Handling Increased Demand

CLIENT:               

Refrigeration and HVAC manufacturer

PROBLEM:          

The customer demand had suddenly increased by more than double the quantities of the pleated filters they had been purchasing for years.  They needed a higher quantity and they needed it quickly with very short turnaround while continuing to be able to produce the other items our client and our other customers required.  The parts in question come in two different pleat heights.

PROCESS:           

We looked at how best to optimize our production.  We looked at the benefits of running another shift and running overtime and possibly bringing on more staff.  The problem was that even with increasing the staff and overtime, we still would have difficulty being able to produce the filters in the timeframe requested by our customer because we could not make enough of the pleated material to meet the demand.

SOLUTION:        

The most viable solution to our production challenge was to purchase a new pleating machine.  By running a second pleater, we were able to run two different pleat heights simultaneously.  This provided us an ample supply of both of the pleated materials.  We were able to meet the increasing demand for this particular customer and also decreased our overall lead time for all of our customers.