Decatur, Tennessee (February 12, 2010) – Storm Copper Components, a leading manufacturer of copper electrical connectors in North America, attributes much of its recent growth to a concept called “Value Engineering,” a method of cost-efficient production forged by raw material and component shortages in World War II. With a constant eye on quality improvement, Storm’s systematic approach to value engineering has streamlined the process of fabricating copper electrical components, and reduced the overall costs of high end connectors such as bus bar.
Storm’s value engineering process is focused on keeping costs in check by stocking copper bar or copper sheeting that most closely matches design specifications. Storm Copper co-owner, Dan Kitts, points out a critical factor; “Many OEMs round up in size when purchasing copper busbar, but often the next standard size is more than is required, increasing the cost unnecessarily. Although it may sound obvious, the number one factor in keeping busbar pricing low is often overlooked: only use as much copper metal as is necessary for the required ampacity.”
“Recently Storm Copper surpassed the threshold of 300 unique profiles of copper bar and copper sheet, which means in most cases we have exact size of copper metal required for an order already sitting on a shelf,” Kitts said. Also among the one million pounds of copper metal inventory Storm maintains is an extensive selection of metric copper. Storm Copper has amassed the largest inventory of metric sized copper bar stock in North America, to pass on its cost-efficient value engineering to OEMs in Europe, Canada and other parts of the world.
Another way to control costs and lead-time through value engineering is using an off the shelf bus-bar thicknesses. An OEM’s desire for optimal thickness should not require a special mill run to produce the required size of copper metal bus bar. By utilizing readily available busbar thicknesses, Storm is able to provide quick lead times and avoid the costs of producing a unique busbar profile from the copper mill.
Other key cost-saving value engineering factors stem from punching vs. milling holes. Telling a customer when a hole’s location is too close to a formed or bent area of the bus bar where a punched hole can be deformed, or recommending a copper bus bar design with a wider hole tolerance; these are cost-effective ways to save the expense of milling.
Storm Copper Components is committed to meeting its customer’s requirements by providing innovative, cost-effective solutions and by focusing on continual improvement of all our products, processes, and services. For 20 years, the company has specialized in the manufacture of custom electrical connectors for the wireless, telecommunications, power and alternative energy markets, serving OEM’s, electrical contractors and system installers.
For more information, or to schedule an interview with co-owner Dan Kitts, please call Dave Krikorian at 1-800-334-2177 or email dkrikorian@stormcopper.com.
