Hagie Ideal Welding Cell

Abstract

<p>Hagie Manufacturing is a company based in Clarion, Iowa, where they build sprayers for agricultural applications. There are around 140 employees currently working at Hagie, and they are ranked in 2nd among their other top 10 competitors. Hagie has an impact in Iowa by being known as a locally established company, created by a friendly farmer that wanted to have personal and family-oriented business to support his neighboring farmers. Welding production requires an increase to 2 machines per day in order to stay up with demand. Hagie has full capability to keep up with John Deere’s standards, which have been set by a business deal in early 2016 between the companies.</p> <p>Hagie is struggling with the flow of their boom arms in their weld cell, and they also have areas for organization and ergonomic improvements. Costs could include line downtime while changing the layout of the cell, moving workers to other areas, hiring new workers, and implementing new machines and fixtures. Risks could include not keeping up with current takt time after making changes to the process, or greatly improving their task time. Working on these improvements fosters the business relationship Hagie now has with John Deere, and the network they will be expanding into.</p> <p>Many other companies, especially small family established businesses like Hagie, are working on solving the same types of problems. Some ended up growing too fast, which made the organization difficult to be prepared for mass production. The solution could be used in other situations, but it would be particular to the space Hagie has to build the boom arms. The ideas used in breaking up the process and movement of parts could assist other companies in understanding how to create better flow in their facilities. Many aspects of life could use an assessment of process layout and movement, everything from manufacturing, to healthcare, could benefit from using these tools.</p>