Case study — Agricultural equipment
Harvester frame program: from 14 weeks to 5
A harvester OEM consolidated four frame suppliers into one program with sequenced delivery.
The challenge
Frame deliveries arrived late and unsequenced; the customer's assembly line re-sequenced weekly and carried 14 weeks of buffer stock.
What we changed
One welded-parts program with sequenced daily delivery: common fixture set, robotic welding of 9 of 11 assemblies, and an EDI-linked shipping schedule tied to the customer's line rate.
Results
- Buffer stock
- 14 wk → 5 wk demo data
- First-pass weld quality
- 98.6% demo data
- Logistics cost per frame
- -22% demo data
Atlas re-sequenced daily deliveries to our line rate. Buffer stock fell from 14 weeks to 5 in one quarter, and we stopped re-sequencing frames on the floor.