The PC Systems Blog

Although I have had just a taste of what PC Systems is all about in my limited time with the company, it is evident that a great deal of work is executed to ensure customer satisfaction, and it is amongst the company’s top priorities.  There is an ongoing effort to improve every existing product, process, and idea in order to meet and surpass customer expectation.  In order to secure customer satisfaction, it is necessary to take the appropriate steps internally to better every aspect of the company.  On Thursday, April 21, I attended a LEAN training class with a focus on SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Dies).

SMED is an important aspect in reducing manufacturing waste, much like all other LEAN tools.  It focuses on the reduction of product lot sizes by simplifying and organizing changeover techniques.  “Single Minute” implies that improvement steps can be taken to shorten changeover time to under ten minutes.  Although many of the SMED ideas can be regarded as common sense, as my boss (Engr. manager Kalen Fitch) will tell you: “Common sense isn’t always very common.”

Howard Wilson, of NWIRC, led the one day “Quick Changeover/Setup Reduction” training course at the Community Education Council in St. Marys.  A quote from the course lecture: “SMED ideas can be viewed as being pretty simple, but if applied properly, can make a complex difference.”

The course introduced the material sufficiently via PowerPoint slides, as well as by integrating a few activities.  The first activity was conducted to demonstrate all non-value added steps that may be taken during a common changeover.  The second involved splitting the group in half, and having a contest to see which team can best streamline the changeover process of the first activity.  I took a great deal of good information away from this course, and would highly recommend it.

By implementing many of the ideas illustrated in this course, I expect a great deal of overall production improvement.  Here at PC Systems, I will use my newly acquired skills to benefit the company in many ways.  I will improve mold tooling by standardizing and simplifying general design to expedite changeover time.  I plan on developing a changeover process that can allow for operators to easily change high running tooling by themselves without confusion.  Other organizational practices and strategies will be incorporated into this process improvement in accordance with SMED principles.

In a recent interview that featured PC Systems in Wire Harness News, I made the comment that PC Systems was dedicated to providing solutions for customers rather than commodity product.  This answer was a response to a question from the interviewer in which he asked me why I was trying to come up with a Lead Free solution for window glass connectors, rather than their R&D teams finding the proper alloy and specifying it for us. 

As evidence of that commitment to providing solutions, I would like to introduce Kevin Genevro, an Engineer, who is the latest addition to our Engineering staff.

Here is a link to Kevin’s LinkedIn profile:

http://tinyurl.com/3czcegv

A Mechanical Engineer by training, Kevin has been with us for about 3 months so far and is already making major contributions to our team.  His primary responsibilities at PC Systems will include a wide range of activities, including new product introduction, tooling design, raw material acquisition, back-up Quality Auditor, LEAN facilitator and recipient of mild hazing, to just name a few.  All jokes aside, we are very proud to welcome this local Engineer to our team and we hope that you have the good fortune or working with him on a future project with us. 

Unless you are an industry insider, you probably have not heard that Volvo CE is moving/adding a significant chunk of their global manufacturing and headquarters from Asheville, NC to Shippensburg, PA.

A couple links to this story can be found here:

Chambersburg Public Opinion: http://www.publicopiniononline.com/localnews/ci_17870137

Diesel Progress Online:

http://www.dieselprogress.com/Industry-News/3242/Volvo-CE-Announces-$100-Million-Shippensburg-Expansion/

What does this have to do with PC Systems?  It seems that Volvo has recognized what we have known for a long time.  The same type of employees that will be working in the Volvo plants are working in our factory as well.  The storied “Pittsburgh” steelworker work ethic is alive and well here in Pennsylvania.  The skilled workforce and low base cost in our area allows our employee productivity to remain at optimum levels so that we can provide you with a low price and high quality product. 

This would be great news for any local area, but it is especially welcomed here in Pennsylvania.  I am sure it is bad news in Asheville, but I am also sure that the community in Shippensburg will welcome the individuals who choose to transfer locations.  To be honest, if you can get used to the winters up here, Pennsylvania is not too bad of a place to live. 

The best news for PC Systems can be found in this quote, from the former CEO of Volvo CE (Mr. Persson recently was promoted) :

““The global demand for Volvo construction equipment is rapidly increasing and we need to make investments to meet future demands in the region. Producing Volvo wheel loaders, articulated haulers and excavators in Shippensburg will result in shorter lead times for our customers. We will work closely with local suppliers to increase the North American content of our products…”

- Olof Persson – Volvo CE

We, along with many other local suppliers, will be trying very hard to become part of Volvo’s supply chain.  In fact, we expect there to be other major manufacturers noticing that the playing field is starting to level now, making it less competitive to move manufacturing out of the Northeast where the workforce is so strong.  Based on this, part of our future sales strategy is to focus on local manufacturing, taking advantage of proximity in an effort to reduce lead-time and freight costs.  So far we have seen it work with a couple of our customers, and hope to have the same success in the future with others.

Our General Manager, Jason Brigger, and myself recently took a trip out to Las Vegas to attend the CONEXPO-CON/AGG show. 

http://www.conexpoconagg.com/

This event occurs every three years and is one of the biggest shows for the Construction industry.  Our goal was to visit with current customers and also identify some potential new customers.  We were successful in both endeavors.

A little about the show:  It is HUGE.  Also, anyone that every played with Tonka trucks as a kid would be like a kid in a candy store here.   To give you a feel for the size, the exhibitor space covered 2.34 million square feet (40 football fields!).  There were 120,000 registered attendees, which is more than the population of Peoria, IL!  Here are a couple photos:

What did we learn?  Our product is a great fit for this industry.  Our largest customer is a positioning solutions supplier in this industry and there is no reason that we shouldn’t be selling similar harnesses to the OEMs of this market.  In every engine bay we found PVC coated Nylon braid, Split loom, and both Deutsch and Amp connectors.  Through our customer, our harnesses are already ending up in these same bays. 

We have focused very heavily over the past 6 months on improving the production methods in our Harness department.   I recall reading a statement from Peter Drucker that said that if you want to sell the same mousetrap to a new customer, you better be 30% cheaper that the incumbent competitor.  Although we may not be able to get to 30% cheaper (we might get close), we feel that with our improvements, increase in capacity, and better mousetraps, we will be able to find a good customer from this huge show. 

We handed out a newsletter at the show.  If you didn’t get one or lost yours, here is a link to a copy:  http://www.pcsridgway.com/Media/Files/CONAGG%20NEWSLETTER.pdf