Changing at the speed of light.

Laser light, to be specific, is helping change the face of manufacturing in Saskatchewan as it has around the world.

Whether you call it 'just-in-time' or 'lean' manufacturing, shortening the time it takes to get raw steel from coil form to finished products allows for reduced production times, improved inventory management, quicker turnaround times for finished product and a natural division of steps in the manufacturing process.

But to get the full sense of how laser technology has redefined the very initial phases of manufacturing it is important to understand how it was once done.

Components as small as washers or as large as shovels on highway graders were punched, cut with torch or an intermediate cutting technology to laser - plasma. Further machining and finishing was required to ensure the component could be placed in the jig or mold for final assembly and welding.

These steps in the production process lengthened the time of delivery, took employees outside of their required roles and left many finished products, which while designed to be exact duplicates of each other, actually ended up with small differences.

These differences were commonplace and acceptable when small numbers of units were being produced. But as with any industry, as consolidation takes place and fewer manufacturers with longer production runs occur, the need to have components, replacement parts and a level of standardization to allow for warranty work and parts inventory then becomes critical in servicing the product after the initial sale.

This has becomes increasingly important as local and domestic markets shrink in relation to many manufacturers' total market scope. Products once destined for your neighbor are now shipped worldwide.

From machine shops full of torches, plasma cutters, grinders, and milling machines, the component manufacturers of the past are gradually being changed to facilities with as much or more technology as the 'normal' office environment.

Couple this with technology that allows for precise construction of parts as small as a loonie to as large as a panel on the side of a garbage truck and you have the emergence of businesses like Precision Industries. Located in Regina just north of one of Canada's most profitable steel companies, Precision Industries has been laser-cutting metals, primarily steel, for more than half a decade.

President Gary Zaremba and marketing and sales director Lee Woods have had six years to not only understand the technology of laser cutting, but also the associated technologies of computer assisted design (AutoCad) and computer numerically controlled (CNC) machines such as their Trumph lasers. But they have spent their time working with customers like Brandt Industries' agriculture division in changing processes at both facilities to get laser technology as a critical component of 'just-in-time' or 'lean' manufacturing.

"I'm still amazed some days because I know when Brandt phones and they need parts to keep their production facility working at full speed we can do it," says Zaremba. "Our shop can take steel, which is just days old from Ipsco, have our programmers make any necessary design changes and then laser cut two, 200 or 2,000 identical parts which Brandt doesn't have to modify."

Lee Woods says the sales process involves educating their clients. "Fabricators of all sizes from across Western Canada are beginning to find out laser cutting can make parts faster and more efficiently than previous methods," he says. "It means they can forget about part manufacturing and inventory."

"When we can combine three or four functions by cutting components with the laser, customers like Brandt are able to reallocate resources to assembly and marketing;' Woods continues. "It allows them to narrow and refine their focus."

"It really comes down to letting the customer concentrate on what they are good at, while we concentrate on what we're good at. Both companies seem to benefit from the change."

Whether they are used for scanning packages at the store, corrective eye surgery at the optometrist or listening to your favorite CD, laser technology and its applications are growing as fast as is the growth at Precision Industries.

It's all the same technology, or at least the same principle exclaims Ross Woods, brother to Lee and a former journeyman electrician by trade and today production manager at Precision Industries.

"Energy, electrical energy is coupled with laser active material, in the case of Precision Industries the material is [CO.sub.2] or a combination of three gases, [CO.sub.2], Helium and Nitrogen," Ross Woods says.

Initially housed in an area which today has only a shipping area and office, the facility has grown in step with its customers, of which more and more are demanding high-quality parts in short time frames to meet the needs of this modified manufacturing process.

"We have an addition underway which will see us increase our laser cutting ability," states Zaremba, "and we are also carefully calculating the additional needs of our 'just-in-time' customers as a means of further outsourcing portions of the manufacturing process. It only makes sense to have complementary functions completed in one place away from the fabrication stage."

While Precision Industries' primary business is laser cutting, a young group of highly skilled forming operators is emerging to meet a growing demand in this segment as well. Add to this a computer-controlled torch, plasma and shear, and Precision Industries affords customers a wide range of metal fabrication with tolerances in the millimetre- and single-degree-range.

The future looks as bright and optimistic as the past, as manufacturers begin to see the advantages and savings associated with the concept of lean manufacturing, aided by laser cutting in Western Canada.

In fact, its success can only benefit from the work of individuals like Jim Semple and Harold Gartner, managers from Brandt who are among a group representing manufacturers, suppliers and interested parties structuring a provincial organization to discuss issues, opportunities and the obvious benefits of laser technology and any other enhancements that can get their operations more efficient and profitable.

"At the end of the day," says Zaremba, "all we want is to help make our customers and us more profitable. It makes it a lot easier to hire people that way."