Production Emergency

In the highly competitive automotive industry, suppliers are continuously seeking ways to enhance their products and customer service. One particular supplier called upon us when a new product development problem was identified at product launch. The components of certain automotive instrument panels were generating noise from the speedometer cable, and we were given the job of producing 40,000 custom plastic washers to solve the problem. The only catch was the due date - two days. That's about 14 washers per minute for two straight days around-the-clock. We "turned" the washers from nylon bar stock the first day. Then, on day two, we developed a punch and die, making the parts from sheet stock in an effort to reduce cost. Our customer installed the parts and prevented the production line from stopping.