How to be successful from prototype to production

In an age of uncertainty and things constantly changing you may want to take a look at your production process. Are you wasting thousands (and in some cases, millions) of dollars on scrap materials every year? Have you wasted time and money trying to figure out the right process for your application? Are you 10 years into your equipment’s lifespan and realize you need to repurpose it for a new application? If any of these situations sound familiar, you’re not alone and at Promess we want to help. The Promess Proven Process may sound new to you, but this is our fully vetted process that will take you from concept to production. This process will help you reduce scrap rates, improve your part quality, and ensure your investment is the lowest cost/highest ROI choice.

There are five steps to completing the Promess Proven Process. The first one is what we call the initial discussion. During this time, we will visit your facility, meet with you in person or virtually and begin to define your application needs. This step is critical to understanding your process and reducing your risk on investment. In this step we will make recommendations and guide you in the right direction to figuring out what success for your application looks like. Step two is where we get our expert engineering team involved. This could include mechanical designs, testing your parts in our PDC (Process Development Center) and even doing demonstrations. The ultimate goal is to ensure that we are a good fit for your application and that you understand exactly the capability you will be getting. The Process Development Center is used for feasibility studies and process verification. In most cases, these studies usually take a half day and will include data read outs, graphs, and analytics reports for you to take back to your team. During this process we are actually writing the program for your application which eliminates half of the work when we integrate your equipment down the road.

Step three is the build and deliver process where we take the order and deliver it within a standard lead time. At Promess we easily adapt to changes by utilizing our agile manufacturing process. Since everything we use is built in our facility and sourced locally, we can adapt to changes quickly. At the end of the buildup, you get a robust, and complete system with calibrated sensors and motion control. Due to our extensive inventory, we can deliver products quickly.

Step four is when we assist you with setting up the equipment and supporting you through the implementation. We want to help you set up everything accurately and efficiently so that you can begin getting your return on investment. In this step there is typically very little integration due to the work that was done in step two, but whether your equipment is going to a machine builder or directly to you, a Promess Engineer will be there to assist. We at Promess pride ourselves on our 24/7/365 support worldwide, and though support is not typically needed during setup, we are always a phone call away should you have any questions.  

Step five is the support of your equipment for the lifetime of the machine. This means that if you have a line go down in the middle of the night, on a holiday, we will answer the phone call to start the troubleshooting process. This also means that if you should want to change the process to a different application in five years, we will help with that as well. Because our systems are built so robust the standard maintenance is minimal, only recommending a calibration every 12 months and regular grease intervals. In addition, we keep a system back-up for your process in the event that the program is compromised, and we also offer complementary software upgrades when we add features and improve the programming.

The Promess Proven Process is essential for long term success with your application. This process is put in place to help our customers succeed through the changes in developments and ultimately reduces our customers risk continually through each milestone. For more information on this process take a look at our on-demand webinar with Engineers John Lytle and John Krause Link. Many companies have found the PDC to be an integral tool when they are in the early stages of developing their process and we know it can help you too. Our Engineers are standing by to start your customer journey, all you have to do is give us a call.