Investment in CNC punch grinding helps Stema Punch Die supply custom tools in JIT fashion. When Stefan Lorbach began his career as a tool-and-die maker in 1959, he couldn't fathom how the industry would change. In the 1970s, he notes, it might take three to four months to make a die. In 1986, he opened Stema Punch Die, Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, as a one-man operation supplying tool-and-die shops and metal stampings. At first, he quoted three-to four-week lead times. Now, customers demand those jobs within a week. Today, Stema, with 25 employees, operates roughly 60 machine tools including CNC and manual wire and sinker EDM machines, CNC and manual surface, centerless, cylindrical and punch grinders, CNC turning and vertical machining centers, CMMs and optical comparators. Due to the nature of the business, Stema must forego the luxury of building to inventory, producing every punch in unique diameters, lengths, points, profiles and surface finishes. This results in a chaotic schedule where the only thing approaching routine is the prepping of punch blanks, produced in advance.
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