(a truck seating manufacturer) the day before Dauch arrived. Within18 months, Imperial and Fabco were sold so that Accuride could reinvest the proceeds in its core business. Brillion Iron Works could have been next, but a closer look at the financials changed Dauch’s mind. “Part of Brillion’s business was cast- ings sold to Gunite.” he said. “When we pulled the two units’ financials apart, we found that Brillion was sell- ing castings to Gunite at lower than market pricing and machining parts for Gunite, losing 30%. After looking at that, Brillion’s performance wasn’t as bad as we thought.” The Accuride management team
began looking at what needed to be done to improve Brillion. All machining was removed from Bril- lion and shifted to Gunite, where the company was significantly investing in the machining opera- tions. This left Brillion to focus solely on making castings. Its cost and pricing structures were re- evaluated. Money from the sales of Imperial and Fabco helped fund repairs and capital investments at Gunite and Brillion. Between 2011 and 2014, almost 65% of Brillion’s managers were replaced. “Te management team that is
now in place is focused on profitable operations utilizing modern manu-
Lean manufacturing techniques at Brillion Iron Works have improved lead times by more than 30%.
facturing practices and satisfying our customer’s requirements,” said Brad Rolfe, vice president, sales and marketing. Te new management, comprised
largely of engineers, quickly and steadily implemented lean manufac- turing throughout the operation. “We were put in a mindset to have an organized, clear mind for the busi- ness,” Adams said. “Te process wasn’t in control, and we used a structured process to identify where we needed to invest.”
Profitability Through Lean
As part of the lean process, Adams and the Brillion management team reorganized the facility’s four loosely coordinated buildings on site into two business units with separate profit and loss statements. Operations manage-
ment of each business unit, or plant, is accountable for operational effective- ness and discipline. Plant 1, or Plant Peters as Brillion calls it, melts 20 tons/hour, and Plant Gabler melts 40 tons/an hour. A third building, Plant Larson, houses maintenance and raw material. Te Peters and Gabler plants, or business units, have their own melt- ing, coremaking, molding and finish- ing operations. Using value stream mapping, the team identified areas in the process that were causing the biggest issues. “Te team developed action plans
and have realized fantastic results which include, but are not limited to, improving lead time by more than 30%, reducing days inventory on hand, increasing overall equipment effective- ness, better quality through improved process capability and increased productivity,” said Gregg Neumeyer, Brillion campus lean manager of manufacturing strategy and Plant Peters manager. Brillion implemented a schedule wheel in which production control sets the schedule, which smooths and levels production on the mold lines in a sequence that allows for the most efficient operation of the unit. “It’s critical to the foundry that
you don’t jump chemistries to move a customer in the schedule,” Adams said. Applying lean principles to produc-
tion scheduling freed up staff time that had been used to figure out when to pour a job. “We have also used lean for transac-
Finishing operations, such as grinding, were moved to a single plant location at Brillion Iron Works for better product flow. More investment is planned to further streamline grinding and shotpeening.
28 | MODERN CASTING October 2014
tions, from order entry to request for quote, and for safety and environment activities,” Neumeyer said. “Lean allowed this American company to recover.”
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