Increasing Efficiency With FreePoint
About Caldwell
For more +130 years, Caldwell has created quality spring balances for window manufacturers around the world. Their products are everywhere from homes to schools, offices to hotels, even the United Nations Secretariat Building and the Empire State Building.
The Challenge
As with all manufacturers, Caldwell’s primary focuses was looking for ways to increase efficiencies (become leaner) across the plant floor. Experiencing year over year growth, they quickly realized they needed to be more efficient to meet increased demand.
There was no real traceable data to understand why a given machine was not running efficiently after set-up, so Caldwell concluded they required a method to accurately trace machine downtime, as each operator had different reasons for not having the machine run.
An investigation of machine monitoring software providers quickly led to FreePoint. FreePoint’s open architecture for installation on any machine afforded the opportunity to expand into other areas.
The Solution
Deployment began in their CNC machine area, increasing operational efficiency by 9%, translating to +160 hours of additional machine output per month (using the same headcount).
“Engagement with the operators was key through installation and implementation for gaining acceptance. All of the machine operators look at the software as a vehicle to making their job easier by having less downtime.”
– Doug Green, Plant Manager
Due to success in the CNC area, they have now expanded FreePoint’s machine monitoring to the stamping area. Caldwell is now building on their initial success with machine monitoring by deploying FreePoint’s employee engagement solution. By engaging their operators to use reason codes to narrate the downtime on all their machines, Caldwell is positioning themselves to see continued and ongoing efficiency increases.
Caldwell achieved their ROI with FreePoint in weeks not months!
Increased Employee Engagement
Utilize Reason Codes to Understand Downtime
Visualized Machine Data
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