Project Brief

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Systemental Eases Factory Plant Closing

A large multi-national wire company with 5 manufacturing plants and 23 warehouses realized that it had excessive manufacturing capacity. The client wanted to consolidate capacity and eliminate redundant high costs. It began a project to close an Indiana plant to save money by phasing out the production lines and distributing the manufacturing of over 1800 parts to existing plants. The effort started smoothly but then fell behind schedule. In a discussion with the client, Systemental recognized the types of cross-functional difficulties that were bogging down the project. Systemental recommended process improvements that would make it easier for all parties to understand what they specifically needed to do to get the plan back on track and meet the deadline. As part of the solution, Systemental developed custom software functionality to support the plant closure process and production transfer requirements. Process improvements and the new software tools led to hundreds of thousands of dollars in savings.

Summary

Client	Major mid-western wire manufacturer
Problem	Major change initiative. 12-month time limit for large plant closure and transfer of production for over 1800 different parts to multiple facilities; Plant closure fell behind schedule jeopardizing the deadline which would lead to expensive project over-run costs.
Solution	Systemental partnered with the Engineering Manager in charge of the large project. Roadblocks were diagnosed and repaired to get the plant closure project back on track and meet the closure deadline. Systemental provided problem-solving; custom software development, and process improvement services. Systemental worked with both the Operations group and IT department to make sure the new software met expectations on both sides.
Results	The plant closure got back on track to meet the 12-month deadline, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars. Central tracking of progress, monitoring, and reporting was improved and made easier so that management and line workers could contribute the required effort to deliver a successful result.
Contact	Toll free 866-434-2040