After years of building quality presses for other press
companies SEYI decided it was time to establish their own presence in North
America. In 2000 SEYI America was officially formed with the goal to build
dependable presses that were on the cutting edge of technology.
SEYI Mexico Team
Considering the constant growth within the Mexican market,
SEYI saw the need to give the Mexican customers the faster, qualified and
reliable local service they needed. In 2014 SEYI
Mexico`s office opened its doors in Monterrey, Mexico. The office currently
has two Sales Managers, two Service Technicians, an office administrator and
the constant support in Service and Engineering from both SEYI America´s and Taiwan`s
HQs offices.
Press installed in the Bajio Region
SEYI has experienced rapid growth in the Market with
installations of mechanical
and servo presses in the
Bajio Region, North East and North West regions. SEYI Mexico is experiencing
such growth that it will be adding a Service Technician to offer better
customer service, more technical support and give whatever attention is
requested by their clients. In addition to that, SEYI Mexico has available
spare and replacement parts for servo and mechanical presses to achieve faster
solutions.
Servo Press Intstall in Monterrey
The local support does not end here, SEYI Mexico is building
a strong network of distributors and a solid relationship with suppliers of
auxiliary equipment like safety curtains, feeders, mounts, QDC, etc. SEYI
Mexico is the best option to deliver the turnkey projects that clients
nowadays need.
SEYI Mexico's office in Monterrey
Today, SEYI has over 2,000 presses installed in North
America, more than 150 presses of them are in Mexico and many more are scheduled
to be installed in the near future. SEYI is also growing their presence in the
virtual market by expanding their presence in LinkedIn,
Facebook, Twitter, BlogSpot, and YouTube. SEYI strives to build
relationships with their customers and to continue to be the go to company for
complete solutions to your stamping needs.
Porfirio Diaz OTE
#618 int. A, Colonia Centro, San Pedro Garza Garcia, N.L., 66200
In addition to a
sales and service team that spans the globe Seyi has two manufacturing
facilities one in Taoyuan,
Taiwan and in Kunshan,
China which is an hour north of Shanghai. These facilities combined have
over three hundred and seventy one thousand square feet of production space and
employ over seven hundred people.
The Taoyuan plant just outside of Taipei is the home base of
Seyi. The Taiwan plant is the where all production for global markets take
place. At this point presses as big as one thousand six hundred ton have been
built here for a variety of applications and markets across the globe.
The Kunshan facility in China has two production areas
measuring over two hundred and thirty six thousand square feet. Production at
the China facility is only for the China domestic market.
These facilities have an experienced work force. More than
thirty percent of our workers have five or more years of experience. Both
facilities use high end state of the art machinery for fabrication. Seyi has
invested 3.4 million dollars in our own equipment while our competitors
outsource critical machining.
To learn more about Seyi machinery and our presses visit our
YouTube page to see our
machines in action.
Established 2012, SEYI-Europe is located in Frankfurt, Germany.
From it's centrally located office, three technical project managers and service administration manage a network of full-service distribution and
directfactory representation in 6
countries including Italy, Spain, U.K., Austria, Germany, and Sweden.
Michael Juhl, SEYI-Europe General Manager, and his team cooperate with one of SEYI's longest full-service partners, Press Care, U.K. to supply responsive installation, integration, and service support of its growing list of European metal stamping companies.
Press Care has been working with SEYI since 2002 and carries a full range of SEYI spare parts.
In 2013, SEYI-Europe created a partnership with Finstanteknik, A Swedish tool, die, and specialty equipment and services company, to open a servo application and die optimization center, helping to further support the advancing trends in material forming.
As of 2015, SEYI-Europe has nearly 150 installations with an expected 20% increase.
Since 1985, SEYI has
been serving the North American metal stamping market. In response to a growing customer base and
ambition to directly serve our customers, in 2000 Seyi invested in its first factory-direct
inventory warehouse and administration office in Walnut, California.
In addition to holding our stock presses, Seyi-California was
set up as an administrative hub, housing Seyi’s logistics and accounting
departments. The Walnut facility is also the home office for U.S. Western regional
sales and parts of Mexico.
In 2006 Seyi continued
its investment by opening a ten-thousand square foot engineering and service facility
in Tullahoma, Tennessee. This facility stores over one million dollars in
essential press parts inventory, houses a continually growing service
technician team that is quickly deployed if the need ever arises, and offers
technical training, demonstrations, and engineering integration.
