INDUSTRY NEWS
Workers at the Deutz Corp. facility in Norcross, Ga., helped set up their workstations to
improve the flow of parts and equipment and improve efficiency on the line.
said. “He’s assembling units, not
chasing parts.”
Corley said the project cost roughly
$250,000 — a figure that doesn’t
include lost productivity. But the effi-
ciency gains were well worth it, as he
noted that efficiency on one line was
improved by 47%.
“We took a few thousand miles
of forklift traffic out of this place,”
Poppelreuter said. “Except for a cou-
ple of racks, everything that could be
moved was moved, so now we have
room to grow and we can handle our
projected growth without problem and
without having to do anything else.”
He added that Deutz now has the
room to add a fourth line if needed.
“What we calculate is that our sub- 4
L, which is by far our dominant volume,
we can run over the high-volume line
and some of our bigger engines are
lower volume but more specialized, we
can station-build,” Corley said. “It gives
us more flexibility.”
Corley said the changes allowed
the plant to add production of a new
power pack production line for larger
engines. The engines are supplied by
the parent company, but all other parts
are sourced by Deutz in North America.
The power pack engines that Deutz is
assembling will range from 2. 9 to 16.0 L,
Poppelreuter said. Enclosures will also
be available.
“(The change) was fundamental for
us if we were going to accomplish what
we wanted to,” Corley said. “On the
downside, when you go from bringing in
one part and shipping it just in time to a
customer to doing all this, the complex-
ity is enormous.
www.deutzamericas.com
