Tool Men

Ah, you gotta love ’em - cutting tool salesmen. You’re bombarded all the time with pitches to spend more, more, more. But not from these guys. They’re always trying to convince you that they can help you spend less. Less on inserts, less on drills and less on taps.

That’s their job, and if you don’t let them do their job, you probably are letting process improvements and cost savings go unclaimed. Taking advantage of the training and experience that tool salesmen bring to the table might create opportunities you would otherwise miss. Often, someone outside an organization can see a problem in a fresh way and offer solutions that didn’t occur to people within the company.

That’s what happened at Intat Precision Inc., Rushville, Ind. When problems with a special tool persisted, Intat Process Engineer Doug Anderson allowed a sales rep to test-run a standard cutter. The operation required cutting a face and forming a 45° chamfer on brackets the company produces for the Toyota Avalon. The existing tool was costly, had a long lead time and would stall out the machine after about 100 pieces, stopping the line and wasting valuable production time.

The rep brought in a standard cutter designed to cut the face in a single pass, then drop down and cut the chamfer. Intat’s people were concerned at first, but when the new tool completed the task within the allotted time and the parts-per-tool rose from 100 to 500 pieces, they were understandably pleased.

"We’ve actually run as many as 1,500 pieces with the new tool, but set the process at 500 to keep better control," said Anderson.

The director of Kennametal University, Latrobe, Pa., and Kennametal Inc.’s manager of technical marketing, Gary Baldwin, said cutting tool users should demand more than a regurgitation of the catalog numbers from salesmen. He said Kennametal’s training programs for salesmen focus on troubleshooting - particularly failure analysis - so reps are prepared to adapt to conditions on the shop floor (see accompanying article, this page).

A well-trained salesman has a wealth of experience to draw on. He visits more manufacturing sites than the average shop owner or manager and has likely been exposed to different solutions to common problems. This gives him a problem-solving capability far beyond what most shop personnel possess.

Jim Gross, manufacturing engineer at a Bluffton, Ind., company, recognizes a good tool salesman by how he responds to a given situation. Gross illustrated his point by citing a problem he encountered while tapping cast iron parts on a small vertical machining center. Tool life was unacceptable.

One distributor’s rep brought Gross a tap he said would work. It did. When Gross’ original tap supplier, also a distributor, found this out, he responded by dropping off three different taps and asking Gross to let him know if any of them worked.

"When a guy says he’ll bring me a tool that will work and he does it, that’s all I need," Gross said. "A salesman like that can make the difference in a job being easy or difficult."

Interestingly, the tap that worked came from a distributor that focuses exclusively on cutting tools. The other taps came from a distributor that had evolved into a single-source supplier of a variety of items.

If your tool guy also is your mop-and-broom guy, your technical support may suffer. A good distributor rep has had some training that makes him more than just a tool peddler.

Experience Matters

Many tool salesmen have a background in mechanical engineering, and many have spent time actually cutting chips and are familiar with the way things work on the shop floor. Their experience and understanding of metalworking gives them a solid foundation for solving problems in the trenches of today’s manufacturing environment.

Will Jones, sales manager of general-purpose tooling for Ingersoll Cutting Tool Co., Rockford, Ill., stressed the importance of being familiar with the product. He said that a salesperson should be able "to take a product and apply it to the customer’s problem. After all, the customer is not just buying a cutter. He’s buying a solution to a problem."

Establishing a productive relationship with a cutting tool salesman can provide a number of benefits. For example, a good relationship will allow you to direct a tool salesman’s energies toward solving a nagging problem that you never find the time to address. These guys are like everybody else. They like to see the results of their labor and know that they have helped with a problem you’ve struggled with.

Building such relationships takes effort from both parties.

"Selling is about relationships. The customer is going to buy from someone he knows, likes and trusts," emphasized Jones. Cutting tool companies place a high value on these relationships and do everything they can to make sure that their representatives feel the same way.

You have to do your part, too. To build a successful partnership with a tool rep, begin by giving clear instructions on what you expect. Be specific. If cycle-time reduction is the goal, let the rep know that. Tell him what the cycle time is, what it was and what you think it should be. If you have time studies that show the elements of the process, let him pick through them to see where the biggest gains can be made.

