The Shop Floor Shuffle

After careful analysis of current flow and usage of the facilities and equipment, a plan has been initiated for an extensive reshuffling and relocation of machines and work areas.
Kent Davis
Senior Plant Engineer
United Equipment Accessories shop floor

Have you ever arrived home to find that the furniture has been moved around or you have been asked to help move things to different positions? The purpose may be to achieve a new look, or to improve the flow through a room, and on occasion, to make room for a new arrival.

Here at United Equipment Accessories (UEA), the move request is in full motion for our shop floor. We’re always looking for ways to improve both our products and our processes. This current adjustment has nothing to do with “achieving a new look”, but rather streamlining our space to make it as efficient as possible, allowing us to offer customers more. After careful analysis of current flow and usage of the facilities and equipment, a plan has been initiated for an extensive reshuffling and relocation of machines and work areas

Several factors are involved, and we’ve decided to reshuffle as follows:

  • Consolidation of multiple operations to the closest possible region to minimize material handling for high volume parts.
  • Making room for a new Swiss machining center to dramatically increase capacity of component parts.
  • Making space to expand our current painting operation envelope to handle the large volume of hydraulic swivels.
  • Creating space for a replacement vertical machining center.
  • Relocating our current horizontal machining center to a more rigid isolated pad for a more stable base.
  • Adding another NT5400 to the hydraulic swivel machining department for increased capacity.

This endeavor will not be an afternoon or evening task such as moving furniture. It will take place over the next several months. This type of operation requires the assistance of electricians, plumbers, excavators, concrete placement, finishing crews and riggers. There is a large amount of planning and sequencing involved to coordinate each portion of the move to keep the downtime of each machine and department to a minimum, so as not to cause delay in delivery to our customers.

This reshuffling will allow us to utilize more effective equipment to continue providing the highest quality custom electrical slip rings and hydraulic swivels to our customers around the world.

And because of our meticulous planning and strategy, we will avoid the phrase, “Honey, will you help me move this back, I liked it better the other way”.

MORE FROM US

SOLVING PROBLEMS IS OUR PASSION

LET US CREATE YOUR CUSTOM SOLUTION TODAY!

Get a quote!