Supporting Our Customers Is A Key Priority.
Instant Information
On Sunday I arrived at the beginning of my journey to Asia: Newark Airport. With a sigh I got off the monorail at Terminal A, rather than my usual stop at Terminal C. This was only because the usual direct flight that I take was all booked and so our illustrious Lori got me on a partner airline, United. The only issue was instead of a direct flight, I had to connect through ORD (O Hare). This added another 3 hours to the travel time, but with 13 hours vs 16 hours, at that point you’re numb and hungry anyway. While sitting in the lounge (a perk of the Continental / United merger) an announcement began saying my EWR to ORD flight was cancelled. Looking at the time, I started to formulate a Plan B.
I walk up to the counter at the lounge, and politely say I really need to get to Asia but my flight is cancelled, and the next EWR
to ORD will not get me to Chicago in time for my connection, what now?
A few clicks and a few squints at her screen, and she produces a boarding pass that is famous in Royal Master Circles – “The Express”. This was my original preference before I was booked on United, but the cost was insane. As soon as I figure out what happened and realize that I was treated to a direct flight, my phone beeps and buzzes stating that my new gate of departure is 121 in Terminal C. Continental instantly sent me an update to my status of my gate and departure time.
Frequent flyers have all experienced this instant information but in the information age what made this cool is with a simple Mobile phone number or e-mail address, all of this is instant. Back when instant coffee was an innovation, it was coffee made fast, but now it takes too long for water to boil on a stove. So we look for faster ways to get hot water.
Instant information is key to running high volume production. Every minute of lost production means lost profits. Royal Master has now incorporated in their machines the ability for the machine to e-mail up to 10 addresses or send out text messages to mobile phones numbers when a machine ...
33,000 Pounds in a 21 Day Window
Vacation is upon us and after this week Royal Master shuts down manufacturing for two weeks. You can still call and get parts and if I never told you that we were shut down you probably would never have known. Lori stills answers the phone and we all answer our e-mails as if it was business as usual. On Friday our shipping manager
Glen pointed out that we only had 21 working days before we ship IMTS when we get back from vacation. Maybe he was hinting to leave him a long list of things to do while he worked over shut down, or looking for me to say “ that’s plenty of time “.
With 21 days left there is a whole lot to do, but we are in pretty good shape. Skids are built according to the jigsaw puzzle that we call a truck layout, machines are all on line and most are finished. We are just waiting on some feeding components from vendors.
The truck layout is one of the most fun things associated with the planning of the show. It has been called fitting 10 pounds of “candy” in a 5 pound bag . Trucking is expensive and a source of stress. Having everything out of our control after pain staking working on the machines for 
3 months is a minor part of the stress, but then when you think about it, a stranger taking over 2 million dollars of equipment hurdling down Route 80 at 70 mph can give anyone a chance to pause for more than a second.
Setting up the layout for the truck is like a jigsaw puzzle, everything fits, and has a place. Put it in the wrong place and you have a bad case of the head scratches while you figure it out. Fitting 7 machines, a tradeshow display, support materials for a weeks in a 8’ x 48’ space is just plain old fun. We actually build the skids to fit the truck dimensions to minimize any empty voids. The record for empty space was in 2006 with a whopping 6” of empty room at the back of the truck. I will admit that we tape ...
Very Small Parts
Our overseas agent recently sent us an inquiry to grind parts for an experimental grind. His only details that he gave is that they are very small and they might be hard to handle. In working with guidewires which go as small as .001” in diameter, I thought, “ no challenge here”.
Wow was I wrong. Not only are these parts small in diameter, but short in length. The 1000 parts that they sent in are shown here.
The handling of the part, not the grinding will be the challenge. This is a patience job, and a job that even our competitors will say, “just call Royal Master”
In replying back to our overseas agent, he gave me an “oh by the way” with the customer wants to autofeed them. In the back of my mind I assumed that this would have to be the case as I cannot see anyone on a production basis handling these parts, but I also kind of hoped that they had a plan already in place for inserting and removing from the wheels.
I will keep you posted as to the progress as we grind them in our Experimental lab. If you have a part that is more of a challenge, give it to us and you can win a $100 Best Buy Gift certificate. Closing date for Entries is August 15th.
I look forward to your tough job, what would challenge us?
What time is our appointment? Right Here, Right Now!
Everybody is busy. Nobody has enough time to do what has to get done. I can’t wait that long. These are just the realities of business as usual today.
The world we live in has changed. The business environment has become so fast paced as a result of having to do more with fewer people. Even going to a trade show is now a time critical event. People used to walk the aisles of a show to see what is new. Today, more people are pre-planning their visit and accomplishing more purposeful results.
Imagine if you, as busy as you are, as important as your project is, would walk into a meeting and everyone you needed to see was there waiting for you. How convenient would it be to have a knowledgeable Applications Engineer, Mechanical Design Engineer, Software Design and Programming Engineer all waiting for you and your project? More than this, there is an actual grinder on the floor under power making parts similar to what you have in mind. When this team has listened to you and now completely understands what you want, they bring you to a design computer station and demonstrate a 3-D Model of the grinder including automation to solve your problem!
Royal Master Grinders is welcoming you to pre-plan your visit to our Booth #6646 at IMTS 2010. You probably have just a few days at the show at most. If you had to wait at each booth of interest to you to speak with someone other than a hired show host, you wouldn’t accomplish enough to make the trip worthwhile. At the Royal Master Booth, we will “talk the talk” and “walk the walk”.
Schedule 15 minutes, 30 minutes or even 2 hours with us. Whatever time it takes to get your point across and get the answers you need. We are going to listen and understand what it is you want or need.
This is your chance to avoid the “Oh, he just went to lunch” or “He’s involved with other customers right now”. Schedule your appointment and be part of the “Right Here, Right Now” attitude of tradeshows!
Contact us by telephone (201-337-8500) or e-mail (check our website for addresses www.royalmaster.com) and let us know when you will be available. We will be glad ...