If tool life is a problem, tell the rep what you have tried. Let him examine the tools you currently use after they have been through the process so he can draw on his tool-wear-analysis skills to determine what the problem may be. Tell the salesman about the application’s cutting parameters, setup conditions, the machine’s condition, the type and condition of the material, and the type and condition of the coolant.

School for Tool Salesmen

Kennametal trains 30 to 50 of its salespeople annually at the company’s metalcutting university.

It’s called Kennametal University, and according to director Gary Baldwin, many of the instructors are qualified to teach college-level courses.

"About a third of our people have doctorates," said Baldwin, who also is Kennametal’s manager of technical marketing.

Application engineers, product engineers, product marketing and R&D people take to the classrooms and labs to train 30 to 50 salespeople annually. (The school is also open to those in the metalworking industry.) The instructors are not hired as trainers per se, but instead come from the ranks of Kennametal’s personnel.

In the first eight or nine months of a salesperson’s career, he will visit the 180-acre campus in Latrobe, Pa., three times. A series of weeklong courses is required to bring participants up to the company’s standards. Using a lecture and lab format, instructors focus on the mechanical side of metalworking, product application and selling skills.

One important part of the training is an extensive exercise in creating failures and then correcting them. "We spend a lot of time on failure analysis. We want our people to be more like manufacturing engineers than salespeople," Baldwin explained.

B. Chandler

If you want to reduce tool inventory, give the sales rep access to your tool crib. Supply him with a list of the tools you stock, as well as an idea of what you need as a minimum for roughing and finishing each material you machine.

Providing complete process information is especially important when time is short. And when the clock is ticking, a good cutting tool salesman can provide an invaluable service. Gary Hanna discovered that a few years ago.

Hanna, an application engineer at machine tool distributor Yamazen Inc., Indianapolis, was preparing a new machine for a runoff for a major customer. The success of the project was in jeopardy because he couldn’t find tooling to satisfy the job’s milling requirements.

Nothing seemed to work and Hanna’s tool reps weren’t helping much. Some who were asked to tool up the machine missed their scheduled appointments. Others lacked the technical expertise to assist. Some didn’t have a tool that would do the job without adversely affecting cycle time, and a few threw book numbers at Hanna, telling him he must be doing something wrong when their tools failed.

Enter Marv Mackey, sales engineer at Ingersoll Cutting Tool. He succeeded where others failed, despite being under the gun to produce satisfactory results immediately.

Using the wealth of information Hanna supplied, Mackey spent time studying the process and working up speeds and feeds. He listened to what Hanna’s 22 years of experience had taught him and what the operators running the parts were saying. He put extra effort into the job. Mackey’s first recommendation was to try a cutter with a new geometry. It worked.

"I believe Marv made the difference in the success of the runoff," Hanna said.

It’s important that you allow tool reps to work freely with your operators, machines and processes to identify areas where they can help you the most. Before you expect too much, give your reps a fair chance to become familiar with what you do. Your machines, materials and operators will all be new to them, and the reps need time to develop a working knowledge of your operation and establish a rapport with your operators. Cooperation between your reps and machinists will prove invaluable and go a long way toward making serious improvements.

"The operator sometimes has the most insight into what is going wrong with a process," Anderson noted.

Sometimes, though, tool reps’ recommendations need to be tweaked. Get their input beforehand, but don’t discount your own experience and knowledge when fine-tuning a process. Remember that improvements are a team effort.

"When a guy says he’ll bring me a tool that will work and he does it, that’s all I need. A salesman like that can make the difference in a job being easy or difficult."

Remember, too, that improvements made to one process often can be applied to other areas. That was the case at Aisin Drive Train Inc., a Crothersville, Ind., manufacturer of transmission housings. The company’s manufacturing engineering personnel wanted to lower the machining time needed for the housings.

