Total Cost of Ownership

The Hidden Cost of Fasteners

Fastener TCO and the 15/85 rule

You may be familiar with the concept of TCO (Total Cost of Ownership), but did you know you can apply a TCO model to fasteners?  Savvy decision makers apply TCO to analyze the hidden cost of equipment or services beyond the initial purchase price.  You can also apply this model  to reveal the direct and indirect cost of fastening in your manufacturing.

Bossard’s 15/85 rule is a concept used to estimate the total cost of ownership (TCO) of fasteners. The rule suggests that the cost of the fastener itself accounts for only 15% of the total cost, while the remaining 85% is due to indirect costs associated with the fastener.

The Rule of 15/85 Explained

The 15% cost includes the purchase price of the fastener, transportation costs, and any other direct costs associated with the acquisition of the fastener.

The remaining 85% of the cost includes indirect costs such as assembly time, installation costs, quality control, engineering, internal handling, and inventory management costs. These indirect costs are often hidden or overlooked, but they can have a significant impact on the overall cost of your assembly.

By taking into account both the direct and indirect costs, Bossard’s 15/85 rule highlights the importance of selecting fasteners not only on purchase price but also functionality (the ability to simplify a bolted-joint problem), high quality and reliability, ease of installation in assembly, and partnering with a value-add partner such as Bossard to help you tackle your indirect cost to reduce the overall cost of ownership.

Bossard’s Full-Service Solution

At Bossard, we take a holistic, full-service approach to helping our customers find the right fastening solution and improve productivity, all the while helping you to reduce your fastener TCO.  The following range of Assembly Technology Expert and Smart Factory Logistics services can help you tackle that hidden 85%.

  • Development and Design: Bossard’s Expert Design Service helps customers at the forefront of new product design and development by providing critical consulting and engineering insight into the ideal fastening solution.
  • Procurement: Having the right fastener at the right time reduces inventory counts and costs. Our customers rely upon the Bossard team to help identify the right fastening solution from a rolling inventory of over 200,000 different product SKUs.
  • Logistics and Handling: Bossard’s Smart Factory Logistics help companies manage their inventory in real-time with Smart Bins and Smart Labels in the warehouse and at point-of-use.  Helping you minimize waste, lower excessive inventory counts, and reduce downtime.
  • Ordering and Storage: Our interactive supply chain platform (ARIMS) improves customer supply chain efficiency and predictability with real-time analytics, metrics, and data.  Bring demand planning to your C-parts and have inventory when you need it.
  • Quality Assurance / Testing: Bossard can support your Quality Assurance and Design Engineers through its worldwide network of Bossard ISO/IEC 17025-accredited test laboratories. Every state-of-the-art Bossard test laboratory has the most accurate measuring and testing equipment to assure customers are meeting standards and specifications.
  • Kitting and Assembly: Bossard offers light assembly, labeling and kitting services that help manufacturers speed up and optimize assembly.

Partner with Bossard to tackle the visible and invisible cost of fasteners in your manufacturing through supply chain optimization, engineering, expert test services, and global reach and reduce your TCO in fastening.

If you need help reducing your TCO or need some expert guidance on fastening solutions, contact us now.

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March 24, 2023
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Lower Your Total Cost of Ownership with SmartLabel Cloud

Lower Your Total Cost of Ownership with SmartLabel Cloud

Logistics is the key to ensuring things are where they need to be when you need them the most. Otherwise, everything comes to an abrupt halt. When referring to manufacturing processes, logistics can greatly impact the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO).

The SmartLabel Cloud system does its best to ensure the Total Cost of Ownership is as low as possible to increase profit margins and productivity alike.

How the SmartLabel Cloud System Works

During the daily production cycle, your workers and inventory staff have a good idea of which materials are on hand versus how many are needed to continue work unabated. Whether the supply is a range of fasteners that you could order by the thousands or very large pieces that you order in much smaller quantities, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) makes it possible to automate the entire system and greatly improve workplace efficiency while lowering the Total Cost of Ownership.

When a worker or inventory specialist sees a particular item is running low and needs replenishment, the worker or specialist can press a button to automatically order a standardized quantity. The item is on its way in as little as a few minutes and arrives before you need it and experience disruptions in your supply chain or work productivity.

