Success Stories Index >Grand Island
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GRAND ISLAND--OVERHEAD DOOR CORPORATION
Overhead Door is one of the most recognized and respected brands in the garage door industry. Its nationwide network of more than 450 authorized Ribbon Distributors serve the United States, Canada and Mexico. The company is a leading provider of overhead garage door systems, including its popular upward lifting garage door, and offers hundreds of products in standard and custom forms, including variations in steel, wood, aluminum, insulation type, and colors.
From commercial and industrial overhead doors and access systems to residential garage doors and openers, Overhead Door combines quality, dependable products with reliable service giving home and business owners peace of mind.
Request for NBDC Lean Consulting
Because Overhead Door views the garage as an extension of one’s home, garage door systems are manufactured to customers’ specifications and needs. In fact, the market-driven company is fueled by the voice of its customer—an approach that has led to the creation of wide-ranging products to meet wide-ranging needs. To best serve extensive customer needs, maintain costs and identify continuous improvement opportunities, a Lean plan was developed. A priority was found to reduce the changeover time for the residential manufacturing lines. Consequently, the scope of the changeover project was unlimited as the Overhead Door team chose to evaluate for low cost–no cost immediate solutions and long-term opportunities.
A team from Overhead Door attended a “hands-on” NMEP training event on Set-up Reduction/Quick Changeover where participants analyzed and developed an implementation plan for the company. Following this training, the Overhead Door Team returned to work and a SMED event was held to evaluate the 350 residential manufacturing line changeover processes. The Overhead Door team was cross functional in its makeup, including participants from management, engineering, and production personnel. During the event, the team evaluated the process and looked for opportunities to reduce internal task times and move as many tasks to external as possible.
Results from implementing immediate and long-term solutions
The low cost no cost solutions supported a reduction in complete line changeovers by 38%. The die table expenditure will facilitate a reduction of 46% of the original time. The software upgrade with material die entry guides was a byproduct of the event that will save the Corporation $56K annually in scrap material costs after a 17-month payback period.
"The NBDC SMED training course taught the team the fundamental principles associated with quick changeover. The training ensured that the team had the tools necessary to hit the ground running and make changes that would have a positive financial impact for the corporation." --Jason Peterson, Manufacturing Engineer |
