Firearms manufacturer, Southeastern United States
Industry: Firearms
Application: Hunting Rifles
Location: Southeastern United States
Problem
A hunting rifle manufacturer identified an ongoing number of issues in their plant. The company was buying mill-direct for 4137 alloy, 1137 carbon alloy and 416 stainless and consistently ran into the repeating issues: The mill was sending too much inventory, limiting space in the shop; mills would not offer set pricing, so the customer struggled with purchase price variants; shipments were consistently late; the supply shipped was not always what the customer ordered, so they were not getting product they needed when they needed it; the mills were doing the heat treating in their furnaces, leading to a number of inconsistencies in finished product; when problems were identified, there was no sense of attention or urgency given by the mills.
Solution
Castle Metals worked with the customer to analyze its entire supply chain workflow. Many resources were brought in to meet with the customer in order to develop a comprehensive plan, addressing each of the issues. Castle’s metallurgist conferred with the customer and its engineering staff and examined all the product specifications. In doing so, they found there were inconsistencies and the customer was buying materials that sometimes didn’t meet their own specifications. The Castle metallurgist actually worked with the engineering staff to rewrite the specifications and make them more aligned to the application. Castle and the customer worked together to develop a long-term inventory plan addressing each of the previous issues. The customer now exclusively buys from Castle Metals for its 4137 stress-free, heat treated alloy, 1137 carbon alloy and 416 stainless.
Result
Today the customer is saving thousands of dollars a year on their metal purchases, and pricing is stable so they can better budget week-to-week. Their previous four inventory turns per year is now at 52: Each Monday the customer places an order for its Thursday delivery. A Castle truck arrives once a week, and up to three times a week depending on the customer’s demand. Because inventory arrives more regularly, the customer was able to reallocate 20 percent of its floor space to production. Heat treating is done through Castle’s in-house heat treater, and since the contract has started, there have been no rejections.