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YOUR PRECISION MANUFACTURER OF DEMANDING
TIGHT TOLERANCE PARTS (+/- .0002):

​√ AS9100 Revision D Certified √ ISO 13485 Certification For Medical Devices In-Process √ Superior Accountability Tools/MRP Software In Place |

STAR CNC Swiss Screw Machines Enable ‘Lights Out’ Operation and Set-Ups Go From 4-5/week
To 15-20/week

LV Swiss owners Paul Klein, Darren Hatch and Richard Hoffman know what it takes to make a successful, sustainable manufacturing business. The winning combination is Paul’s extensive knowledge of running successful multiple large corporations in Silicon Valley, Darren’s strong technology / software design background and Richard’s vast knowledge of precision machining and the industry. Richard describes the Utah based company as a precision manufacturer of CNC machining, CNC milling, CNC turning, including precision CNC Swiss screw machine parts with demanding tight tolerances (+/- .0002) and short lead times. He elaborates, “Our AS9100 Rev D and ISO 9001:2015 set us apart from other manufacturers. Another key to our success is our prototyping program with follow-on production runs. Our engineering staff is there with design assistance and value engineering to help our customers achieve the most cost-effective manufacturing process. We have full-service maintenance and tooling departments on site that are capable of complete rebuilding and repair of all production equipment as well as building all custom drills, boring bars and form tools. We also save time by having our own Centerless grinding capabilities in-house.” |

LV Swiss’ key to success is the ability to adapt quickly to change. Darren stated, “With all the changes in government policies and the unknown future of changes that could possibly come (tariffs, regulations, etc…) as well as experiencing how our customers were moving to ‘Just In Time’ ordering, we knew we had to find a way to adapt. We were starting to see many of our customers who previously would place blanket Purchase Orders in quantities of 50K+, now order quantities of 2K, more frequently. This type of ordering increases the part costs due to the multiple set-ups.”
Jeff Christiansen, Material and Quoting Manager for the company, says, “These lower quantities were killing us in set-up time. The precision Swiss machines we owned were great older machines, but they were really designed for large volumes. We knew we needed a new brand of Swiss screw machines for the changing business.” Jeff came to LV Swiss more than 5 years ago with a strong medical manufacturing ​back-background. He was well versed in the Star precision machine line. He says, “The Star CNC line offers a broad range of Swiss-type Automatic Lathes to meet all our small, complex and precise machining requirements.”
Richard says, “We did substantial research when we made the decision to replace our old Swiss screw machines. Jeff highly recommended the Star line; it was an ideal machine for the smaller lots LV Swiss was running, and it was priced very competitively.”

He continued, “There are many really good Swiss-type machines on the market today. In the end, our decision was based upon the level of support we would get from Smith Machinery, the Utah machine dealer for Star, and from Star directly.” Jeff adds, “I’ve been working with the Smith Machinery team for 25 years now. I’ve always received outstanding support from Klaus Lassig, our Smith Machinery Sales Engineer and Star directly.” (Klaus is pictured above alongside Darren, Richard and Jeff.)
​Today, LV Swiss owns 12 Star machines that complement their other CNC machines and their CNC mills. Jeff stated that the service on the Star machines has been outstanding. Richard adds, “If we have an issue (which is rare), they are here typically by the next day. Additionally, their phone support is excellent, so frequently the issue is fixed remotely.”
Jeff says, “Where we could do 4-5 set ups per week with our older machines,
today we can do 15-20 set ups in this same time with our Star machines.”
LV Swiss is nearly paperless today. Darren spearheaded the development of LV Swiss’ MRP system a few years ago. Darren designed the system so LV Swiss has the ability to trace the manufacturing of a part from drawing to engineering to manufacturing, to shipping to delivery, all with real-time up to date information. This allows Customer Service to easily check on the status of a part or answer questions when a customer calls. Richard stated, “We didn’t realize just how superior our custom MRP system was until we had the auditors for AS9100 Rev D recently come to our facility, where they remarked how outstanding it was.”
The owners hired Margo Jordan (pictured to the right) to expand the company’s customer base. “Margo has a very strong manufacturing and sales background, with prior experience in the aerospace industry,” Richard stated. LV Swiss’ customers now hail from a number of industries (Aerospace, Test and Measurement, Automotive, Recreational, Military, Medical and Dental, etc…), and products are shipped all over the United States. LV Swiss is also a subcontractor to many other machine shops that do not have the machinery or expertise to manufacture high precision tight tolerance parts.
The company just completed its latest AS9100 certification to Revision D with ‘0 Findings’! Darren stated, “As part of our diversification strategy, we are planning to increase our customers in the medical industry. When we went through the AS9100 certification process, we wrote all processes to adhere not just to the aerospace AS9100 standard, but also to the even more rigorous quality management system for the design and manufacture of medical devices, ISO 13485.” LV Swiss plans to achieve ISO 13485 certification by Q2 2019.
In preparation for its expansion in the medical market, LV Swiss built out its ‘CTQ (Critical to Quality) Lab’. Darren says, “Each of our CTQ labs have been designed with the Medical traceability requirements in mind, and the labs have been configured with all the necessary gauging and tooling to efficiently check each specific part to a preplanned CTQ (Critical to Quality) Quality Assurance check plan. Each lab is equipped with a dedicated workstation that has electronic access to all the necessary production documents and prior CTQ observations so real-time decisions can be made on the quality status of each part i.e.Cpk, Control Charts, and High/Low Median. As each new CTQ observation is entered and validated production views are updated enabling immediate updates throughout the organization. Management has the visibility to see the status of each machine.”
LV Swiss is succeeding for so many reasons; they embrace change, they invest into the equipment and processes to continuously improve, and they value their employees. The company offers a broad spectrum of benefits to their employees inclusive of the recently implemented 401K plan. Once a month, the company hosts a celebration for all employees whose birthday falls in the month, and they celebrate successes in their monthly newsletter. To learn more about how LV Swiss can help you with your precision manufacturing needs, contact them at (435) 635-1482 or visit LVSwiss.com
To learn more about Smith Machinery, a 50+ year old distributor of a variety of advanced manufacturing technologies, contact them at (801) 263-6403 or visit SmithMachineTools.com
To learn more about the Star CNC line, contact: Rob Hirzel, Star CNC Western Region Office: 714-694-1255.
Article courtesy of A2Z magazine

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