equipment has played a big part in meeting shorter deadlines.
“On occasion, we work on mold projects from concept to completion in less than two weeks,” he says. “Our quickest was an 11-day project. Without the Makino equipment, we would not have been able to meet that tight deadline because it would have required machine operators 24 hours a day. With the Makino’s, I can have the machines running nonstop and not have an operator monitoring them every hour. This is the main driving force in our competitive strategy of reduced lead times and cost-effectiveness.”
New School EDM [back to top]
Getting to the stage where they were able to compete on short deadlines was a time of change for Suburban Tool. Rzepka admits that the company’s operational processes have been necessarily changed to meet the new capabilities and processes brought about with the introduction of the Makino machines and cells. New methods and processes have replaced conventional thinking and scheduling.
The Makino EDM machines have provided them with superior finishes and lights-out EDM burning. The EDNC65S is specially fitted with Makino’s patented SuperSpark™ part-roughing technology and can burn cavities using the superb HQSF™ (High-Quality Surface Finish) process. These features, paired with the high-speed capabilities of the milling machines, have revolutionized Suburban Tool’s operations.
 “We recently delivered a tool where the entire cavity surface was left as-is with the EDM finish, which was acceptable to the customer,” Rzepka says. “They wanted a 12-Rmax finish, and that is what we were able to give them right out of the burn. Before we had the Makino's, we had to polish everything for reasons as simple as finishes not matching from one burn to the next burn.”
He attributes the enhancements of the process to the amount of detail that can be put on electrodes by the SNC64 machines, which are 10 times faster than the shop’s previous graphite milling machines. The extra time is spent cutting more complex electrodes in reasonable timeframes, eliminating the need for multiple burns.
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“When we added SuperSpark™ to our EDM process, we no longer needed to provide flush channels, and we reduced the number of electrodes needed for any individual burn.”
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In addition to HQSF™, new additions to the EDM process include a carousel-type automatic tool changer (ATC) and SuperSpark™. The ATC allows Suburban Tool to run lights out, while Makino’s SuperSpark™ can reduce part-roughing time, regardless of the shape, size or depth of the cavity. The shop uses this technology on the Makino EDNC65S and estimates a decrease in burning time by as much as 40 percent on most jobs. Small, deep ribs, which used to take eight-and-a-half hours, can be completed in about one-twelfth of the time—just 45 minutes.
“Old school EDM process is flush, flush, flush,” Rzepka says. “When we added SuperSpark™ to our EDM process, we no longer needed to provide flush channels, and we reduced the number of electrodes needed for any individual burn.
“When I looked at the process from start to finish, the SuperSpark™ process was much faster. We could have burned something on older equipment in five hours. And on the Makino, it was a half-hour of labor and three hours of unattended EDM operation. On other machines, it was five manned hours with an operator constantly tweaking, babysitting, drilling and flushing. Then, when the project was complete, I had polishing and uneven finishes. Whereas, when using the Makino, it was totally done. So the entire process was quicker and drove out a great deal of our operational costs.”
Taking Center Stage [back to top]
With the addition of the Makino equipment, Suburban Tool’s production staff has reinvented their processes and methods. They understand the importance of every available hour in the week. The traditional 10 to 12 hours of lights-on manufacturing has advanced to a shop running 24/7.
“Our people on our prime equipment have a weekly target of 80 percent utilization—that’s 80 percent of all available hours in a week,” David McGuire says. “So, while the equipment expense may be more than what is traditional, the benefits derived from the investment have been dramatic.”
The Makino equipment provides a diverse mold production package that offers flexibility to Suburban Tool’s operations. The unattended machining, according to Rzepka, has “allowed us to redirect labor to programming other machines or final assembly of the molds—things that require manpower to complete.” In addition to the machines’ physical features, their presence alone has increased the company’s respectable image among customers.
“Makino is a bit of a buzzword and is recognized in the industry as top-of-the line,” Rzepka says. “That has helped boost our status with our customers. People recognize that we are on the leading edge of technology. They’ve recognized it before in the quality of our work, but we’ve been able to increase that now. Quality and lead-time has improved, while errors are eliminated. That whole package has helped us remain busy in a tight economy.”
Suprynowicz explains they have even adapted new equipment monitoring techniques. The Makino EDM machines are hooked up to a computer with a direct telephone line. In the event of any type of problem in the middle of the night, an operator is immediately contacted by phone and alerted to the situation, minimizing potential downtime. A planned monitoring system will soon allow operators to assess problems over the Internet with a Web-based camera system.
These new monitoring techniques, along with the radical shift in EDM operations and machining technology, have allowed Suburban Tool to take new approaches to mold making. The company has been able to drive out costs by redirecting labor and cutting lead times, allowing Suburban Tool to compete like Global Tool instead.
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