Supplier concentration

Machinery received an email from rapid manufacturing and prototype specialist CRDM, High Wycombe, which was at pains to highlight that it "currently has sufficient supply of materials to continue with the manufacture of PA12 components. However, at the present time, CRDM can no longer supply parts manufactured from Glass Filled PA12-GF". The statement continued: "CRDM is taking this opportunity to replace the PA12-GF product with a PA11-GF material, which is expected to exhibit some improved characteristics over the traditional PA12-GF material. This new PA11-GF is undergoing trials at the present time, and it is expected that it will be available shortly." What was it all about? Apparently, on 31 March 2012, a fire and explosion destroyed an Evonik manufacturing facility that plays a major role in the manufacture of materials used to produce Polyamide 12 (PA12), so-called CDT. The plant is expected to be out of action for several months and existing suppliers are already working at capacity, according to an Associated Press (AP) report. This event, explained the CRDM statement, has had a severe impact across many industries, so all users of PA12, including rapid prototype providers worldwide, are likely to be affected by this incident. Those other industries include the automotive sector, which employs PA12 in nylon used to make plastic car parts – pipelines and other items. According to the AP report, few, if any, plastics can do what it does. Following the explosion at Evonik, DuPont CEO Ellen Kullman, a former General Motors board member, said her company is working with car makers to develop alternatives. But any substitute plastic would have to go through rigorous testing to make sure it would work for a specific automotive part, the AP report suggests, quoting Sadhan Jana, a professor of polymer engineering at the University of Akron in Ohio, with such tests taking months. However, another report indicated that car makers will not be unduly disrupted. According to www.plasteurope.com, the Specialty Polymers business division of Belgian plastics and chemicals producer Solvay is providing automotive customers with two resins that can replace PA 12. And it says that some car makers have already swapped to its 'Amodel' polyphthalamide. And, in fact, Evonik is also reported as offering alternatives that do not require CDT as a precursor to the automotive industry. Returning to rapid prototyping and a material suppler in this market is also putting out soothing information. RP Support, remarking on the global shortage of the Nylon 12 polyamide, says it can offer an alternative range of materials based on Nylon 11. The Nylon 11 materials are being utilised successfully by a number of aerospace manufacturing companies such as Boeing for parts in the 787 Dreamliner aircraft, Bell Helicopters and for F18 fighter jets, says the company. RP Support also highlights that the introduction of PA 815-GS, a new off-white, highly glass-sphere filled Nylon 11 powder is a functional replacement for the Nylon 12 glass-filled material PA 615-GS that is also affected by the factory fire. Perhaps the panic is already past, but this incident, and the headlines generated, highlight the drama that can follow a supply chain incident and this is, perhaps, a lesson in making sure that companies take time to understand such supplier concentrations and consider a plan. First published in Machinery, June 2012