Custom Machine Design and Development: The Key Questions That Start Every Project

At KT Tech, Inc., we’re ready to partner with customers in any stage of their machine building journey. Our turnkey process can meet you where you are, whether you’re an engineer well-versed in the automation process or a manufacturer seeking custom machine design guidance from the ground up. 

Before we can build the right solution, we need to understand your unique situation. In our first conversations, we ask key questions that give us the context to deliver maximum value. You don’t need to have all the answers at the start, of course; we can collaborate with you to help you determine those responses. But these discussions help identify how we can create the best possible solution for your needs.

Understanding Your Project Stage

Our approach will differ significantly depending on the stage of your project. Customers typically come to us in one of three phases:

Design: Early involvement allows us to contribute value from the start. If you’re still early in forming your product, we can offer custom machine design feedback, including design for manufacturing (DFM) insights. Small adjustments to part dimensions or geometry, for example, can significantly improve throughput, which can add up to substantial gains in your production phase.

Development: For customers with an initial design in place, we can help build rapid proof-of-concept models and refine certain details. Even after a “design freeze,” our expertise in fixtures and tooling can lead to significant improvements.

Production: Even if your line is already running, there are still many opportunities to improve yield rate, throughput, operator dependencies, safety, and more. We’re able to create targeted solutions with measurable gains in performance.

Clarifying Your Roadmap

If your project is only in design, but you anticipate production over the long term, sharing your roadmap early will help. By understanding your anticipated production ramp-up, we can gauge the necessary level of automation in your project. More automation can increase throughput, but it also may require more upfront investment. 

Defining Your Goals

Some clients come to us with precise objectives or known bottlenecks. Others may only have the goal of increased throughput in mind and ask us to identify opportunities for improvement. We’re open with both approaches.

Even for customers with known bottlenecks, we sometimes can offer insight and benefit in unexpected places. Some machines target throughput, for instance, but increase operator safety as well. Our goal is always to deliver solutions with the maximum possible value.

Setting Measurable Targets

In our CNC precision machining services, there are objective ways to measure success. But with custom machines, that can be less straightforward. That’s why we work with customers to establish clear, quantifiable targets.

This is not a question we expect you to have figured out on our first call. We typically collaborate with customers to find a realistic, substantial metric in categories like target yield rate, scrap per piece, or even operator training hours.

Discussing Budget and Timeline Considerations

Budget can have a major impact on the scope of a project, but we know that you may not begin with a firm budget in mind. We can discuss different levels of investment and potential outcomes. Often, the decision is dictated by the amount of labor involved.

Other Important Questions

These questions are only a start, and conversations vary greatly even in the early stages. Depending on the project, we may also ask questions like:

• How many sample parts can we see?

• Can we observe your process in action?

• What’s the operating environment like? (For instance, temperature, humidity, or clean-room requirements)

• What kind of utilities are available? (Power, compressed air, water, vacuum, etc.)

  
  

Success in Every Capability

As we move deeper into your project, we expand the conversation and explore additional questions. This will allow us to fully tailor a solution to your operation and your problem. But we want customers to understand what we try to learn in these initial stages, as well as what we can help them determine collaboratively.

Whether you’re looking for custom machine design, 5-axis machining services or low-volume Swiss machining, KT Tech is ready. Request a quote today from our California machine shop!