In 2010, Seyi started a Cleveland, Ohio office for Midwest
territory development. Early in 2015 the Cleveland office added a new sales
manager to work alongside the Regional Sales Manager of the Midwest in response
to continued growth.
In 2014, Seyi once again expanded its North America
investment with the opening of Seyi-Mexico, located in Monterrey, Mexico. The
Mexico facility is similar to Tennessee in that they store important parts and house
an easily deployable service technician staff.
In addition to our factory-direct offices across the continent,
Seyi relies on a vast distributor network. Our
distributors are experienced professionals who can optimize your project with
the right pressroom equipment and integrated automation.
Today, Seyi-America
has over 2,000 presses installed in North America, and have been fortunate to
build a very loyal customer base. As the future unfolds, we’ll continue to
invest in the people and the resources required to stay on top. In addition, we
are a strong proponent of using social media to strengthen our presence. Through LinkedIn,
Facebook, Twitter, Blogspot, and YouTube, we can extend our
responsiveness and make it more convenient to interact with customers and stay
on top of industry trends.
Gobar Systems, Inc (Matamoros, Mexico) Mexican Contract
Stamper Successfully Shifts Manufacturing Strategy from Dedicated
Automotive to Larger Market Mix with SEYI Straight and Gap Frame Presses
Twenty years ago,
Mexican stampers had a fairly straightforward path to success—often tied
to a stamped parts dedication for one or two different customers. For
these same companies today, survival has led to market diversification,
increased services provided, and often, new manufacturing methods to
improve upon quality and/or production rates. One company found just
across the border from Brownsville, Texas, Gobar Systems, Inc., has met
the challenges of an ever-changing marketplace…and has done so with
the help of SEYI Presses, Inc.
Defining Gobar’s Capabilities
The Gobar name was created as a family operation and is a
derivative of two family names…Gonzalez and Barron. The company started
out as an automotive stamper supplying interior part (especially
dashboards) stampings to the likes of General Motors and Delphi. Then, a
shift to supplying complete sub-assemblies that included a large
amount of value-added operations (IE: welding, fastening, part
insertion, etc.) to this same customer group grew their capabilities
even more. Today, the company is viewed as a comprehensive contract
manufacturer involved in the processing of metals, plastics, and
electronic components/assemblies. Their 90,000 sq ft stamping facility
has been in operation for more than 20 years and employs 75 associates.
World class standards and lean manufacturing principles are practiced.
A total of 25 stamping presses are in operation and tonnages range
from 66 to 660 tons. A second state-of-the-art stamping facility was
added in July of 1998. Both facilities produce a wide range of parts for
numerous industries including automotive air bag components, car
stereo chassis and dashboard components, home appliance
parts/assemblies, fire and safety components for extinguishers and the
like. They also operate a considerably-sized plastics division (87
associates, 7 injection molding machines from 55 to 165 tons). Key
customers include Autoliv, General Motors, Delphi, Bosch Systems, Kidde
Corporation, and others too numerous to include.
Evolving from “Delphi heavy” into Other Non-Automotive Opportunities
“We realized that our 100% automotive roots needed to be
diversified when we had financial issues with a key customer a number
of years back,” states Rolando Gonzalez Baron, Gobar President/CEO. “At
one time in our early stages, we were about 90% dedicated to Delphi.
Both we and the customer knew that this was unhealthy and the goal was
to diversify to other markets and other types of manufacturing
operations. While we still serve automotive customers with pride, our
current customer base is about two-thirds non-automotive. Additionally,
we’re not just a stamper…50% of our current business base is in metals
processing, but our growth toward plastics and other advanced materials
is also key to our success.” A key goal for Gobar is to target an
equal amount of business from automotive, plastics processing
customers, and all other contract manufacturing sectors such as
telecommunications, medical and consumer goods.
While the company has
shrunk in employee size from 600 to 250 total employees, their annual
sales growth has gone from $20 million to nearly $45 million. Key to
that was found in the market and operation diversification, but also
through their growth in the automation of nearly every production
operation, investments in capital equipment improvements, and always
seeking out more value added purposes found throughout their
manufacturing facilities. Part of that rationale includes their taking
automotive work that offered much smaller lot size production than
typical contract stamping operations (although they can perform lot size
production in the tens of thousands, as well).