Real-Time Data on Deliveries

When your must-have materials are on their way, the SmartLabel Cloud system provides immediate tracking data. You know the time when the product left the supply warehouse, where it is currently, and the expected time of arrival. When those products are critically important to maintaining production, the ability to know exactly where they are and when you will receive them enables you to continue production without fear of shutting down due to a lack of supplies or materials to continue doing exceptional work.

Fast Storage and Implementation

Because the SmartLabel Cloud system uses the IIoT to communicate real-time data to clients, clients always are prepared to receive the shipments and work them into production right away. You have virtually no waste and a much-reduced need for warehouse storage space, or the labor needed to manage it.

Total Cost of Ownership becomes competitively low and could give you a significant advantage over direct competitors in the same market. When you can get materials quickly, on time, and with virtually no waste, you ultimately have a terrific advantage.

Would you like to learn more about SmartLabel Cloud and see how utilizing this technology in your facility can greatly impact your productivity? Email us at ProvenProductivity@bossard.com.

 

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Steps to Take for Digitalization

5 Lean Manufacturing Principles to Improve Efficiency

August 20, 2021
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How to Accelerate Your Time to Market

How to Accelerate Your Time to Market

Time to market, or TTM, defines the time it takes your offering to go from initial concept to finished product. Reducing TTM allows you to react more quickly to changes in the market, rewarding your business with an advantage over your competitors. You’ll have more time to generate revenue and profit.

Bossard accelerates your TTM through the Expert Design method of our Assembly Technology Expert services. From the start, we focus on recommending the best materials and optimizing assembly conditions. This leads to better in-place costs by choosing the right fastening design, lower production costs because of faster assembly, and lower life-cycle costs using fasteners with the right quality. The result is a permanent increase in the quality of your end products.

Our method consists of two parts.

  • Design Consulting: By understanding the design of a joint and how it behaves, we can determine the cost, safety, and lifespan of any fastening solutions. We rely on high-performance software to design and optimize bolt connections that consider the bolt’s load-bearing capacity. We also analyze failed joints to reveal the cause of the actual failure. Some common causes are using the wrong fastener, incorrectly designing the joint, or having the wrong preload. We can then eliminate appropriate measures to eliminate the problem.
  • Design Platform: We offer a wide range of tools and technical information developed from over 180 years of fastening expertise. You gain access to hidden secrets that you can integrate into your processes.
    • T-Section, which contains technical data such as standards, tolerances, tables, and mechanical properties for fasteners.
    • CAD Online Portal, an online portal for supporting your product design through animation and 2D and 3D views.

When you’re ready to accelerate your TTM, reach out to us ProvenProductivity@bossard.com to learn more.

December 18, 2020
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How You Can Improve Your Lightweight Products with MultiMaterial-Welding

All About MM-Welding

Transforming new ideas into real products takes knowledgeable skills, good materials, and, above all, the right tools to bring those ideas to fruition. While traditional bolting, welding, and riveting techniques offer proven results, the growing use of modern lightweight materials dictates a different approach with consideration towards product quality and production costs.

MM-Welding™ technology offers an innovative approach to fastening requirements for lightweight and multi-material designs. Using a combination of ultrasonic energy and thermoplastic elements, MM-Welding™ forms a friction-locked and form-fit bond in a variety of materials, from porous and sandwich materials to sheet metal structures, compression-molded components, and injection-molded parts.

Real-time production quality control is also made possible using MM-Welding™ SmartSolutions software. By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and big data, SmartSolutions provides meaningful insight into the production chain. Cutting-edge simulation and development tools remove destructive testing from the equation.

Benefits of MM-Welding

MM-Welding™ technology offers a multitude of benefits for the modern production environment:

•    Faster than conventional fastening methods
•    Offers higher mechanical strength over conventional solutions
•    Eliminates gluing and pre-drilling from the production process
•    Provides greater flexibility and shape diversity
•    Offers integration into functional parts

MM-Welding™ allows for complete automation and simplification of the assembly system, resulting in faster and more economical production processes. With MM-Welding™ technology, you’ll see cost savings along the entire production chain.

