Every business expansion usually needs a bit of planning and some new machinery. Unfortunately, most major manufacturers face pressure to initially overinvest their capital in fully automated systems to facilitate the expansion. Expanding this way is ambitious, expensive, and, quite frankly, risky. The returns on your investments could take years, assuming they happen at all. Furthermore, some companies don’t have the technical capacity to maintain a fully automated or robotic work cell.
Sometimes, you need a simplified solution that covers your needs now so you can prepare for tomorrow – here at ITEC, we have that very solution. We work with companies of all sizes so they can quickly increase their output capacity and production efficiency while still leaving the potential for robotic automation in the future.
This is exactly why we partnered with Star Technology and MTS. The solution ITEC created gave Briggs & Stratton Power Products Group was a way for a single operator to process tubular components safely and reliably while increasing their throughput. What had previously required numerous steps by several skilled employees (bend, punch, press, endform…) could now be done in two unified steps by a single operator. More output with fewer operators meant the company could disperse its labor costs by directing employees toward other projects.
The new setup also simplified the process to change a product line. As the “seasonal” output changed, the operators only needed to change the program on the bender and implement a new work plate into the MTS platform. Their existing machinery gained added versatility to handle the increased demand and could adapt to work with automated components. As the company continues to grow, the operators can switch out with a robotic work arm without implementing expensive new machinery.