[knowledge-seekr]

Hey everyone! I am a student at the local community college pursuing a diploma in Business Admin. I have a final assignment for this semester that I need help with, unfortunately all the easier topics have been taken away.

I need to make a business plan (does not need to be very technical) on starting out a lathe machine workshop. I would need the following bits of info:


1. What is a lathe machine and its popular types (i'll google out as many definitions as possible) but still an easy explanation would help me grasp some idea about it.

2. Is there a difference between a milling machine and a lathe?

3. What applications are lathe machines used for?

4. Which is the most popular use of lathe machines?

5. What type of products can be produced by lathe machines?

6. Which type of businesses or clients do lathe machine workshops serve and are they involved in mass production or just job-by-job service

7. How much do they cost and how much utilities costs can one run into for a small shop

8. if you were starting out how much capital would u need? would it make sense to seek a loan or simply buying some and renting out other machinery.

9. what type of different expertise do u need for a small workshop?

10. any recent trends seen in this type of service industry?


Please keep technical knowledge limited to what a layman can understand. I might have to give a presentation too. I am researching on wikipedia too but its not that simple n easy there.

Thank you in advance!

[neutronics]

I think the actual application of the lathe will be a smaller part of your business plan. The machine itself is used to produce metal objects, usually parts of an assembly. For instance, making firearms. When making a firearm using a lathe you don't hit the "GO" button and six hours later pull a completed firearm off the machine. You can however make the small parts and screws and then assemble them into a firearm. (BTW, a complete firearm from scratch would be a very advanced project if the only machine you have is a lathe.)

No matter the machine, your business plan will still follow the basics: Your market, segmentation, start-up capitalization, break-even analysis, overhead, etc. A lathe is a very economical machine, but skilled operators can cost; at least they do here in the U.S. Also, you should know that machine shops are a Top 10 for failed small businesses (also here in the U.S.). I would think most of the "magic" of your business plan will be in the marketing plan: You will be marketing toward businesses that need custom parts made. Or possibly government/defense contracts, but I don't know how it works in Pakistan.

Start-up costs will also depend on the type of lathe. Here in the U.S., labor costs are high so we tend toward automated machinery. Your profile indicates you are in Pakistan, where I imagine labor costs are lower, so you are probably more likely to start up with a manual lathe (or several of them) and simply hire workers to run them.

A small automated lathe starts at around $10,000 USD and a midsize manual lathe starts at around $2,700 USD for the Chinese-made tools. So the cost difference can be substantial. And by the way, those prices are for low-end machines that are more likely to be found in a hobby shop than a production shop. High-end machines made in North America, Europe or Japan easily go for $30,000 into the millions of dollars. The advantages are faster production of higher-quality parts as well as availability of more advanced machining techniques - but if your teacher doesn't know machine tools well, you could probably fake it and plan to make spacecraft parts on a $500 toy lathe with an entry-level operator. ;-)

[knowledge-seekr]

Also, you should know that machine shops are a Top 10 for failed small businesses (also here in the U.S.). I would think most of the "magic" of your business plan will be in the marketing plan: You will be marketing toward businesses that need custom parts made. Or possibly government/defense contracts, but I don't know how it works in Pakistan.

What is the reason why these machine shops fail in the U.S.? Any ideas?

[Delw]

What is the reason why these machine shops fail in the U.S.? Any ideas?

I know I know

you ready for this............

Because we send our work to third world countries for cheap labor and HUGE tax write-offs , and we get even bigger write-offs when the products have a 50% scrap rate

[Delw]

This is from the 3rd world country pork spammer above(sent me a pm, I guess I am special )

But lets wish him a Crongrats on his long hard earned diploma


how much would it cost to keep these chinese, pakistan, indian off of this website?

Hello Delw! (you might remember me off this thread:

http://www.cnczone.com/forums/genera...s_project.html


I am quite happy to report that I have just graduated out of college with a diploma in Marketing. However the job prospects in my country (Pakistan) are extremely poor. The small lathe machine workshop I did my final business project on decided to hire me and I couldnt say no because alot of my friends are still out there hunting for jobs so little is better nothing for now...

Now this is where I need help.. I will be working as their marketing guy basically my job is to introduce their workshop to potential customers which will be typically other businesses around. I dont know where to start though.

What kind of businesses would make use of a lathe machine workshop? Who should be on my list as a potential client (besides walk-ins)

I'd really appreciate your help, I am starting day after tomorrow. I know its a steep learning curve but I guess I'll pick things up as I move along.

[awerby]

Your business plan doesn't need to focus on what a lathe does - it should be about what you plan to do with whatever tooling it takes to make some product or provide some service that somebody needs, how you're going to connect with those people, and what exactly you're going to do for them that isn't already being done.

The idea of a business plan is to give potential investors some confidence that you've thought about this and come up with a solution that will increase the amount invested, not just waste it. They aren't going to be interested in what a lathe does to a piece of metal; they need to know what you and your lathe or whatever will do for them, so they end up getting more money back than they put in.

Think about whether you're opening a factory or a job-shop, what markets you're targeting, who your customers will be, what it will cost to run the place, and what prospects the products and services you're offering will have in the marketplace. As the cement company's slogan goes: "Find a need and fill it."

Andrew Werby
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