Nyloncraft of Mishawaka, IN, is a Tier-1 custom manufacturer of a variety of under-the-hood parts and various types of exterior trim for the automotive industry.
Challenge
Nyloncraft felt that the fixed conveyors they were using at the time, coupled with their need to reset their production runs quickly, limited the way they could deliver materials to and from the presses. “Fixed conveyors are fine for many manufacturers with dedicated production runs, but we are a custom house with few dedicated jobs, and the need to change over our molds and floor layout frequently,” said Michael Van Zant, Manufacturing Manager.
Solution
The flexibility and quick reconfiguration of the DynaCon system enables Nyloncraft to be creative with the production floor layout. “Our new system has a lot of sections running up and down, under and over equipment. Now I can run this job by sending one conveyor over to a second press. That means an operator can run multiple jobs without having to walk from press to press” said Van Zant. The modular conveyor system has allowed Nyloncraft to squeeze more equipment into a plant. Van Zant said “The DynaCon system comes in very handy when we’re doing that. We wouldn’t have had much, if any, flexibility with the other fixed conveyors. With those, we were kind of at the mercy of the conveyor. And that’s not really what you want to be.”
Results
The new custom DynaCon conveyor system saves Nyloncraft thousands of dollars every year. “If you figure $25K per operator, we’re now saving about $250,000 to $350,000 per year. So the payback on the conveyor system was fairly quick, I would say the ROI period was as quick as six months,” said Van Zant.