Tooling Up To Meet Future Challenges
“We were tooled up to do a lot of GM’s component/bracket work in
the mid- to late-eighties,” stated Rolando. “Then, an influx of
competition hit our area. We knew this would take a toll on our
electronic component business. We went from no area competition in 1986
to four local competitors in 1992 to more than a dozen area companies
vying for their type of business today. We knew that we had to change
our lower tonnage, c-frame press stampings to produce larger and more
sophisticated stampings and assemblies.” And that took both a broader
vision and a new mix of presses.
“Our older, lower tech
smaller presses weren’t going to allow us to meet our growth goals,”
states Rolando. “We were using the used equipment from our German joint
venture partner initially and struggled with maintenance issues. We
then started investigating all of the press technologies out there…from
C-frames to straightsides and even link motion presses. We liked what
we saw in SEYI’s presses, both in technology offering and purchase
price. And after twenty years of SEYI’s in operation here, we haven’t
regretted the decision once.” A total of nearly two dozen SEYI
presses have been installed over the last twenty years. Gap frame and
straight side presses ranging from 66 to 660 ton models are used
throughout the plant.
But
it demanded more than just the need for higher tonnage presses for
bigger part production. It required a much broader vision toward
delivering the complete answer to the customer. And to maintain that
competitive edge, Gobar invested in building their own dies, became much
more involved in the design end of the process (overall part design
and the manufacturability of the part’s production), improving
production training and greater understanding of the manufacturing
process for their associates, and driving the organization to become
more value-added in their overall mindset. And a diversification into
markets never served before, as well as increasing their overall
capabilities to produce tougher jobs. “Today, we can produce both simple
stampings and more complex parts/assemblies…our niche is making what
others around us cannot do,” says Rolando.
This has really helped their profit margin
growth. For example, their initial bracket production only netted 3-4%
profit on average. But as they added more value-added work and contract
manufacturing concepts, the margins grew in leaps and bounds.
Another manufacturing
success key is found in the elimination of most manual secondary
operation-heavy work. “It’s a very labor intensive operation and we
can’t compete with those in China, Vietnam, Malaysia and other areas,”
Rolando says. “They pay much lower salaries in these areas, but we
also have more restrictions on environmental compliances, human rights
issues, and other “democracy” factors…and all of these have a cost that
they don’t have to consider.” Where possible, they help redirect the
overall design and/or build their tooling to eliminate as many
secondary operations as possible.
Link Motion Presses Key To Future Growth
Sometimes, using higher technology can allow you to make the
part/assembly better and/or faster than traditional methods. Gobar sees
SEYI Link Motion technology in that vein.
“We were easily sold on the fact that
link motion could grow our productivity rates in very substantial
amounts over traditional presses,” explains Rolando.
SEYI’s link motion design offers the following benefits:
increased approach and
return slide speeds paired with appropriate pressworking speeds enable
faster production rates (up to a 30% increase in many cases),
reduced material springback due to slide velocity slowdown,
extended die life performance due to decreased shock, noise, heat and vibration,
multiple functions in a single machine…draw work, forming, blanking, etc.
One would think that
getting the customer to believe in a totally new process—moving from
hydraulic pressworking to do the draw work in a progressive die
mechanical pressworking operation—is the toughest part of the job.
“Because we felt confident that we could switch the process over, we
had their blessing to proceed with prototyping, and, with that success,
on to prove all of the production tests for this part,” stated
Rolando. “We said that we could increase production rates by two or
three times over their older methods and so they came in and validated
our processes. And it all worked out beautifully. But it takes a special
kind of trust and respect between the customer and vendor to make
something like this work out. The SEYI link motion presses were key to
this success.”
“And
in the end, most of our customers don't care exactly what type of
process or what type of machinery you use,” adds Rolando. “What they
are interested in is that you are stable on your quality and that you
are competitive in price, and that you can deliver because you have the
capacity to produce what they request. But I can tell you that we feel
very comfortable that our SEYI presses are going to produce a stable
part and that we are going to produce a stable part with processes that
no one in the past thought could be done.”
A big part of these
capabilities comes from a R&D Center that was introduced in 1999.
