Learn how to reduce transportation waste with Elasto Proxy. These three examples explain.
Does your manufacturing company buy industrial rubber and plastic products? Elasto Proxy can help you to reduce transportation waste, the unnecessary movement of manufacturing resources outside of the area where production occurs. Transportation waste is one of eight types of manufacturing waste, but it’s especially important because it can reveal larger inefficiencies within your operation. Consider the following examples and then contact us to discuss how we can help you to reduce transportation waste.
Example 1: Heavy Equipment
A manufacturer of heavy equipment had a cabin headliner with as many as 30 components from two vendors. Workers picked parts individually and then walked the warehouse to bring each part to the assembly line. Elasto Proxy suggested kitting all of the parts for a build inside of a single box. The manufacturer accepted our advice and reduced two forms of transportation waste. Workers now make fewer trips from inventory to the assembly line, and all headliner shipments arrive from one nearby facility.
The benefits don’t end there either. Within each box, Elasto Proxy arranges the parts so that the part an assembler needs first is on top. By packaging the kitted parts in order of production, Elasto Proxy helps the manufacturer to reduce wasted motion, another form of manufacturing waste. By reducing the number of stocking units (SKUs) from 30 parts to a single box, Elasto Proxy also helps the company to cut inventory waste. Each week, we ship only as many boxes of parts as are needed for builds.
Example 2: Emergency Vehicles
A Midwestern manufacturer of emergency vehicles was buying rubber bulb trim from Europe, where its parent company is based. Lead times were long and stock-outs required expensive air freight. By working with Elasto Proxy, the North American branch of this multinational corporation slashed transportation waste. Shipping costs are lower from our Toronto-area facility than from Europe, and shipments arrive a lot sooner whether a purchase order is issued on-demand on in response to a sales forecast.
Working with Elasto Proxy also helped the emergency vehicle manufacturer to eliminate other forms of manufacturing waste. To avoid stockouts, the manufacturer bought rubber bulb trim from Europe in larger quantities than were needed. This tied-up cash and increased inventory costs since all of this extra rubber required storage. Today, the manufacturer buys rubber in smaller quantities (coils) from Elasto Proxy and trusts it can get the bulb trim it needs on short-notice. By avoiding stockouts that can stop assembly, the company is also reducing a form of manufacturing waste called waiting.
Example 3: Waste Management and Collection Vehicles
A North American manufacturer of waste management and collection vehicles was buying rubber from China for a product fabricated in Canada. The fabricator was consolidating shipments at its Quebec facility and then shipping finished products across Canada and to the United States and Mexico. The mobile equipment manufacturer liked the fabricator’s unit price but hadn’t considered transportation waste. That’s when Elasto Proxy leveraged its distributed capabilities, won the business, and saved the company between $15,000 and $20,000 in transportation costs.
Today, our Montreal-area facility fabricates and ships all of the finished products that the vehicle manufacturer needs for Quebec. Elasto Proxy’s Simpsonville, South Carolina facility then fabricates and ships all of the finished products for the U.S. and Mexico at a significant cost savings in transportation. As this example and others show, Elasto Proxy is much more than a gasket fabricator or a rubber distributor. We offer value-added solutions that include cost-saving consultations. To talk to a solutions provider, contact us.
