Lasercraft Grows in All
Dimensions with Mazak Lasers
In late 1996, Lasercraft founder Rodney
Greene rented 3,000 square feet in the back of his
father's fabricating shop and took delivery of his first
laser, a Mazak 4x8, 1000 watt Champ. "I was a one-man
band when I started out as a laser cutter, but after
four months I had my first employee," said Greene,
"after two years, I had moved into a 30,000 square foot
facility in Gainsville, GA, expanding into welding and
fabricating, with another 2D Mazak laser on the floor
and 40 employees." His brother Jody, initially an
investor in Lasercraft, came on full time in 1999 to
handle the "business side of the business" freeing
Rodney up to concentrate on the production, sales and
service. While Lasercraft continued to grow, so did
their competition as Atlanta saw a dramatic increase in
the number of job shops entering into the laser cutting
market.With the ever expanding
regional competition forcing margins lower, Greene knew
he had to develop new markets in order to remain
profitable. "When we started, I could count the
competitors doing 2D laser cutting on one hand," Greene
said. "Now there may be as many as 30 shops in the Metro
Atlanta area. We had upgraded to another higher wattage
Mazak Laser because we do a lot stainless and aluminum
and needed more cutting speed. You need the speed to
compete, but we still have the Champ and we'll never
sell it, we call it 'Our Little Cash Register'." It was
with an eye on the competition and the desire to stay
one step ahead that lead them to a Mazak Optonics open
house in the spring of 2004.
"We went up there to see what's
new, not intending to buy, maybe to replace our older
2,500 watt laser. Then we took a look at the SpaceGear
and thought it could open up a niche in 3D work for us,
while doubling our 2D capacity." Greene continued, "My
brother and I went back to our hotel and really worked
over the numbers. One way to go would have been to
automate the 2D lasers with load /unload capability, but
the SpaceGear gave us the ability to do something that
no other shop in our area could. The beauty of the
SpaceGear is that we have plenty of 2D work to move
through it while we learn how to make money on 3D work."
Although he had no 3D work scheduled for the SpaceGear,
Greene did not panic. "I was confident because I knew we
could run the machine day and night with flat work."
To sell their new 3D capability,
Lasercraft employed an innovative marketing concept, "We
would set up a 'show job' when an existing customer was
coming in to look at another part," Greene chuckled,
"they would see these 'jobs' running and would get
excited, then we would get an opportunity to quote on
work that we weren't being asked about before."
 Initially,
most 3D work came in the form of converted traditional
jobs, "We make a partition for the poultry business out
of stainless steel schedule 40 pipe, cut to varying
lengths, but all with the same copes. We were sawing the
pipe, then coping it on a mill. It would take 3-4 days
to complete each partition. Now we're putting it on the
SpaceGear and completing it in one shift. We've
eliminated a step and reduced the coping time from 30
seconds per end to just 10. We were always behind on the
order, now we're on time." Another converted job was
previously made at a CNC machine shop. "Used by power
utilities, it's a 4" O.D. aluminum tube with several
holes, a profile notch on one end and a straight cut on
the other. We were able to make it with a cost advantage
vs. machining it. We just finished on our third
production run."
 With
experience and success on their side, Lasercraft began
to target new customers and cultivate new relationships
with existing customers. "We've been able to break into
new customers and into the engineering departments of
current customers. Instead of quoting from a print, we
are helping to design the part around the SpaceGear's
capabilities. It has strengthened our relationships with
our customers. OEMs are trying to cut down the number of
suppliers. The SpaceGear takes us out of the vendor
category and makes us a strategic partner."
Whether the project is in the
concept stage or delivered in a solid model format,
Greene has found that his customer's are enjoying
designing their parts around the SpaceGear. "They like
putting things together like a puzzle, and when they
design it for my machine, I can't lose the work without
them having to reengineer it."
An example of this new level of
involvement is a very large frame which was made from 12
pieces of 3" x 3" tubing. Lasercraft was able to
reengineer it down to 2 pieces of 3" x 6" tubing by
making cutouts on the SpaceGear that were not possible
with the previous design. This also eliminated 30
minutes of welding time. "The engineers were ecstatic!
The frame looked better with fewer welds, and we were
able to make it faster for less money," said Greene.
Since making the step into the 3D
laser cutting arena, Lasercraft has been able to break
out of the cut-throat pricing structure that has taken
over the 2D market in the Atlanta area. "We can get a
premium rate for the 3D work verses 2D work and we can
eliminate headaches and bottle necks in production by
getting parts to the welders faster, which cuts lead
times and makes us more profitable." As their 3D volume
continues to grow, Greene is continuing to look to the
future to keep his competitive edge, "We're doing more
and more tubing, as much as 50% of the work on the
SpaceGear will be tubing by the end of the year. The
ultimate goal is to move up to a Mazak FabriGear in the
near future." |