Grain Belt Supply Interview
Scott Grindstaff, marketing coordinator at SigmaNEST, recently interviewed Monty Brown, Laser Division manager at Grain Belt Supply, about the effect of SigmaNEST on their operations:
What industry are you in and what type of products do you manufacture?
Grain Belt Supply utilizes a six CNC laser shop, a diverse fabrication shop (including 4 CNC press brakes) and a seven stage powder coat line with an 8 x 8 x 40 batch booth. Our customers include many industries, such as agriculture and transportation. In addition to custom fabrication we also maintain our own line of grain and material handling equipment.
How many people does your company employ and approximately how large is your work space?
We have 70 employees and 105,000 square feet of work space.
Describe the cutting equipment you have.
We have 6 Trumpf lasers ranging from 3,000 to 5,000 watts, with 5 x 10 to 6 x 20 beds. We can cut 28 ga through 1" carbon steel, ½" aluminum and ¾" stainless steel.
What might other manufacturing engineers like to know about your company's laser fabrication process that they may not be aware of?
In addition to laser and fabrication services, Grain Belt Supply also has an experienced engineering and sales staff to help customers with their projects. Whether you have your own engineered parts that need fabrication or you simply have a good idea, Grain Belt will prove to be a strong partner.
What are some noteworthy applications for your metal fabrication process?
Our ability to quickly and accurately quote and fabricate jobs sets us apart from other custom fabrication shops. Add to that our initiative to stay current with latest technology, plus we are a strong JIT supplier.
To facilitate quick turn around times on products, we stock a large and varied supply of carbon steel, stainless steel and aluminum.
What CAD/CAM software did your company use before switching to SigmaNEST?
P.E.P. from Measurement Masters.
What are some of the technical challenges that are unique to your fabrication process?
Being a customer fabricator, we run a very dynamic shop. Mixing short runs, long runs, various materials, design changes and, of course, the infamous expedite job, we must be able to adjust quickly. We cannot afford to have a machine waiting for a program or material. SigmaNEST allows this very dynamic process to run efficiently by controlling the material library and allowing a quick quote-to-shipment process.
What made your company decide to investigate new software?
We needed to find software that not only ran our Trumpf lasers, but was easily integrated into our job tracking system. We were getting buried in paperwork, trying to track our jobs and material. We were constantly re-nesting jobs because of inaccurate material libraries and cumbersome spreadsheets.
Describe any significant recent advances that may have improved the fabrication processes utilized by your company.
SigmaNEST works directly with Trumpf to develop their post processors. This sets SigmaNEST ahead of the competition, because they are able to use programming function that are generally only found in OEM software.
SigmaNEST also has a very strong support team. No matter how much you think you know, a good support team is worth their weight in gold. SigmaNEST is always there to help with any questions or problems we may face.
Describe the major advantages—including material savings, innovative or unique features and associated benefits—after implementing SigmaNEST.
It is a toss up between ease of programming, material library and the job tracking interaction.
With the SigmaNEST material library we are quickly and easily inventorying and re-using our drop. Utilizing odd shaped remnants has saved a lot of material over the traditional, true, rectangular drop we previously worked with. We have gone from a large uncontrollable inventory to a small and organized inventory that is easily utilized by programming.
Our custom in-house software works directly with SigmaNEST to export and import cut lists, due dates and costing information. This integration alone saves each programmer at least 3 hours per day of paperwork and data entry.
Furthermore, SigmaNEST's nesting process is saving us time. Utilizing combinations of manual nesting, auto-nesting and SigmaNEST's tech tables, we are nesting parts faster and with better sheet utilization. With just a few clicks, we are running combinations of large and small jobs on our lasers in a fraction of the time we used to spend.
What are some examples of benefits that your company has achieved with SigmaNEST?
Thanks to the combination of the material library, job tracking integration and the quick nesting routines, we have been able to reduce our programming staff by 50%.
We have only been using SigmaNEST for a year now and we have completely changed the way we process, organize and nest jobs. We are just beginning to tap into the integration and automation capabilities within SigmaNEST. We are very excited to see what further savings we will achieve though the integration of SigmaNEST and our custom programming.