The operation is focused in developing new tooling designs…engineering
high tech automation and robotics technologies…utilizing the latest in
CAD/CAM design…incorporating wire EDM for tooling production…and most
important, ensuring Gobar’s total involvement of the manufacturing
process—from the front end concepting and design throughout the entire
tooling build and tryout. They have also integrated a strategy of
utilizing press sensors to help with improving press operations and
part inspection.
Pertaining to part
quality, Gobar has met the challenges of tight tolerance stampings that
both automotive and electronics markets are asking for. Dimensional
tolerances can be as tight as one-tenth of a millimeter on some parts.
“We have great presses to make this happen on a regular basis, but it
takes all of the elements of the process…the die design, the precision
of the feed equipment and all other elements are just as critical,”
Rolando says. “It’s important that you've got your coil payoff in line
and you don't have issues such as camber. All of these factors and
more are important to a good quality operation.”
The Importance of Reliability/Uptime to a Mexican Stamper
Gobar
has been utilizing SEYI presses for more than twenty years and the
reliability factor has been key to why they endorse their performance.
And this is especially important when you’re talking about a region of
the world in which next-door parts and service support isn’t readily
available.
“They’ve really held up
to the promises made from the early days,” states Rolando. “ Our press
uptime has been great and whenever we’ve had some type of issue,
they’ve been quick to respond to our needs. These presses have evolved
from dry clutches to the use of more reliable wet clutch technology.
And our uptime seems to be better with the link motion technology…not
to mention it’s faster and delivers better quality parts. In our
experience, SEYI just doesn't sell you and then abandon you. They’ve
worked with us on as-needed repair issues promptly and they’ve set us
up on a good preventive maintenance schedule. They've been training
us so well that our technicians are fairly self-sufficient for
maintenance and repair work. As for the factors of investment price and
overall quality and performance, we are more than satisfied with our
SEYI presses.”
On Gobar’s Future…
Gobar views overall growth and
improvements in two areas. The first one can be found in their training
commitments. The company operates their own “corporate university”, a
place in which their people (other local companies send key personnel
there for training, too) are sent for various training disciplines.
Their overall purpose is to “enable our associate’s competencies to
achieve the goals and objectives of the organization with a strong
emphasis on a culture of discipline, quality, precision and teamwork.” A
wide range of subjects are taught including CAD/CAM and other
programming, mechanical engineering, management, quality control and
others. It is a focused learning environment that they feel that no area
training center can match to fulfill their needs.
Secondly, they see a
growth in being able to do more sub-assembly work across a wide range
of materials. “Our customers are continuing to reduce their supplier
base, and for us to keep existing work and grow into new opportunities,
we’re finding ways to process sub-assemblies with metals and plastics
or composites or even the new higher strength steels or other metals,”
adds Rolando. “Our goal is to be able to keep the customer happy with
the increasing value-added services that they are looking for.”
Does your facility currently use a full revolution press? If
so, you should know these types of presses are not compliant with current OHSA
1910.217 standards. A full revolution press is only capable of stopping at top
dead center and safeguarding a full revolution press is more complicated than
it is with air clutch presses. I have had conversations with many engineering
managers who are interested in “bringing the machine into compliance”, but what
these companies are not aware of is that the cost of bringing these machines
into compliance often exceeds the original cost or the cost of a replacement.
Some highlights of the OHSA standard requirements are: 1) The press must have a single stroke mechanism usually this applies to machines with foot treadles. The system would then only run through one cycle and would have to be activated again before it went through another. This is usually accomplished by adding a mechanical retrofit device or a conversion to a two hand trip control system. 2) If the press is equipped with a two hand trip device, it must have anti repeat capability so only one stroke occurs. 3) Two hand trips must require concurrent use of both hands to initiate a stroke. 4) The press must have a main power component capable of being locked off. 5) The press must have an under voltage starter with under voltage protection. 6) The press must also have an appropriate point of operation safeguarding.
You can see this is an involved process and expenses can add
up quickly. There is a very good chance that you would be able to add a new
press complete with a warranty that could make your production more efficient
to your facility for just as much or even less than it would take to modify the
older non-compliant press that is on your floor. We will even discuss the removal
of your old press with you.
Our distributors and project managers specialize in matching
you with a machine that meets your needs and keeps your facility safe from
fines and injuries that can occur with a non-compliant machine. We look forward
to sharing more information with you.
