Guhring Inc.

Masters of metal cuttingCraig Zacher explains to Gary Toushek how a commitment to customer benefit, R&D, manufacturing competence and a vertically integrated supply chain help Guhring to┬ágrow by responding to changing customer needs. Guehring OHG, founded by Gottlieb Guehring in Albstadt, Germany in 1898, has become one┬áof the worldÔÇÖs leading suppliers of precision rotary cutting tools. Its current product range includes over 1,800 different tool types and more than 44,000 products made from carbide, cobalt, HSS (high-speed steel) or PCD (polycrystalline diamond) materials. Guehring attributes its success to its more than 4,500 employees worldwide with the knowledge and experience that has accumulated from 100 years of existence, and following the foundations of a company strategy that focuses on customer benefit, manufacturing competence and a vertically integrated supply chain. Guhring Inc., the companyÔÇÖs North American operation, consists of three independent tooling and two service divisions, utilizing five facilities within the continent. Guhring Inc. in Brookfield, Wisconsin is celebrating its 30-year anniversary of providing a complete offering of metal cutting solutions such as drilling, reaming, tapping, milling, tool holders and tool management systems. The headquarters has recently moved into a totally renovated 70,000-square-foot building to provide space for its rapidly growing PCD division and tool reconditioning services division (regrinding and restoring to like-new condition). The carbide, HSS and coating (thin film that adds life and lubricity) divisions are housed in a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing facility. Corporate offices and an inventory of catalog standard cutting tools fill an additional 30,000-square-foot building. GuhringÔÇÖs Detroit facility is capable of producing special carbide tooling, and providing reconditioning and coating services to support the automotive industry and OEM machine tool builders. A technical sales and distribution warehouse in Huntington Beach, California, supports the West Coast and the aerospace industry. Guhring is ISO 9001 certified.The companyÔÇÖs focus on customer benefit starts with the technical support provided by a national sales and technical service team and a 295-strong distributor network throughout the US. ÔÇ£We excel in our ability to identify the best standard tool or to custom engineer a special tooling solution to achieve a customerÔÇÖs target cost per feature,ÔÇØ says Craig Zacher, general manager of operations. ÔÇ£Our tools hold better tolerances, produce better surface finishes and achieve better tool life.ÔÇØ R&D facilities in Germany are dedicated to providing new innovations and enhanced cutting tool performance in tool material, tool geometry and coating products. ÔÇ£For example, in aerospace the traditional tempered aluminums are being replaced by new composites and grades of titanium; customers ask us for help in determining how to machine it, or the number of holes they can expect in tool life.ÔÇØ Guhring operates a test facility in Brookfield, offering customers the opportunity to test-cut materials. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖll set up a customerÔÇÖs work piece on a machine and start drilling holes, for example. If the tool breaks or doesnÔÇÖt produce the correct dimensional characteristics, our engineers will redesign the tool, make material, geometry or coating adjustments, and drill it again until we achieve the lowest-cost solution for the feature being produced.ÔÇØ Zacher says. ÔÇ£In conjunction, we also use our test facility to offer hands-on tool application training for our distributors and sales representatives.ÔÇØ┬á┬á┬á┬á┬áEach division of the company operates independently, with dedicated production and engineering personnel, equipment and other resources. As Zacher puts it, ÔÇ£IÔÇÖve seen Guhring evolve from a drill manufacturer into a world-class tooling solutions company.ÔÇØ An engineer by trade, heÔÇÖs spent 25 years in the metal cutting industry, some of them using Guhring tools, and for the last five years heÔÇÖs overseen the expansion and the day-to-day management of GuhringÔÇÖs engineering, manufacturing, production control, inventory and shipping. ÔÇ£Our strengths include a supply chain that is vertically integrated both internally and externally,ÔÇØ he says, ÔÇ£so that we have the capability and flexibility to respond to the changing needs of our customers.ÔÇØ Guhring manufactures its own carbide material in two plants in Germany, and it also controls the heat treatment of its high-speed steel material. Brookfield gets multiple material shipments weekly, as well as finished standard tools, in order to maintain product availability, material consistency, quality and performance in its products. Guhring also maintains its own machine and equipment division, which has allowed the development of proprietary tool grinding equipment and coating technology. ÔÇ£ItÔÇÖs evolved from our ability to look at a dedicated, single-function machine, take it to best practice and integrate it into a state-of-the-art multi-axis, computer-controlled, precision tool grinding machine capable of producing various types of cutting tools in one clamping of the raw material,ÔÇØ Zacher says. This is coupled with an infrastructure built to access and exchange engineering information, application data and inventory through its SAP business system worldwide. ÔÇ£This enables us to maintain quality, consistency and efficiency in engineering and manufacturing any cutting tool at any Guhring plant in 22 other countries,ÔÇØ explains Zacher. It also enables Guhring to not have to be dependent on machine builders, Zacher says. ÔÇ£For example, if the US or European economy is strong, and equipment manufacturersÔÇÖ backlogs and delivery times begin to grow, we can simply call Albstadt to ship the next available machine to Brookfield. But Brookfield doesnÔÇÖt rely on Albstadt for everything; we have a qualified local supplier base that we can count on to supply material and also bring us innovations in grinding wheels and equipment, lubricants and packaging materials.ÔÇØAs with many high-technology manufacturers, GuhringÔÇÖs challenges include the recruitment of skilled personnel, Zacher says. ÔÇ£We grow our own. WeÔÇÖve been successful at recruiting people with basic manufacturing skills, and we teach them tool making and grinding. It takes a little longer, but we find that they tend to stay with us, so itÔÇÖs an investment. We can groom them toward our methods and procedures. Guhring holds a semi-annual exchange meeting that brings management and technical personnel together from all over the world to exchange ideas, develop best practices and stay in tune with the latest development and trends in the industry. It also has an apprenticeship exchange program in which Albstadt allows two to four of the best trainees to spend a year in Brookfield for cross-training and to prepare them for future opportunities in machine building, technical applications or engineering.ÔÇØ  Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin;} *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á┬á *   ┬áFirst published July 2008