Industrial Valve Mfg.

Assignment

Our client is a manufacturer of industrial valves in a variety of sizes and was having difficulty meeting delivery requirements and manufacturing costs.

Actions

MainStream conducted a technical assessment that revealed several factors causing the Company's problems. Thousands of valve components were produced and then stored in internal warehouses. When customer orders were sent to the shop, the materials person would go to the warehouse and, using a pick list, collect the parts and take them to the assembly area. Parts were often missing and the assemblers could not do their jobs. Further investigations revealed that the cause for warehousing the thousands of parts was due to several special machines that required eight- hour set-ups. To amortize the set-up costs, the machines would over-produce components. MainStream taught the Company how to reduce the set-up times to 20 minutes and organize the machines into a cell that produced all components required for assembly.

Results

Inventory was reduced by 85%, lead time was improved from three weeks to three days, labor was reduced by 50%, and on-time deliveries rose to 97%. Deliveries became so predictable that the company was able to implement a quick shipment program promising customers their order would be shipped on time or they would receive a 30% discount. Sales increased for both items on the quick ship schedule as well as made-to-order valves.