Page 20 - MetalForming February 2013

Expanding the Vision to
High-Mix Low-Volume Fab
The business strategy guiding Chicago’s Laystrom Manufacturing Co. has evolved considerably since the 1980s, from stamping a stable product mix for a stable customer base to specializing in CNC fabricated-metal products. Leading the charge is an automated laser-cutting line that dominates the facility’s footprint and its output.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR
From Friday night to Sunday night, nearly every week, when most metalforming facilities sit quietly idle, some 50,000 pounds of sheetmetal undergo processing at Laystrom Manu- facturing. During one recent weekend, the Chicago firm processed 73,000 lb. of material lights-out, requiring only a short Saturday visit from an operator to restock its raw-materials storage tower.
Two 10-shelf storage towers flank a pair of 4000-W laser-cutting machines to comprise Laystrom Manufacturing’s 3800-sq.-ft. laser-production cell. Cell activity starts at the raw-material storage tower (top) and ends at the finished-goods tower (bottom), where fork-truck drivers remove cut sheets and direct material for further processing—primari- ly press-brake bending. Watch it run by visiting our online Multimedia Center at metal- formingmagazine.com.
18 MetalForming/February 2013
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Enabling such unattended produc- tivity is the firm’s main attraction, an automated laser-cutting cell. The cell stars two 4000-W cutting machines flanked by a 10-shelf raw-material stor- age tower at one end and a 10-shelf fin- ished-goods storage tower at the oppo- site end. So while Laystrom has its roots firmly planted in hard-tooled metal stamping, and still provides stamped metal parts to a variety of customers, it’s the company’s investment in flexible fabrication equipment that’s enabled the successful transformation into the world of mass customization, according to president Bob Laystrom.
“When our stamping business start- ed to dwindle in the late 1980s, we
turned to fabrication and purchased our first turret-punch presses (in 1988) and laser-cutting machine (in 1998), a 2-kW Amada machine, to attract a new customer base,” Laystrom recalls. Describing the firm’s remarkable rein- vention from stamper to fabricator, Laystrom adds: “Now, we don’t have to wait for stamping programs to go through multiple revisions...and per- haps never come to fruition. In fabri- cation, most of what we quote goes into production within 3 months, some within a few days of quoting.”
The business churns furiously at Lay- strom, where dozens of new part num- bers enter production every month. That’s a far cry from its stamping days,