Industry
Precision cutting tools
Country
Germany
Scope
Production ramp-up support
Duration
5 weeks on-site
A cutting tool manufacturer was launching a new carbide drill product line and experiencing a scrap rate of 14% during ramp-up. The client’s estimate for reaching an acceptable scrap level was six weeks. In precision cutting tool manufacturing, scrap means wasted carbide blanks, wasted grinding wheel cycles, and blocked machine time on equipment that is already running at capacity. Each percentage point of scrap carries a direct and significant cost. The client needed a process engineer with grinding experience on-site — not a general quality consultant, but someone who understood the specific failure modes of carbide drill production.
GFE provided a production technologies engineer for five weeks of on-site support. The first week was spent on measurement system analysis — verifying that the gauging used to assess the parts was itself capable and consistent before drawing conclusions from the measurement data. SPC control charts were established for six critical process parameters to provide real-time visibility of process stability. The root cause of the elevated scrap rate was identified in week two: a grinding wheel dressing cycle that had not been validated during the initial machine setup was producing inconsistent wheel profiles, leading to dimensional variation in the finished parts. The dressing cycle was corrected and validated. By the end of week three the scrap rate was 3.8%. Full ISO 9001 ramp-up documentation was completed for audit.
14% → 3.8%
scrap in 3 weeks
Root cause
grinding wheel dressing
SPC charts
6 parameters controlled
ISO 9001
audit-ready
We expected six weeks to get under 5% scrap. It took three.
GFE engineers spend time on the production floor before making recommendations — understanding the actual process before proposing changes.
Engagements are scoped around specific production targets — scrap rate, cycle time, first-article pass rate — not general improvement initiatives.
All process documentation and work instructions are structured for ISO 9001 audit and operator use — formatted for the shop floor and ready for external review without additional preparation.
Work instructions and process documentation are produced in English, German, and Italian — ready for use at multi-site international production facilities.
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Our company produces safety-relevant welding assemblies for the chemical and pharmaceutical industry.
Due to the fact that it has become increasingly difficult to find good engineers and designers for our design department at our location in rural Münsterland, we set out at the end of 2018 to look for new external solutions in the service market.
I really appreciate GFE’s flexibility and openness for new challenges. They are not afraid to start a new journey.
If I think about the external circumstances of the project we started together, we reached a learning curve and relating results that I did personally not expect.
We required additional capacity and professional support for our R&D Team especially for a new product development.
And GFE Solutions offers capable support by very well-educated engineers. High professionalism. On time delivery and great communication (native German speakers).
We are the company in constant need for plants for research or pilot projects of our clients. Last year we were working over the order in the field of medical technologies, which we succeeded to realize, including thanks to efforts of GFE Solutions team.
We were in need of help with our design department ressources and we had to move fast, internal ressources were not available and GFE was able to help quickly and competent. GFE works with dedication to the very needs of its customers, has a variety of specialists and has offered a fair price on a transparent basis.
We were looking for additional engineers to expand our construction capacity. You seemed to be a young, motivated Team and except your professional expertise, your personal commitment made me confident to work with you. The cooperation has been seamless and very productive from the start. We are happy with the results.
GFE Solutions is a specialized engineering services company. Our engineers are mainly from Eastern Europe – to our customers we offer onsite- and offsite-engineering-services. All our specialists speak and write fluently English, some of them German and other languages.
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