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More Custom Gearboxes As Standard Equipment Fails to Adapt To Changes
The industrial gearbox industry is seeing pressure of a slightly different kind as of late. Rather than requiring a replacement of failed equipment with a similar model, many buyers are seeking customizations to their gearbox designs based on recent changes made in the manufacturing process.
The trend is seen in factories where changes have been made to factory throughput, conveyor lines and motors without the full overhaul of the factory machinery around them. Such situations do not always fit well into standardized gearbox catalogues since they require adjustments in accordance with space limitations, or legacy factory equipment.
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Custom fabrication orders used to represent just a fraction of gearbox purchases. The majority of such orders involved special industrial uses and major engineered systems only. Current orders seem to encompass mid-size manufacturing facilities which require customized gearbox specifications due to changing factory requirements.
It results in an extended sales cycle for gearbox manufacturers since buyers often come to them with partial or poorly articulated factory requirements and sometimes ask for customized solutions after numerous modifications to the equipment. An engineering team may need to look into factors like vibration requirements, shaft load capacities and interactions with other machines before settling on a design solution.
Some manufacturers report additional difficulty arising due to uncertainties about future forecasting of production volume. Customized designs tend to yield a less predictable order stream compared to standardized ones. For instance, one particular project may involve heavy collaboration with the engineering team but result in a relatively small volume of production orders.
Quotation of lead times is also more complicated in such cases since buyers suffering from manufacturing bottlenecks often expect the engineering cycle to go as fast as a standardized purchase. This can complicate accurate quotation and planning.
Another challenge arises in cases when customized manufacturing orders arise as a response to a decision made in reaction to existing conditions. A factory operator may make a decision to increase throughput or replace a particular motor and find himself needing custom gearbox solutions that are able to adapt to the changed factory setup.
Repair companies are also involved in the process more often than ever. Customers may initially seek repair services for their gearboxes only to discover later that they need custom gearbox solutions instead. This results in a project that may start with a repair but progress to designing a gearbox according to specific factory conditions.
Documentation requirements are rising as a consequence of the above issues. Since gearbox customization is often required in the middle of an operational cycle, buyers want detailed validation and testing documentation which gearbox shops used to produce less rigorously in the past.
None of the trends mentioned above means that custom gearbox manufacturing is set to replace standard gearbox purchasing. Industrial operators generally favor standardized equipment due to its ease of maintenance within large facilities. However, changing processes may make that impossible for some facilities.
The long-term effect of the situation may consist in the fact that gearbox suppliers are expected to include various engineering services into their production activities.
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Emerging Trends and Best Practices
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