Success Stories

MEP Member

Iowa Manufacturing Extension Partnership

Story Title

ASMC Member Providing Hands-On Help through the Iowa Manufacturing Extension Partnership

Client Profile

Double HH Manufacturing Co., Inc. is located in Rock Valley, Iowa, and has approximately 50 employees. Founded in 1970, Double HH Manufacturing specializes in manufacturing components machined to customer specifications. Custom made products include: pins and shafts, bushings and bearing spacers, screw machine components, hitchpins, bent pins, welded collar pins and a full line of stock agricultural equipment components.

Situation

The Quality Management Representative identified that the Double HH Manufacturing was falling short of a company performance metric, which was to meet the production schedule 90 percent of the time. The schedule was being met only 75 percent of the time, which was causing late deliveries to the customers. The question became, what was causing this problem, and how does it get corrected? The Iowa Manufacturing Extension Partnership (IMEP), a NIST MEP network affiliate, and the Center for Industrial Research and Service (CIRAS) was contacted for assistance.

Solution

Under the direction of a CIRAS field specialist, a team was created and trained in the use of a problem solving process that would identify and ultimately eliminate the factors that were causing the scheduling delays. Root causes of the problems were identified and solutions were implemented.

Results

• Improved production scheduling 75 percent to 90 percent of target times for 6-month period.
• Improved customer delivery requirements.

Testimonial

“The success of this project has been achieved by breaking the overall problem into smaller issues that are more easily managed by individual department heads and machine operators. During this same time period, sales have increased.”
Garry Janssen, Quality Management Representative