The Ashworth door line was transferred to Windsor’s West Des Moines, IA, facility late in 2011. This consolidation process required us to condense an entire door production facility into an individual department within our existing layout. This resulted in our employees working in a very cramped space while trying to train new personnel on a completely new product line.
We experienced several line flow challenges and as a result, backorders for this product started to rise. It required several months of extensive work to get this line running smoothly and keeping current with orders.
During this period of time we were running our Pinnacle patio doors in a separate department directly across the aisle. Both lines had very similar processes that were being duplicated, which pushed staffing levels quite high.
To solve this redundancy issue, we formed a team to evaluate both product lines and combine all similar processes into one department. The consolidation was completed early this spring. This new production line has the capability to run both door products, combining all like processes.
As a result of this merger, we reduced the required floor space by 27% and increased daily production while reducing overall staffing.