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PSP already employs 4 robots in their work force. Moving forward more robots will be deployed between the east and west coast facilities.
really target the semiconductor industry,” details Norbert. “We are in the heart of it, so it just made sense. Timing is admittedly pure luck, but if it wasn’t for semiconductors, we would be hurting big time right now. It’s my own three- legged stool approach to manufacturing with aerospace, medical and semicon.” Already feeling a pinch from the grounding of Boeing’s Max program, early in 2020 Norbert set his sales team out to focus on medical and semicon. “My guys thought I was crazy, but I just had a hunch that aerospace was going to get worse before it got better. Sure enough we got push outs, and more push outs from our aerospace customers, but medical and semicon are booming. So much so that we more than replaced what we lost the last couple years in aerospace.”
LAM Research is one of the semiconductor companies that PSP is happy to partner with. A quick look at their Wikipedia page will tell you that they are on the rise and a powerhouse of the industry. Their headquarters is also down the road from PSP in Fremont, CA. “It’s a funny story how we got in with LAM Research” chuckles Norbert. “Their representative came in for a meeting wanting to know if we can handle small parts with tight tolerances,
complex features, and small holes. I say yes. We do that all day every day, that’s what we are best known for. I ask out of curiosity what are you considering to be a small hole. He hands me a part that is no big deal really, it is small, but not tiny, and it has a 14 thousandths diameter hole in it that I’m told is +/- 2 tenths. My desk has everything on it, but on this day, I just happened to have a device used in retinal eye surgeries. We make hundreds of thousands of them; they are part of the fiberoptic system that gets drilled into your eye so the doctors can see what they are doing. Pretty disgusting stuff, but it is a very small part with a couple key features. Well, I take our part and drop it inside the hole in his part. He is blown away and calls the office on speaker to say he found a company that can do the work. He explains to them what I just did. At that point I let them all know the part inside his part also had a hole drilled through it too. We got the job and have been a proud partner of theirs ever since.”
FINDING GAINS EVERYWHERE
PSP finds gains everywhere they can. Sometimes those gains come from software, other times from advanced machining techniques and more often than not just finding a way to do everyday tasks better. “For some reason my guys kill, and I mean kill torque wrenches,” half jokes Norbert. “We’ve tried everything from cutting down the size of the Allen key to buying fancy fool proof wrenches and nothing worked. They either add a cheater bar to the end of it or just keep fighting past the click. A few years ago, we got Rego-Fix torque blocks and my problem has been solved. It’s a tool assembly device that has integrated toque specs. You set it and away you go, they can’t over torque tooling now. I kid you not, in the first year Rego-Fix systems saved me 10k in
PSP are in a near constant state of training right now. Recent implementations include: Global Shop Solutions ERP system, Paperless Parts estimating software, & High QA Inspection Manager.
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CNC WEST June/July 2021