For Immediate Release: SEYI America and SEYI Mexico Double Sales and
Service Support
August
3, 2015- Tullahoma, TN, SEYI America and SEYI Mexico are pleased announce the
addition ofnew hires for
both sales and service support throughout North America. For SEYI-America, three new field service
technicians, an inside technician, and a sales support administrator have been
added at the Tullahoma TN Sales and Service Center. At the Walnut, CA and Cleveland, OH offices,
additional sales managers have been added to bolster territory support. In
Mexico, another service technician and sales manager have been added to the
Monterrey, NL Sales and Service Center.
According
to Lanny Griffin, V.P. of SEYI-America Sales and Service, “With the addition of
the new employees and some internal re-organization, we’ve more than doubled our support
and service in a little more than a year.
We have up-scaled our communication with SEY’s other global divisions, enhanced our large, turnkey project and
servo resources, boosted our factory-direct service and partnered service providers,
and are stocking more inventory presses and spare parts in Tennessee,
California, and Mexico.”
A
major emphasis for the new hires has been in response to more large, turnkey and servo projects:
“Virtually
all of our projects are becoming turnkey, with more and more global
interaction,” states Scott Braito, Large Press Systems Division Manager.
“The additional internal personnel and service partners better prepare
us to manage the complexities.”
“For servo projects,” Says Randy Kish, Servo Press Division
Manager, “we’re developing the next layer. Our current U.S. and Mexico servo technicians
have hundreds of hours of servo experience. We’re adding to this, and can now
fully implement application support and customer
training.”
The
added resources at SEYI-America and SEYI-Mexico have residual gain by
amplifying SEYI’s factory-direct support forcustomers doing business in the U.S., Mexico and other
parts of Latin America.
“With our customers doing “business without
borders”, there are natural expectations to have “borderless” suppliers,” says
to Alberto Garcia, RSM – Latin America Division. “We know that factory-direct
support this is the best way to achieve this, and we’re making the
investments.”
According
to Horacio Peña Villarreal, RSM-SEYI-Mexico, “The additional personnel at the Monterrey N.L. Sales and Service Center are part of planned expansion since
opening the office last May. “In addition, we are also supplying more spare
parts,” having recently started stocking Wintriss controls components (Wintriss is SEYI’s standard
controls and automation supplier).
This is a huge value to our customers doing business in both the U.S.
and Mexico. We can provide much better
response by having the parts readily available.”
Defining Gobar’s Capabilities
Evolving from “Delphi heavy” into Other Non-Automotive Opportunities
Tooling Up To Meet Future Challenges
But
it demanded more than just the need for higher tonnage presses for
bigger part production. It required a much broader vision toward
delivering the complete answer to the customer. And to maintain that
competitive edge, Gobar invested in building their own dies, became much
more involved in the design end of the process (overall part design
and the manufacturability of the part’s production), improving
production training and greater understanding of the manufacturing
process for their associates, and driving the organization to become
more value-added in their overall mindset. And a diversification into
markets never served before, as well as increasing their overall
capabilities to produce tougher jobs. “Today, we can produce both simple
stampings and more complex parts/assemblies…our niche is making what
others around us cannot do,” says Rolando. 
Link Motion Presses Key To Future Growth
“And
in the end, most of our customers don't care exactly what type of
process or what type of machinery you use,” adds Rolando. “What they
are interested in is that you are stable on your quality and that you
are competitive in price, and that you can deliver because you have the
capacity to produce what they request. But I can tell you that we feel
very comfortable that our SEYI presses are going to produce a stable
part and that we are going to produce a stable part with processes that
no one in the past thought could be done.”
Gobar
has been utilizing SEYI presses for more than twenty years and the
reliability factor has been key to why they endorse their performance.
And this is especially important when you’re talking about a region of
the world in which next-door parts and service support isn’t readily
available.
Gobar views overall growth and
improvements in two areas. The first one can be found in their training
commitments. The company operates their own “corporate university”, a
place in which their people (other local companies send key personnel
there for training, too) are sent for various training disciplines.
Their overall purpose is to “enable our associate’s competencies to
achieve the goals and objectives of the organization with a strong
emphasis on a culture of discipline, quality, precision and teamwork.” A
wide range of subjects are taught including CAD/CAM and other
programming, mechanical engineering, management, quality control and
others. It is a focused learning environment that they feel that no area
training center can match to fulfill their needs.
