Machine Shop Estimating^™            

Multiple Setup & Efficiency Ratings

When pricing an operation that is based on a quotation with multiple quantities, and incorporates both setup and production calculations, use MSE's flexibility to reflect different efficiency ratings for each quantity. Or when the quantities dictate that you will be unable to run a large job in a single setup, simply enter the number of setups required. These features offer an opportunity to review per piece costs based on the efficiencies selected and to properly price multiple setups.

Load and Unload Times — A Definable Standard

Complete work center descriptions include predefined and user definable standards, load/unload and setup time reports. Be selecting a predefined standard along with your tool selections, estimators now can augment the standard tool operations with operations like pallet retrieval, chip removal, inspection operations, and fixture loading. Print the predefined standards from the database for your Quality Assurance or ISO 9000 documentation.

Machine Specific Parameters

Edit any of MSE's work center databases to reflect your shop equipment. Increased accuracy and flexibility are obtained by adding new machines and adjusting the idle movements, index time, maximum and minimum RPM, feed gear charts, rapid travel rate, and set up hours.

Process and Cam Layouts

Generate complete process layouts for CNC Turning, Machine Center, Bridgeport, Turret, Engine and Hardinge lathes, and CNC Swiss machines. Generate Cam layouts for any screw machine. Layouts include blueprint information, operation descriptions, tooling type, speeds, feeds, cut time, idle time, total cycle time, and setup hours.

Optimize Cycle Time

Depending upon the complexity, micro finish, and finished-part tolerances, users optimize the cycle on the process layout by editing items such as SFM, RPM, feed rate, idle time, or handling time.

Operations Editor

MSE can flag operations that exceed horsepower ratings, maximum cutting feed rate, or maximum spindle RPM. For example, tool-by-tool calculations analyze the available machine horsepower at the given tool using the material speeds and feeds. you may feel that a hole can be drilled faster; or believe you could use a deeper depth of cut. Those assumptions are based on "gut feel" and experience. But now the MSE software automatically flags any operation that exceeds the machine's capability, and which might introduce estimate inaccuracies.

A manual estimate tends to represent an estimator's familiarity with a machining center, assigning an average speed to it, and not actually calculating rapid travel rates, positioning rates, acceleration, deceleration, and idle movements; somehow they get thrown together. Three seconds may be an average process time, but not always the case. And this scenario becomes even more complex as the number of tools increases. While you can sequentially lay out a five-tool operation manually, when there are 25 tools for a part, you cannot remember what you did 19 tools ago. In computer aided estimating this is all displayed for you, graphically, in an editor where you can manipulate the pertinent data to calculate new cycle times. That's really important.

Cam Drawings

From software-generated layouts, MSE automatically produces cam drawings for Brown & Sharpe screw machines. Users visually verify the machining process with these drawings, or monitor operation overlaps. Tool collisions also can be detected and corrected before a cam is cut.

Direct Buys (Outside Services)

Using Direct Buys as part of the estimating process where various pricing methods may apply, the program identifies the correct variation, choosing between minimum charge and standard pricing formats. Markups and shipping charges also are handles. There are no restrictions to the type of product or service, nor is there any limit to the number of Direct Buys per estimate.

Graphs

MSE's graphical analysis tools quickly identify areas of potential savings; areas to cut time, or suggest loading a different machine to compare cycle times.

Speeds & Feeds

MSE incorporates a stand-alone Speed/Feed module representing over 1150 materials and 2 million speeds and feed combinations. Users are able to add new materials, or modify the machinability data for any material in the database, even during the estimating process!

Formulas

Many times a particular calculation becomes a standard in your operations. MSE's user-definable formulas and built-in functions (like "@ calc") are used to automatically prompt you to retrieve a previously described formula, which might, for example, help you to determine a specific length of cut.

Macros (Smart Tools)

Smart programming saves time, and Smart Tools lets you estimate quickly. For many multi-operation tasks, when you enter data for one tool, MSE computes the value for the subsequent tools. For example: input the data for the tap, and MSE automatically selects the drill parameters from the Drill & Tap library.