How HRE Performance Wheels reduced its assembly floor space and lead time by 50%
HRE Performance Wheels designs and manufactures forged aluminum alloy wheels for racing, performance & luxury cars and SUVs. Based in San Diego, California, HRE’s operations in their 30,000 square-foot factory cover everything from forging to powder coat painting in-house.
The problem the employees were contending with was that the inner and outer rim sections of a wheelset were being sent separately to different stages of production — which would often cause some parts being misplaced. Some of them would be at the washing station while others, at the blasting station or the machining center.
Read on to learn how HRE implemented a solution which would result in less time searching for lost parts and more efficiency when tracking orders.
The problem: too much time spent unloading, loading, and searching for parts
HRE Design’s 3-piece wheel kit requires up to 12 pieces to complete a 4-wheelset (inside, outside, and rim). Workers would be batching and stacking on pallets or placing wheel components anywhere on steel racking. The production manager would spend up to 4 or 5 hours a day locating parts on the floor. Worse yet, forklifts would periodically have to swerve from their designated path to avoid hitting a $75,000 set of machined wheels!
We were spending a lot of time loading and unloading parts to pallets/carts/shelving, and we were spending considerable time searching for parts
Supervisor — HRE Performance Wheels factory
The solution: a kitting cart for each order
Even though workers were a bit skeptical, the production manager prototyped and tested a modular tube and joint kitting cart to fit a 4-wheel order perfectly. Each order had its black kitting cart, creating a one-piece flow effect in the factory. The work order followed the flow cart on a simple hook that could not be removed.
Furthermore, red kitting carts were dedicated to rush orders for clients paying the rush fee, and blue kitting carts were devoted to return goods authorization.
One of my best days working here was when I took a sledgehammer to the old steel racking
David McBride — HRE’s operations manager
The results: lead time and assembly floor space reduced by 50%
Since implementing the material handling system, HRE has cut its lead time by 50%, resulting in less handling and less time wasted looking for misplaced parts. The production manager now saves 4 hours a day. The new carts offer better staging, better flow, better order tracking, and greater visual management, thanks to the color coding and the first-in-first-out floor marking for the carts.
