What is Contract Manufacturing?
Contract manufacturing is the process of hiring another company to make products on behalf of another business or company. This practice helps small businesses keep costs low and focus on other areas of a business without having to build or run an onsite factory to routinely build its own products.
For example, a t-shirt designer may hire a contract manufacturing company to print their designs so they don’t have to buy a print machine, ink or other associated materials.
How AP Precision Handles Contract Manufacturing
At AP Precision we handle a wide range of production and contract manufacturing projects for a variety of industries, including architectural, tech, robotics, bio-medical, the military, power generation, consumer and luxury goods.
Here are just a few of the contract manufacturing services we offer:
Precision Metal Fabrication. This process involves the precise cutting, bending and shaping of metal using several different techniques and machinery. Some of these include:
- Welding
- Powder coating, and
- CNC press breaks
Plate Cutting. This method shapes metal (either in the form of a plate or sheet) into a required formation. Using CNC technology this is no longer the manual process it once was, producing cleaner more accurate shapes. This process is often used to make:
- Jewelry
- Automobile frames
- Surgical tools, and
- Engines
- Laser Cutting. This particular method requires making very precise incisions within a variety of metal materials such as aluminum, brass, copper, steel, and stainless steel.
- Welding. This fabrication process joins materials, usually metals, but sometimes very heat-resistant forms of plastic.
- Powder Coating. Powder coating is a very efficient form of painting which works by electrostatically applying a dry powder metal surface which is then baked in an oven. The end result is typically a hardier, thicker, paint finish.
- Brass Cutting. This process involves cutting brass in order to achieve specific applications for instrument making, interior design, restoration projects and many other project types.
- Copper Cutting. Cutting pieces of copper from either tubes or sheets, using either precision tools or laser cutting is a technique used for small, detailed work, such as jewelry making, or larger, more robust projects for electronics or architectural design.
The AP Precision Contract Manufacturing Process
While most of our work is done in-house, AP Precision Metal partners with a collection of high-quality US Suppliers in order to access the best materials and finishing processes.
Typically our manufacturing process operates along the following process:
Step 1. Design | Our team works closely with you to define the scope, usage and other details of your product design. During this stage, we’ll discuss our materials options as well as methods in order to best satisfy your budget and ensure we meet the criteria for the product’s use.
Step 2. Production | AP Precision handles large portions of your product in-house, and by using LEAN Manufacturing principles, provides rapid production while maintaining all the benefits of material and process controls. In this stage we will engineer, cut, form, weld, powdercoat and assemble your product.
Step 3. Quality Control | AP Precision has a dedicated quality control department to guarantee the consistency, accuracy and quality of all our products. Because many of our customers are ISO 9001 and CE certified companies, we operate with ISO Standards in order to help our customers meet these requirements. In this stage, we leverage our in-house processes to guarantee quality while also ensuring we meet our agreed-upon production and delivery dates.
Step 4. Packaging & Delivery of Final Product | After production is complete, we carefully package all of our parts in-house, using product-safe materials. Our in-house delivery service truck makes regular deliveries throughout the region, while long- distance shipments are sent through our contracts with ESTES and UPS.
About AP Precision
Founded in 1998, AP Precision was created to fill a need for metal products in order to meet the demands of their growing robotics company. Twenty-three years later, AP Precision has progressed to offer an array of contract manufacturing services in San Diego. Their founding principle is quite simple: to provide stable, long-term, precision metal fabrication for businesses of all sizes and shapes throughout Southern California.