Collaboration of engineering and production is key for manufacturability

Can you produce everything that is designed by engineers? According to Maurice Schiffelers, project manager at Antonius, there is one more important step that needs to be taken: manufacturability. At Antonius, he works on newly designed or revised products or equipment and, together with the customer, ensures that they can be produced at a good cost price and that they can hit the market at the right time. We discuss why his background as a mechanic is making the difference in his engineering.

His colleagues describe Maurice Schiffelers as ‘the man who can really make anything’. Our project leader / work planner started as a mechanic at Antonius and later developed himself to become a specialized equipment builder and engineer. As a project leader, Maurice is now responsible for the development and production of complex projects. This is where he finds the challenge he looks for in his work.

Design and production go hand in hand for manufacturability

My colleagues pointed me to a vacancy for project manager at Antonius that they felt was just right for me. Antonius is expanding and increasingly working on designing and producing unique, innovative products for different markets. I’m a good fit for many such projects because I can always tell, during the design process, whether something can actually be made. Because I have been making such products for years. And these companies work with Antonius because they are looking for a partner that not only thinks about the design but also takes care of the subsequent production in one go.

For me, this is the job because in this role I need to stay in touch with both the workshop and production while working on challenging and unique devices and applications. That versatility keeps me sharp.

Design for manufacturability

Manufacturing for progress – Antonius’ slogan – goes to the heart of our work for new companies or existing companies that want to bring a new product or device to the market. We work with companies or engineering teams that have a proven concept but can use our help with the so-called manufacturability and actual production. Before a product can be produced to scale, for a competitive cost price, there are still a lot of steps to be taken from the idea or concept phase on.

For new products, machines or companies

As project manager, Maurice is the linchpin of the Antonius team that specializes in this challenge. For example, on a recent project, his unique expertise came in handy:

This customer came in with a model, a design that they thought was ready for production. And their planning was geared to that, there was a hard deadline. But when we looked at it from the point of view of manufacturability, we saw many opportunities for improvement. In fact, it was not just opportunities, a number of things had to be adjusted to make the product sales ready and competitive. We arranged the process in such a way that we could do the necessary engineering while the device was being built at the same time. The most important thing was that we as engineers needed think far ahead and leave room for solutions to challenges we could encounter later on. That requires a lot of experience and knowledge of both production and design.

Collaboration

Good cooperation with the customer actually determines the success of such a project. By being in constant contact with each other and questions being asked back and forth, we can lay out such an ambitious plan and make it come true. The whole team must be able to put its weight behind it and I am very happy to contribute to that.

Would you like to know how Antonius can help with the (further) development of your product or preparing a design for actual production? Contact the sales team by sales@antonius.nl or +31(0)475 439 000