How Teske Manufacturing used automation to increase trailer production with limited space and personnel.
THE SITUATION
Teske Manufacturing produces top-quality hobby-style trailers that deliver durability and reliability for a variety of uses.
THE CHALLENGE
In 2019, sales at Teske were exploding, and the company needed to ramp up production quickly to meet demand. With a limited footprint available in their facility, they were manually coating everything with two people on a pull-through trolley line before physically moving the trailers to an oven for curing.
TESKE SAW AN APPROXIMATE 35% INCREASE IN PRODUCTION ALONG WITH DECREASED POWDER CONSUMPTION AND QUALITY ISSUES.
THE SOLUTION
The situation made it very difficult to meet production demands, so they turned to DeGeest for answers. After an analysis, DeGeest designed a gantry-style robotic powder coat system that utilized their existing monorail conveyor, washer, and ovens. The new booth and self-learning robots could coat trailers up to 25 feet in length. DeGeest designed a custom crowder mechanism could grab automatically grabs ahold of their existing trolleys to repeat the positioning of their parts for the consistent part presentation.
THE OUTCOME
Approximately 20 weeks after the initial conversation, the system was completed and Teske was able to empower their primary finisher to do more while being able to repurpose their other finisher into other areas of the operation to increase efficiency.
Once the system was up and running, Teske saw an approximate 35% increase in production along with decreased powder consumption and quality issues.