Partnership nets big savings Market forces led global North American operations director for manufacturer Sauer-Danfoss Co. to Sauer-Danfoss. partner with toolmaker Unimerco Inc., Bryant and Mann identified and Saline, Mich., on custom tooling for drilling prioritized holemaking processes that ductile iron. The collaborative effort saved could be optimized. They developed significant money for Sauer-Danfoss at the tooling and process optimization one of its manufacturing facilities. The strategies, and tested and proved the company manufactures hydraulic and technology. Test data was analyzed electronic components for mobile off-road and compared with the original tooling machinery. strategies. A couple years ago, business was almost too good for Chip Bryant, a SauerDanfoss manufacturing engineer. The company’s Easley, S.C., plant was struggling to keep up with demand even though its nine machines were running round-the-clock. “On a daily basis, we had to get dispositions on parts, and our times weren’t what they needed to be,” Bryant said. To meet demand, SauerDanfoss officials were considering outsourcing some of the Easley plant work, but Unimerco offered another solution. In 2006, employees from the two firms began to work on custom tools at the Sauer-Danfoss plant in Nordborg, Denmark. In the fall of that year, SauerDanfoss executive Poul H. Christensen brought some of the new tools being used at the Denmark facility to the Easley plant. Gary Mann, Unimerco tool specialist, saw the tools’ Unimerco advantages and knew they Based on initial results, Gary Mann (left), Unimerco tool could be applied to the Easley specialist, knew the toolmaker’s custom tools could facility, but Bryant wasn’t sold be successfully applied at Sauer-Danfoss’ Easley, S.C., plant, but Chip Bryant, a Sauer-Danfoss manufacturing so quickly. “I was concerned engineer, wanted extensive data to confirm process with putting all our eggs in optimization. one basket,” Bryant said. “The pricing of the tool seemed excessive.” “We took our biggest quality problems The facility had some production issues. and addressed them first,” Bryant said. It operated different makes and models of “Once we got the tools in and did a toolmachinery, leading to some problems with by-tool comparison, the price per unit product consistency. Delivery demands decreased. It turned into a cost savings.” were increasing at the same time. Decisions on whether to implement the “We weren’t standardized, and we’d had new tools were data-driven. Time studies a lot of quality issues,” said David Duvall, were conducted on the processes being
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