MM-Welding Solutions

At the cornerstone of MM-Welding™ are the various forms used to join lightweight materials together. With a broad portfolio of innovative fastening solutions, MM-Welding™ can meet a vast range of fastening challenges.

•    LiteWWeight™ Pin – For sandwich materials
•    LiteWWeight™ Lotus – For non-woven materials
•    InWWerse™ Disc – Joining of non-compatible polymer parts
•    LiteWWeight™ Double Pin – For sandwich structures
•    LiteWWeight™ zEPP – For joining expanded polypropylene (EPP) foam parts

For more information on how you can leverage MM-Welding™ technology for your production processes, email us at ProvenProductivity@bossard.com.

November 20, 2020
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Can a Certain Fastener Make Your Life Easier?

ecosyn®-fix screw from Bossard

ecosyn®-fix screws give you reliability and efficiency so you can save time for your many other tasks. ecosyn®-fix can save you assembly time and management costs as well as give you reliability in your application. Let’s take a deeper look at how ecosyn®-fix screws do this.

Cost Savings
The reason ecosyn®-fix screws are used worldwide is because they truly do save you money. These screws were built to decrease preparation times and create a faster assembly. This is achieved because the ecosyn®-fix screw is one fastener instead of many; ecosyn®-fix combines a screw, a helical spring and a flat washer all into one fastening solution. This allows you to save money on materials by reducing your bill of materials, and also save significant amounts of time, reducing labor costs.

Reliability
With the ecosyn®-fix screw, you also get increased reliability. Your products will be able to hold up better and they will truly be something you can count on. One of the key aspects of this increased reliability is the integrated washer. This washer is shake-proof and vibration-resistant because it’s already attached to the screw. Other advantages of the integrated washer include reduced risk of crevice corrosion, optimum bearing area to cover elongated and large through holes and joint relaxation is compensated.

We work to develop solutions to some of the toughest fastening problems. Sometimes the problems are less about the fastener itself and more about cost and time savings. With the ecosyn®-fix screw you get both cost and time savings with one easy-to-use product. This product can help you fill in the gaps in your project easily and efficiently.

Contact us at ProvenProductivity@bossard.com if you have any questions about the ecosyn®-fix screw or any of our other fastening solutions. We work to make your life easier, so let us know what you think of our solutions.


October 14, 2016
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How Bossard SmartBin Can Save You Time & Money

Quality Department

In previous blog posts we’ve discussed Bossard SmartBin and how it can help with efficiency and convenience in your company. We’re bringing the subject up again because there’s another important aspect of this system to consider. Continue reading to learn about how Bossard SmartBin can save you both time and money.

At Bossard, we understand how valuable time and money really are. It’s our goal to help make your work flow as efficient as possible. That’s where Bossard SmartBin comes in.

But, just how is the SmartBin going to help save you time and money? Look at our list below:

  • continuous inventory monitoring by means of weight sensors
  • safe and reliable demand recognition
  • automatic ordering
  • automatic recognition of box refills
  • operate 24/7
  • inventory lists at the touch of a button
  • access to online platform (ARIMS)
  • transparent order and consumption statistics

These bins continuously monitor inventory with weight sensors. Once your stock gets to a certain level, it will automatically recognize that it’s ready for a refill and will go ahead and order. This maintenance-free program helps to enhance profitability by ensuring there are always products ready to be sold. However, it’s not just the profitability that is going to be enhanced. Since the SmartBin doesn’t need manual intervention, this saves employees time to work on core activities and help increase your efficiency.

Bossard Proven Productivity is dedicated to helping our customers through innovation and sharing our quality products. If you have further questions about the Bossard SmartBin and the SmartBin benefits, take a look at one of our additional blogs on the subject or email us at ProvenProductivity@bossard.com.

June 10, 2016
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Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and Fastening

Total cost of ownership and fastening

It’s important to us here at Bossard to be transparent in all that we do. The purpose of this blog is to outline the total cost of ownership (TCO) in fastening. An individual fastener isn’t responsible for its total cost. There’s a lot that goes into the production of the parts and that’s where the majority of that cost comes from.

We best explain this when referring to something we like to call “The Rule of 15-85.” Those numbers represent the percentages of costs that go into a fastener.