They invited Simris Industrial Supply, Indianapolis, and MIL-TEC USA Inc., Fort Myers, Fla., to run in-house tests of milling cutters and inserts. The new tools allowed Aisin to increase all cutting parameters at least 33 percent. The biggest gain was to the feed rate, which jumped from 20.6 to 41.0 ipm.

"As a result of this success," said Aisin Senior Manufacturing Engineer Brad Hale, "all our cast iron milling operations now use MIL-TEC cutters."

Resolving Problems

"We’ve had a couple problems with tool salesmen in the past and just switched vendors. Our feeling is that if you don’t want to service us, we’ll find someone who will."

Not all recommendations tool salesmen make end up so well. Sometimes problems arise. When they do, you need to remember that salespeople are just that - people. A relationship that’s gone south usually can be salvaged - if you don’t let things degenerate into a nasty verbal battle.

If you’re unsatisfied with a tool and its performance is unequaled by any competitive product, immediately contact your representative’s manager. The result of doing this can range from the manager setting up a meeting to determine your exact needs and establishing goals with the salesman (best case) to taking the salesman completely off the account (worst case). Sales managers are prepared to make tough calls if the relationship with the customer is in jeopardy.

Nevertheless, before calling the sales manager, step back and look at the situation objectively. Make sure you’re doing all you can to resolve the matter rather than being a hindrance.

Most shop managers agree that the best way to deal with an unsatisfactory sales rep is to find one of the many competitors willing to put the time and effort into tackling the problems. It’s rare that a job can be performed by just one manufacturer’s cutting tool, and there are numerous salespeople ready to jump at the chance to service your account. But a new salesperson can’t always be found overnight.

"We had a relationship with a salesman that soured, but he had a product we had to have so we maintained the relationship until we found a new vendor," recalled J.R. Hommer, vice president of Hommer Tool & Mfg. Inc., Arlington Heights, Ill. "If someone is not meeting our needs, we will certainly find someone who does."

Danny Gruner of Universal Die Casting Co., Los Angeles, reiterated that "We’ve had a couple problems with tool salesmen in the past and just switched vendors. Our feeling is that if you don’t want to service us, we’ll find someone who will."

Hommer added that there’s rarely any element of surprise when a relationship takes a turn for the worse. "It’s painfully obvious to the salesmen when they’ve done us wrong. Sometimes they come back and work with us, and other times they go away," he said.

Price Isn’t Everything

It’s always tempting to buy a tool that costs less than the one currently used. But don’t throw loyalty rooted in good service out the window when some unknown dazzles you with promises. Sure, economics is important, but try to look at the big picture - past performance, confidence level and success - before you turn your back on someone to save a few bucks. If a new tool shows promise, give your current sales rep a chance to match its performance.

That is not to say you should ignore the new rep when he comes knocking at your door. Fresh ideas from someone who is looking at your processes for the first time might provide the spark that ignites a major improvement or cost savings.

Yamazen’s Hanna, for instance, had never seen Ingersoll’s Mackey before he walked in the door one day and solved Hanna’s problem.

The same was true for Anderson at Intat Precision. The rep had dropped off some literature describing his company’s standard cutter. Anderson looked it over and then called the rep to test-run the tool, which he did. The tool tested out well.

It’s best to let tool performance be your guide when deciding who you want to service your account. And don’t let personal issues cloud what is best for your company. That can hurt regardless of whether you quickly dismiss what someone you don’t like tells you or blindly accept everything a "buddy" says. Your responsibility is to your company, and it should not suffer because of your prejudices.

The benefits of a good working relationship with several sales representatives can definitely make life easier. Reps are usually well-informed about the latest technologies and processes and are aware of how others are solving some of the same problems you may be experiencing. Work to develop those relationships.

If your job is anything like mine, you know that you can’t do it all. You can’t be an expert on all the new cutting tool technologies. You can’t keep on top of all the new grades and materials. You don’t always have the experience you need to nail down the perfect process.

You need help. And a good tool salesman can be like your best friend—there when you need him.

About the Author 
Brent Chandler is a regular contributor to CTE and a tool design supervisor at DMD Roots Division, Dresser Equipment Group Inc. - A Halliburton Company, Connersville, Ind.