Eaton Cylinder Express Delivery Program Is Cast at Waupaca Foundry

Eaton Hydro-Line® cylinders are utilized throughout Waupaca’s gray iron foundry in Wisconsin.

Background

Efforts to satisfy a customer's delivery requirements have resulted in an all-new express delivery program for Eaton cylinders.

In the world of Eaton, meeting cylinder needs of Waupaca Foundry, Inc. in Wisconsin,is critical for two reasons: the company is not only an important customer of Eaton's Hydraulics Group, but also is a supplier of iron castings to Eaton facilities.

The largest, gray iron foundry in the world, Waupaca Foundry produces gray, ductile, and compacted graphite iron castings. Eaton uses Waupaca Foundry castings in its production of piston and steering unit products.

Challenge

For numerous years Waupaca Foundry has relied on Eaton Hydro-Line cylinders for inplant equipment applications. The cylinders range in bore sizes from 2 inches to 12 inches and are up to 144 inches in length. The Eaton Hydro-Line cylinder line offers the quality and broad style range required by Waupaca Foundry.

Melting over 9,500 tons of iron castings per day companywide, it's easy to understand that when Waupaca Foundry needs replacement cylinders, it needs them now.

However, when Waupaca Foundry became hardpressed for cylinder replacements to avoid lengthy downtime, company purchasing personnel consulted Eaton to discuss the situation.

They called in Eaton's Mark Yates, area sales manager, and Don Boyd and Don Gartzke from Sentinel Fluid Controls, an Eaton products distributor in Mequon, Wisconsin.

"Purchasing folks at Waupaca Foundry explained their dilemma and their need for cylinder replacements in much shorter lead time," Yates said.

Solution

Yates immediately set up a meeting with Eaton and Sentinel personnel at the Eaton cylinder production facility in Jackson, Michigan. The seven-member team brainstormed ways to first better meet Waupaca Foundry's needs and to hammer out any bottlenecks in the Eaton delivery process, and then to use this experience as a pilot to improve capability for all customers.

The team formulated a game plan, led by Barry Price, Jackson plant manager, by analyzing the customer's order history and breaking its cylinder requirements into product families. Team members concluded that Eaton could greatly improve on its delivery performance by developing an innovative stocking program tailored to the customer. By doing so, cylinders could be built and dropped shipped to Waupaca Foundry more quickly.

Results

By putting the plan into action, Eaton has improved its cylinder delivery performance by more than 70 percent, and the folks at Waupaca Foundry couldn’t be more pleased, Yates says.

“Our customer is now receiving cylinders within twoweeks, instead of our previous lead-time of several weeks, and Waupaca Foundry purchasing folks are ecstatic!”

Lessons learned in stepping up delivery service for a customer in need have laid the foundation for the full-scale Eaton E³ Express Cylinder Delivery Program. Cylinders ordered through the program leave Eaton manufacturing facilities in just three business days after order receipt.

Included in the program are Hydro-Line and Vickers® standard, tie-rod hydraulic, and pneumatic cylinders, including:

• Hydro-Line N5, R5, HR5, TS, HTS, and Q6 styles
• Vickers NZ, TE/TF/TL, TA, TB, and VP styles

Depending on style, the size range includes cylinders up to 8 inches in bore, with stroke lengths up to 60 inches and any of Eaton’s popular options.

"Our customer is now receiving cylinders within two weeks... Waupaca  Foundry purchasing folks are ecstatic!"

Mark Yates
Eaton area sales manager