The initial purchase price for a CMM is just the beginning of the investment, there are many costs that come with CMM ownership that goes beyond the price that you pay on the purchase order.
The first one that most owners run into are the expenses that go with the training provided with the CMM. While almost all CMMs come with some kind of training included, this training is typically offsite at the OEMs facility. If you are lucky enough to be within driving distance of a facility the cost is minimized, but if not, you face Travel expenses that are at minimum hotel costs, meals, and transportation. There is also overtime that may be involved due to the distance traveled by the employee. This is then compounded by the fact that the efficiency of your employees after they come out of training (learning curve) is compounded by the fact that the training is done on standardized parts and the must learn to apply theory of the training to your actual parts. Onsite training is much more effective provided the trainer will work with your parts and applications in teaching
The next cost that lies hidden is the software maintenance and support, most OEMs provide only one year of support and upgrades with the product, after that year is up, they will insist in the purchase of a software contract which can be as little a $1,000.00 per year to get this turned back on, but depending on options and software configurations can run more than $6,000.00 per year
Another hidden cost deals with those company that use proprietary products in critical components of their machines. If the OEM uses Renishaw products such as the PH10 these can typically be obtained over night and can be exchanged by the CMM operator with minimal or no support, the cost is typically less that $5,000.00. If you deal with a proprietary product, you not only have to pay the exchange rate for the probe from the OEM, ($6,000.00 or more is typical) you then have to wait for a service technician to be available to install that part that can be over a week, depending on your location, thus not only paying in excess of $8000.00 to $10,000.00 for the service call but also the hidden cost of machine down time which can limit your ability to ship products to your customers
Another cost is calibration, a typical calibration from an OEM is in excess of $2,000.00 and they control the compensation software that precludes you from using other sources that could be half the price or less, so if possible, you should look for systems with an open compensation map. Another cost of calibration is frequency, typical OEM will recommend an annual calibration, while it is your quality systems that should set the calibration interval cycle based on your actual use of the system.
Service Rates are another cost while they may seam simple based on hourly rates you need to look at hidden charges for things such as equipment rentals, (which are required to do the job but not part of the base price), charges for processing travel expenses, minimum daily charges, premiums on travel costs. That are hidden within the service rate sheets
Training costs and ease of software use are other charges that you will eventually incur, while none of us like to lose employees this will eventually happen and training cost should be part of your ownership calculation. Most software’s typically require two stages of training to be effective basic and advanced at $1,500.00 to $5,000.00 per person per class this can add up to a rather large investment, the similar the software the easier to use the lower the cost of training.
All of these costs are directly tied to the initial purchase of the CMM and should be considered in the purchase of the machine you will buy
The first one that most owners run into are the expenses that go with the training provided with the CMM. While almost all CMMs come with some kind of training included, this training is typically offsite at the OEMs facility. If you are lucky enough to be within driving distance of a facility the cost is minimized, but if not, you face Travel expenses that are at minimum hotel costs, meals, and transportation. There is also overtime that may be involved due to the distance traveled by the employee. This is then compounded by the fact that the efficiency of your employees after they come out of training (learning curve) is compounded by the fact that the training is done on standardized parts and the must learn to apply theory of the training to your actual parts. Onsite training is much more effective provided the trainer will work with your parts and applications in teaching
The next cost that lies hidden is the software maintenance and support, most OEMs provide only one year of support and upgrades with the product, after that year is up, they will insist in the purchase of a software contract which can be as little a $1,000.00 per year to get this turned back on, but depending on options and software configurations can run more than $6,000.00 per year
Another hidden cost deals with those company that use proprietary products in critical components of their machines. If the OEM uses Renishaw products such as the PH10 these can typically be obtained over night and can be exchanged by the CMM operator with minimal or no support, the cost is typically less that $5,000.00. If you deal with a proprietary product, you not only have to pay the exchange rate for the probe from the OEM, ($6,000.00 or more is typical) you then have to wait for a service technician to be available to install that part that can be over a week, depending on your location, thus not only paying in excess of $8000.00 to $10,000.00 for the service call but also the hidden cost of machine down time which can limit your ability to ship products to your customers
Another cost is calibration, a typical calibration from an OEM is in excess of $2,000.00 and they control the compensation software that precludes you from using other sources that could be half the price or less, so if possible, you should look for systems with an open compensation map. Another cost of calibration is frequency, typical OEM will recommend an annual calibration, while it is your quality systems that should set the calibration interval cycle based on your actual use of the system.
Service Rates are another cost while they may seam simple based on hourly rates you need to look at hidden charges for things such as equipment rentals, (which are required to do the job but not part of the base price), charges for processing travel expenses, minimum daily charges, premiums on travel costs. That are hidden within the service rate sheets
Training costs and ease of software use are other charges that you will eventually incur, while none of us like to lose employees this will eventually happen and training cost should be part of your ownership calculation. Most software’s typically require two stages of training to be effective basic and advanced at $1,500.00 to $5,000.00 per person per class this can add up to a rather large investment, the similar the software the easier to use the lower the cost of training.
All of these costs are directly tied to the initial purchase of the CMM and should be considered in the purchase of the machine you will buy
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