In one recent example, IKO supplied a medical device manufacturer with linear guides for a telescoping action. The story begins when a design engineer at the customer, which has an existing relationship with IKO, first approached the company at the Engineering Design Show (EDS, which returns 12-13 October 2022 in Coventry).
At the patient end of the arm, the most important design factor was compactness, to allow as much space as possible to be able to incorporate other vital components, such as electronics, in the minimum spatial envelope possible. IKO’s product range goes down to a 1mm rail, which is the smallest in the world. Such designs help product designers to eliminate mass, which causes all kinds of problems in machinery, because of the need to overcome its inertia when controlling motion that might be highly dynamic.
Given the brief, the Sales Engineer initially suggested the compact ML ball-type linear guides, but following further conversations, the low-profile, 6.5mm-height MLF linear bearing was specified instead, to save 0.5mm of height.
The low-profile product is not difficult to get, but it can be a longer lead time than the more common ML ball-type linear guides, which could pose problems when, hopefully, the robot would go into serial production. IKO UK’s General Manager describes these concerns, of which IKO staff are always mindful, as about mitigating supply risk. He says: “Often customers have just picked something from our catalogue. While it may be a standard product, we know that it might not be made in the same volume as more common products.” Production volumes can vary by more than 100 times between ranges, he points out.
A related IKO preoccupation is scrutinising design priorities, particularly in key areas, points out IKO UK’s Business and Operations Manager. For example, he might ask the customer: ‘How critical is the height? Is it so critical that we could grind off 1mm off the bottom of the rail, but that increases the bearing price six times?’ He reflects: “Then you find out how critical it is. Nine times out of ten, they come back and say, ‘we can get away with that’. It’s almost better to push the customers and let them bring it back.”
Sometimes great customer service comes about by continuing to ask probing questions, even after the order. The Business and Operations Manager recalls a conversation he had a few months ago with a customer which had specified a linear guide for a scientific machine, placed an order with another supplier, but contacted IKO out of concerns with the lead times it had been quoted for the part.
After he admitted that IKO couldn’t match the competitor’s lead times, he still went on to question the customer’s choice of guide, saying: ‘I know that this ball-type unit that you’re going to go for is a lot cheaper, but looking at your application, don’t you need more rigidity?’ Next thing, the contact spoke to a colleague, came back with another question, and eventually cancelled the order from the competitor and placed an order with IKO for its roller-based solution.
The Business and Operations Manager adds: “Our roller-type linear guide solution was probably 50% more expensive, but it worked on their application. Even when we get to that point, it’s still worth checking,” he points out, adding that the cost increment is likely to be trivial on a machine whose overall price can be up to 1,000 times as much.
He adds: “We could have quite easily said, ‘We can’t compete with that; let us know when you have budget again.’ And had IKO said so, what if the customer had come back, and questioned its attentiveness, saying: ‘What we bought was no good – why didn’t you pick up on that?’”
To avoid problems either getting too involved in the design, or not involved enough, IKO’s mantra when recommending linear guide solutions, is to suggest, rather than select. “The worst thing we can do is push a customer in a corner to use a particular product, which they do, and then they waste six months testing it when you know that it might not be the best option. It’s better to say up front, ‘We’re 50-50 on it’. The choice is theirs to make, but it’s better to have an informed decision and have the facts than to be pushed.”
He adds: “People want us to improve what they’re doing. It’s about having that knowledge and understanding to dig a little further – [customers] might not have considered half of the stuff that you’re going to talk to them about. “Once you start talking to them, you open up their mind about what could happen by using that product.”
To sum up, a huge product range, in-depth knowledge and a critical thinking approach to design briefs: these elements of IKO’s customer service are the secret to its success.
