When a CNC metal spinner, its steel supplier and the OEM customer collaborated to redesign a part and improve its production process, they reduced lead times by 70 percent and developed a part that is virtually unbreakable. Intimate collaboration among partners-metalformer, supplier and customer-can lead to breakthrough solutions to manufacturing problems. It did just that for Tiger Corp., Sioux Falls, SD, thanks to help from its metalforming supplier, Glenn Metalcraft, Princeton, MN, and its steel supplier, Olympic Steel, Minneapolis, MN. Tiger's TrucKat, a 14,370-lb. truck-mounted lawn mower, is a favorite of many local and regional maintenance crews nationwide. The steel disks used in each mower, as drives for its spindle and mounts for its whirling cutting knives, were one of the TrucKat's few manufacturing-related challenges. These 37-in.-dia. disks, costly three-part weldments, required multiple suppliers and several steps to manufacture. Tiger had to stock excessive inventory due to the long lead times to make the disks. Though it had always contracted with suppliers to make each disk, Brian Hardy, Tiger's engineering manager, continued to search for a metal spinner that could fabricate the 37-in. disks from one blank of heavy-gauge steel.
展开▼
