VWH Vorrichtungs- und Werkzeugbau Herschbach GmbH, located in the municipality of Herschbach in Germany, specializes in the design and manufacture of injection mold tooling as well as special purpose machinery, such as semi and fully automated systems or assembly and test systems. A wide range of mechanical components are used in VWH systems, a significant number of which are supplied by MISUMI; precisely tailored, with fast delivery and available in quantities as low as one piece.

A driver of an older model of motor vehicle who makes the switch to the latest model can almost feel like a time traveller: such is the pace of innovation in the automotive industry. Technical progress continuously provides the catalyst for high expectations in automobile security, economy, functionality, comfort, and design. It is not only OEMs' and suppliers who have to continually innovate, machine builders, delivering manufacturing equipment, must also be on top of their game.

VWH Vorrichtungsund Werkzeugbau Herschbach GmbH is just one example. This medium sized company, located between Cologne and Frankfurt offers 40 years experience in machine building, with a major focus on the Automotive industry. Their product portfolio includes equipment for the assembly of airbag systems, car entry systems, leakage test systems and fuel systems. In addition, other customers from the domestic appliances or telecommunications industries count on the all-in-one supplier from Herschbach. They order assembly equipment for electrical toothbrushes or cellular phones.

VWH offers a one-stop shop for all services from R&D and manufacturing, to installation right down to start of production and final acceptance, inclusive of qualified consultancy. These services are obviously well received by the market because VWH is proud to include among their key customers companies such as Siemens VDO, Brose, Braun and BenQ.

An efficient team of mechanical/electrical designers and assemblers work closely together in product development and production.

Having strong vertical integration with all required machining operations provides for fast and flexible processes. This is one important advantage over the competition. To continuously maintain and utilize these advantages, VWH demands the same high level of flexibility, cost effectiveness, and short delivery times from its suppliers and partners. This was the reason behind VWH decision to source products from MISUMI Europa GmbH, located in Schwalbach/ Ts., Germany.

The global supplier of mechanical standard components for Factory Automation, Press Dies, and Plastic Moulds offers a product portfolio of more than 500,000 different components. Linear shafts, shaft holders, index plungers, bearings, couplings, screw stoppers – VWH uses a wide range of different components, in diverse applications such as final assembly and test equipment for automotive entry systems or outlet nozzles. Given that MISUMI's Factory Automation catalogue contains over 60,000 items, arranged under 30 different categories, VWH estimate that they can source 70% of their requirements directly from this one source.

The relationship with MISUMI offers VWH a variety of advantages. Head of Design, Johannes Steudter points out "Their product portfolio is much bigger compared to what is available from other vendors in Germany" and, referring to product quality as well as product range, he goes on to say that "50% of certain systems they use are based on MISUMI components". From his point of view, getting components from a single source is very efficient because the workflow is optimized and a significant amount of time can be saved.

Beyond this, there are additional time savings. In the past, VWH produced some parts on their own: " Even for simple parts, we had to create drawings, order raw material, manufacture components, inspect, do re-work and carry out surface treatments. In some cases, the whole process took us three to four weeks. MISUMI's delivery is significantly faster. Considering the continuous time pressure our business undergoes, this is an important advantage" the engineer states.

Through the co-operation with several partners, plus the short distance to Frankfurt airport, even non-stock components can be supplied in typically six to eight days (Germany). This has a dramatic effect on costs. For VWH, the cost for in-house produced parts can be as much as 300 to 600 Euro per piece. They can now order those components from MISUMI for just 50 Euro each.

The very nature of special purpose or assembly machinery presents a peculiar issue that needs to be solved: The high number of different solutions does not allow for the design and manufacture of low cost and short time-to-market equipment. It is more common to find unique machines than it is to find two or more identical systems. Besides the need for the efficient and cost effective procurement of mechanical components with fast delivery, typically the issue of just needing parts in very low volumes causes headaches. The MISUMI concept resolves this by imposing no minimum order quantities or minimum order values. Johannes Steudter highlights this unique service saying "MISUMI will deliver one piece, anywhere, without any penalty charge because of the small order quantity".

Furthermore, the VWH designer values the sophisticated ‘tool box concept' "which is only available from MISUMI". Thus, several components in existing designs have been consequently replaced by MISUMI parts during the last two years. Today, any new projects are designed using MISUMI components wherever possible. The VWH designers especially appreciate the extensive range of component shaping, the so-called "Configurable Components". Mechanical components' shapes and sizes can be easily configured to special sizes, in increments as fine as 0.01 mm. Base materials as well as additional parameters can be chosen. Parts can be optimized to the requirements and the need to modify parts in-house is avoided.

To select the huge amount of mechanical parts, implemented in VWH machines, Johannes Steudter uses the comprehensive catalogue of MISUMI: "The catalogue is well done, and simplifies everyday tasks; specifically because of the recently published new German version. "

According to Steudter, the MISUMI catalogue offers another advantage compared to different venders: prices and delivery times as well as volume discounts for each product are mentioned. This allows for reliable planning.

VWH supports customers by providing low-costmanufacturing concepts. For this reason, reliable planning is an important factor for VWH, as well.

MISUMI publishes its catalog for the factory automation industry in 6 languages and with local shipping and price information for USA, Europe, China, Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore and Japan. Contact MISUMI to obtain a catalog for your local needs, or request one for your customers or colleagues worldwide. The parts list you create can be ordered anywhere in the world, because part numbers are all the same, worldwide. MISUMI accepts orders from 1 piece, at all of its locations.

MISUMI USA, INC.
1105 Remington Road, Suite B
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www.misumiusa.com