Trimming the fat in production
It”™s not what the box is made of ”“ it”™s what”™s in it. With the help of the Hudson Valley Technology Development Center, one Rockland company has made its toolkit leaner, but just as effective.
Located on six acres in Orangeburg that includes a stream, vegetable garden and a chicken sanctuary, Inertia Switch produces specialized switches for the U.S. military as well as providing a homegrown “nature preserve” for camps and schools to visit.
Founded in 1950, the Orangeburg company is a full-service design, engineering, and manufacturing firm specializing in acceleration switches, limit switches, prostheses, incandescent digital displays and several other standardized and unique products.
“For over fifty years, customers in every demanding field have turned to us with exacting requirements for critical applications in often harsh environments,” said Brian DiGirolamo, chief operating officer and chief engineer.
Brian”™s grandfather groomed him to lead the company into the next generation, turning the company over to the young entrepreneur after he received both his bachelor”™s degrees in mechanical engineering and advanced physics from Clarkson University in 1992.
In 2008, Inertia was awarded two major certifications from aerospace giant TUV-SUD America Inc. This acknowledgement increased demand for Inertia”™s products. Even with the surge in interest, Inertia was vulnerable, as were most businesses, to the economic downturn of the financial crash, starting to send orders for goods and services on a downward spiral.
“During that time period,” said DiGirolamo, “it seemed prudent to train my staff and apply lean manufacturing principles to meet customer demand when business picked up again.” DiGirolamo contacted the Hudson Valley Technology Development Center and partnered with engineer Phil van Oss to streamline Inertia.
“Phil was instrumental in designing a lean implementation approach for us that addressed our machining, assembly and administrative areas,” DiGirolamo said. A job scheduling board was designed for the machining area, enabling employees to build in smaller batches and avoid build up of unnecessary components. A workplace organization methodology was implemented in the tooling area focusing on “5 S” : sorting, straightening, shining, standardizing and sustaining.
The Technology Center implemented FIFO (first in, first out) lanes in the assembly area to facilitate smoother product flow of smaller batches of products. Product flow became very visual, and the smaller runs helped to significantly reduce inventories, allowing Inertia to be more responsive to customer demands.
Working on a specific missile safety switch Inertia had spent the last six years developing, van Oss acted as lean project manager. “Phil managed every aspect of this development from engineering to machining,” DiGirolamo said. “He mapped out a six month plan to meet delivery demands since it had to be built twice as fast.”
In 2009, on-time delivery was at 85 percent. Using the skill sets HVTDC implemented through van Oss, on time delivery was 91 percent during the first half of 2010 and is projected to be 96 percent by the end of this year. Inertia has decreased inventory by 50 percent and accomplished a 25 percent decrease in required floor space within the first year. The fall out/scrap rate improved from one percent in 2009 to .1 per cent to date in 2010.
“You are either going to grow business or go out of business,” he said. “In order to grow in this economic climate, you must be smarter, leaner and cost-effective. The help we received from HVTDC has equipped our engineers with the most efficient methods so we can deliver the highest quality products on time all the time.”
“To stay competitive, businesses need to establish a lean enterprise,” said Tom Phillips, executive director of the Hudson Valley Technology Development Center, which recently relocated to Newburgh from Fishkill. “Inertia Switch”™s insight as to just how important this is keeping it a step ahead of changing demand and market conditions.”