Whilst
undertaking routine grounds maintenance at our workshop recently, our Viking
petrol lawnmower had an unfortunate 'coming together' with a 'stray bit of
concrete', which took a 'chunk' out of the blade and shattered the bottom of
the aluminium blade carrying bush.
On repairing the lawn mower, (thanks
to Ernest Doe in Colchester for supplying the part), we noticed that the original
blade bush assembly of 4 parts, consisting of an aluminium cast bush, a
plastic pulley and two screws, had been replaced with a single spare cast
aluminium part.
Our initial reaction when opening the package was that we had ended up getting the wrong part. However on closer inspection we realised that all was well, as the bush, two screws and the drive pulley had been combined into one cast aluminium part.
Sanstec Design has previously rationalised a number of sub-assembly
components into a single piece design, specifically including 'Aluminium'
and 'Plastic' materials. Obviously, consideration has to be given to the
resultant component cost, in terms of the new design, which may be more
complex than the original assembly of parts, before you can proceed to this
solution. Supply chain considerations also need to be factored in, as your
new consolidated parts may need more complex manufacturing methods.
If you would like us to consider component rationalisation in your assembly/sub assembly systems, please get in touch so that we discuss how to review what might be possible. We can give you an objective appraisal of what might be involved and if the opportunity looks promising, move ahead with a design solution.
