Exceptional Results in Manufacturing

THE CHALLENGE

Amidst concerns of impending currency fluctuations affecting the ability of their Canadian facility to remain cost-competitive, Carpedia was engaged by a large agricultural manufacturer to find process improvements to control operating costs.  All areas of the business were in-scope including: Manufacturing, Supply Management, Maintenance, Quality, Experimental and Shipping.  Further complicating the situation was the heavily unionized environment which threatened to constrain the pace at which changes needed to be made.

THE RESULTS

Productivity improvements of between 12% and 33% were realized across in-scope areas.  These results were driven through:

• Re-balancing of welding lines to reduce cycle times and balance the workload
• Eliminating redundant process steps within the welding processes
• Implementation of a cross-training program to increase scheduling flexibility of the workforce
• Improvements to scheduling resulting in a reduction in the number of machine set-ups and an increase in value-added engineering time
• Increasing the number of machines per operator
• Reduction of double-handling of inbound and outbound shipments
• Standardization of maintenance work order assignments
• Identification and removal of redundant quality checks
• Re-organized yard storage layout
• Installation of a flag system to trigger material replenishment