Transformational Change and Aligned Operations Drove Short-Term Sales Growth, 53% Margin Improvement, and 70% Capacity Expansion for Scalable Growth

The Challenge

A large racking manufacturer required a current state production roadmap and longer-term facility strategy to meet a significant growth opportunity. The company had multiple facilities spread across a medium sized market creating significant transportation and labors costs while creating production bottlenecks. The leadership team needed a thought partner to assist in understanding the feasibility of consolidating into a single facility. Simultaneously they needed a short-term path to expand current throughput to meet initial incremental orders.

Our Approach

• Identified paint and weld work centers as the immediate production bottleneck
  • Deployed a series of rapid improvement projects to standardize weld, balance labor and material flow, and reduce unit changeovers to double daily output
  • Implemented daily metrics, leader standard work and problem solving to develop an Operational System to drive issue resolution
  • Alleviated paint line constraints by reducing speed variation across product lines and outsourcing non-critical products
• Prioritized machining, roll forming and robotic weld constraints to further expand capacity in the existing footprint
  • Replicated tenets of the Operational System to provide daily visibility to performance and problem solving
  • Initiated a series of rapid improvement events to improve changeovers, tooling and material flow resulting in a 50 – 100% improvement in output
  • Developed a make-for-stock program to streamline scheduling and reduce stock outs on high volume items common across several product
• Completed a comprehensive real estate assessment, detailed layout and project plan to re-locate to a build to fit facility
  • Modeled current and future capacity requirements to finalize future square foot requirements
  • Included future storage, production assets, material movement/egress, technology enhancements and office space into the detailed layout
  • Created a project plan that itemized an 18-month buildout and move

The Results

• Demonstrated 53% contribution margin improvement in year one while simultaneously meeting increased customer demand through capacity expansion
• New facility identified able to support 70% increase in top line revenue growth