Military Fabrications

This customer supplies specialized equipment to our military. They needed a pre-production prototype built on a compressed timeline. When they talked to our team, they were in the process of trying to win a new contract and needed a full first article unit built in 6 weeks. The job included painting and assembly. Working with their engineers in the early stages, we were able to reduce costs by over $10,000 in tooling by standardizing some of their features. The overall unit cost was also reduced by incorporating some of our suggestions and simplifying the manufacturing process. Many of these suggestions were incorporated into their final design. Our fabrication department was able to get this through engineering review, make all the components, paint, assemble, inspect and ship within 6 weeks to keep our customer on track with their timeline.

Here is some of the feedback we received from our customer on this build:

• The fabrication quality is superb and the powder coat is top notch. No major findings for improvement. We only have some small ticket items which, given your timeline, are understandable. Our comments will provide a good basis to review and solidify your processes.
• We are happy with the quality of your first article and I will be glad to advocate for WMP as a qualified supplier of these rigidized metal cases.
• Overall, your team did a fantastic job given the timeline and the fact that you have never produced this product for us previously.

This is a great example of what can be accomplished when our sales and engineering team is able to work directly with our customer’s engineering team to brainstorm ways to improve manufacturability, reduce costs and meet deadlines.