When I walked into the Cardwell Westinghouse handbrake cell my first impressions were "nice, busy, but something is different here.”  I witnessed a group of highly trained people interacting with many machines, operations and material handling equipment, producing a part designed 100 years ago that looked, quite frankly, old fashioned.  We’ve all seen handbrakes on every boxcar we’ve ever watched as a train passed.  It's that big chain hanging at the bottom that gives it that old fashioned look.  I wondered why they still make this product in the U.S.  However, as I stood in the cell and began to immerse myself in its numerous manufacturing steps, I found myself captivated by the complexity and detail designed into the cell.  At that point, I was inspired!  Seven men operate nine Mazak CNC machines, several stamping presses, along with punch and press (at least four bearings) operations, labeling, three welding stations, sub-assembly stations, a really unique threading station, riveting, all putting these 50 parts together into one final assembly every 2 or 3 minutes. They also test, wash and paint in the cell.  This cell is set up in a deep horseshoe design and linked by an overhead conveying system.  The cell process is well documented.  There are laminated process sheets located throughout the cell including photographs and explanations. Each person is expected to execute each process exactly as it is documented.  The productivity of the cell is astounding.  There is substantial historical expertise and knowledge resident in this cell. It would be very very difficult for a low labor cost country to compete with this process.

Next, we moved on to the slack adjustor cell, a cell that I was familiar with before I entered the plant.  We had been working with David Barajas (video link), Technology Engineer, a 33 year veteran with Cardwell to improve the process of an already astoundingly productive cell. The original cell had 11 CNC machines, operating two 10 hour shifts per day with 6 operators, five days a week.  The new improved process includes adding 4 new CNC machines and reducing the cell total machines to just 7.  With this streamlining, throughput has increased 48%!  Eventually, they expect to go to 5 operators per shift.  What makes this story worthy to be told is that Cardwell sells about 30,000 of these slack  adjusters per year.  Once again, it could be tempting to outsource this assembly. Dave Meyer, Vice President/General Manager stated, "We are committed to competing with the world on cost, quality, delivery, and overall performance.  We believe that this investment is an important step in our continuing journey to do just that."