Maintaining a realistic timeline is an important aspect of managing an industrial project. When you launch into development, it’s important to understand and consider the following five factors to meet your project requirements and timeline:
Project Needs
Your commitment to design guidance, being available to answer questions during the engineering process and knowing the materials you want upfront shorten timelines considerably. This information allows us to order the necessary materials and parts sooner. Quick communication and knowing what you need is key for expediting the first stages of your industrial redesign.
Communication
Communication goes hand-in-hand with project needs. For our industrial engineers to do their job, they need complete information from our customers. This includes:
- Working models
- Product sample
- Complete prints
In certain cases, our engineers will personally visit a customer to study their product, so we can accurately transcribe their drawings so they are compatible with our prints and fabrication floor.
Materials
Choosing material requires thinking about function and availability. Certain materials ship faster than others. Sheet metal such as steel or aluminum is more readily available. Generally, we can order and receive steel in a day or two. Custom outside processes and materials, however, will delay your timeline due to import time, color matching, tooling and other methodologies outside of HUI that are related, but not limited to, weld fixtures, thermoforming, machining, extrusions and cast aluminum.
Tooling
Projects that require cast, aluminum or plastic injection molding tooling will extend your timeline. Weld fixtures may increase lead time by about six weeks, and special press brake tooling may extend a lead time by four to six weeks.
Project Purpose
HUI is flexible when it comes to project timeline-related issues, should our customer’s purpose warrant a change. We understand the importance of lead times and are committed to honest, open communication and product accessibility, so everyone is on the same page from concept through delivery.
If you have a project design or redesign, contact Ryan Arnold at rarnold@huimfg.com.