How has the Winnebago foundry shortened its lead times? “Through a ton of hard work,” Milks asserts. “But we did have to carry more inventory.” “I ordered accordingly, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been,” the rep emphasizes. The lead times had been longer before 2018. If we cause a problem, or even if they do, they will step up and take care of it for us.” “Employees can respond to any request I have. “The biggest thing I’ve seen is they have cut their lead times down,” the representative notes. Reduced lead times are one key to enabling the State Line and Winnebago foundries to be timely and responsive. “Winnebago is doing something right.” Shorter lead times “I wish the other foundries were as timely,” the rep summarizes. That means the OEM must work with seven different foundries to get all of its casting needs met. The pumps are complicated, with a variety of alloys and production requirements.
For five to six weeks, there wasn’t a single overdue item. “Winnebago’s on-time delivery is good – very good,” the OEM representative recalls. The foundry must come through during routine times, too. “If I tell Winnebago we need to adjust our schedule and I need something more quickly, they will stop and pour it for us and get it to us within a week.” “Sometimes, we need things more quickly than usual from a foundry,” he explains. We can support them if we know what they’re facing.” A sense of urgency is a plusĪ representative of the pump OEM explains that the company needs more than communication – it needs results, too: “An open order list is a living, breathing thing that changes from time to time. “If we talk regularly, we’re more likely to hear about problems they’re experiencing that we might be able to help with,” he reveals. There’s no excuse for ineffective communication,” declares Jesse Milks, president of State Line Foundries.Ĭonsistent communication with OEMs helps State Line address issues beyond delays. “The OEM always needs to know the status of any challenges its foundry is facing. Alerting the customer to setbacks and resolving the issues quickly can prevent an inconvenience from deteriorating into something much worse. State Line acquired Winnebago in 2018 and, with the purchase, focused on providing even better results for this pump manufacturer. State Line’s subsidiary, Winnebago Foundry, has made iron castings for the OEM for many years.
This OEM manufactures specialized pumps that move corrosive chemicals such as sulfuric acid and molten salt. State Line Foundries’ partnership with one of its OEMs offers a glimpse into methods that ensure the mutual success of both parties. Therefore, both the OEM and foundry value and benefit from strong relationships. The foundry, of course, wants to stay in the OEM’s good graces – to not only retain the business but to grow it whenever possible. In most cases, finding a new supplier is expensive and disruptive. Our aim is to realize further studies of modernization and to be a "brand" in the international market with "Quality", "Reliability", "Zero defect policy" and "on time deivery" strategy.An OEM has a great deal of incentive to stick with a foundry. With strict quality control system, and top chemical and metallurgical laboratory facilities, like spectrometer, ultrasonic detector, universal material tester, metallographic analyzer and CMM, we can ensure the exact material quality and standard as well as mechanical properties. These high quality alloy parts provide our customers with longer wear life and improved efficiency. We can also supply wear-resistant alloy, like high manganese cast steel, for oil,mining and metallurgy industries. Annual output exceeds 10000 tons including all kinds of material like grey iron GG15, GG20, GG25, GG30, ductile iron GGG400-18, GGG500-7, GGG600-3, and GGG700-2, high-Chrome cast iron KmTBCr26, high-nickle casting iron D-5S, and also Austempered Nodular Iron. The sand casting foundry occupis over 130.000 m2, facilitated with a resin-sand processing line, a disa line and a 5 tons electric furnace, CNC lathes, CNC milling machines, CNC boring machines, CNC machining centers, heavy- duty lathes, vertical lathes, vertical drilling machines, etc.The foundry is able to cast parts weight from 0.1kgs up to 10,000kgs, to machine size up to 1600mm( rotating diameter).