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Client: OEM -Hydraulics Industry

Topic: Conversion of Plates family from Casting to Bar

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Situation
Our client:

Patterns were in terrible shape, and a family of parts came from numerous patterns

Foundry went out of business.

Volume on mature part dropped off.

High fallout from castings after machining

Selected GEM because of our ability to work with them to find solutions to their technology, process, quality, costs, and inventory needs. Our ability to provide a turn-key experience.

Challenges
The challenges facing GEM included:

  • Launch family of 15 plates to market in a shortened time window
  • Re-PPAP the family of parts from casting to bar stock
  • Develop an inventory pull system to meet customer’s uneven demand requirements.

Actions
The actions we took to address these challenges included:

  • CAD/CAM all of the part prints using AutoCAD and MasterCAM
  • Worked closely with the customer on suitable material, draft and feature changes
  • Worked closely with our supply base on tooling technologies to hold finishes to meet the print
  • Worked with supply base on an inventory program at supplier for various sized bar conversions
  • nstalled an Inventory system of raw stock on hand at GEM to produce cover sizes in quick turn around in quantities and part sequences.

Results
Our actions resulted in:

  • Improved the lead time from 15 weeks to 3 weeks to produce and deliver.
  • Added in Kanban inventory system to smooth out the spikes in our customer’s demand.
  • Rolling change from Castings to bar stock with no down time to the customer

Frequently Asked Questions

Feel free to shoot us an email at sales@GEM-mfg.com or on twitter @robgemmfg