85 percent of costs come from the development, procurement, testing, inventories, assembly and logistics. We call this 85 percent the “invisible costs” because they aren’t visible to our consumers. You all don’t see the work that’s occurring beyond the finished product which you purchase.

The remaining 15 percent of the costs come from the fastener itself. This is also referred to as the “visible cost.”

Another way to think of the TCO is what we call the “iceberg model.” The tip of the iceberg pokes out of the water and is visible, so that’s the 15 percent. The remaining 85 percent is the rest of the iceberg which is hidden beneath the water.

Every solution Bossard creates is designed to reduce costs, according to the TCO concept. Our partners and Bossard work efficiently so you can do the same—cost savings of 50 percent and more can be achieved in the areas of logistics and engineering. These savings have a lasting effect on the cost of the products, which give our customers the best value out there.

Bossard wants to answer any questions you may have about production, total cost of ownership, or about our products. Contact us anytime at ProvenProductivity@bossard.com and subscribe to our blog to learn more about our company!


April 08, 2016
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Lean Manufacturing In Four Steps

Inventory Management with Bossard

Everyone involved in manufacturing wants to increase productivity and decrease inefficiencies. But how? Bossard is a company that understands the needs of the market. More and more companies are being challenged to streamline their processes and reduce costs, all in search of the next innovation.

Fortunately, Bossard is no stranger to innovation. To boost your manufacturing productivity and lower the total cost of ownership, partner with Bossard. We can help you in four simple steps!

  1. Plan. Bossard will conduct a value stream analysis to identify areas of potential optimization. The goal is to ensure that your processes are maintaining the competitive edge necessary for your next generation of products. We provide an in-depth report with appropriate recommendations for action.
  1. Execute. Put that plan for change into action. Completing the value stream analysis and putting together a report is one thing. Taking those recommendations and executing them is the next big step. And as your partner, Bossard will be there every step of the way in the implementation process.
  1. Check. Once you have implemented the plan, you need to do more than cross your fingers and hope for the best. You need to keep an eye on how the implementation of the plan is affecting your processes, both positively and negatively. Monitoring the progress is important to achieving success.
  1. Adapt. The plan isn’t going to be flawless. The key is to review how the plan is working and make modifications based on the results. Only then will you have begun to innovate and create a unique and wholly effective plan that is tailor-made to your products and services.

But this one blog post is far from a comprehensive guide to lean manufacturing. Interested in learning more? We’re here to further the discussion. Contact us at ProvenProductivity@bossard.com to get the conversation started.


January 01, 2016
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Cost Savings with Bossard Engineering Services

Cost Savings with Bossard

Imagine you’re building a skyscraper. You have half of the building completed when you realize that there was a mistake in the original design, and now you’ll have to start construction all over again, including tearing down what you’ve already done up to this point.

But what if you could avoid that miscalculation from the beginning?

This is the benefit of working with the Bossard engineers. Bringing our experts in during the early stages of your new product design can lead to a more efficient process and also reduce your costs. How do we accomplish this? Check out the infographic below.

Cost Saving Bossard

If you’re going to develop a new product, be sure that you’re doing the right thing from the beginning. With extensive knowledge and expertise in fasteners, coating, materials, and joint assembly our engineers can streamline your development process from beginning to end.

So what are you waiting for? Contact Bossard at ProvenProductivity@bossard.com now. Take the first step towards the perfect new product with one quick e-mail. You won’t regret it.


October 09, 2015
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Cost Saving Potential with Bossard

The mission of Bossard is to provide our customers with the lowest total in place cost of fasteners. This can be achieved by using effective design, efficient delivery systems, and multi-functional fasteners. An example of how a multi-functional fastener can affect the total cost of the assembly is illustrated in the chart below. A thread forming screw for metal purchase cost is $3.14 per 100 screws higher than the standard machine. As each step required to complete the assembly is reviewed, the final cost of the assembly is reduced by $29.50. Bossard’s staff of engineers and product experts can help review current assemblies or focus on new product design to help eliminate future costs.

Blog-Graph

To learn more about “Total Cost of Ownership” as well as streamline your processes to help reduce costs, contact Bossard at ProvenProductivity@bossard.com. We are here to help!


July 31, 2015
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