A shop that closely tracks machining performance says its new horizontal machining center delivers productivity comparable to three verticals. On a job involving a set of aluminum parts for a maker of snowboard bindings, TMF CNC Machining of Poulsbo, Washington was willing to take a calculated loss. For nearly a year, the shop's costs on this job exceeded its income. That was okay, say Dave Poggi, Eric Potts and Chris Wood. The three co-owners of TMF were willing to put up with this because they considered the parts ideal for a horizontal machining center. They did not have an HMC at that time, but knew they would be buying one. Therefore, they bid on this job as if they did have the machine just for the sake of winning the work, and the shop ran it less efficiently on verticals until the day the HMC was installed.
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