aste is not tolerated at General Metal Works (GenMet), Mequon,
Wis. That includes waste related to transportation, processing,
inventory, and production, as well as underutilizing people’s talents.
A tour of the facility reflects the focus on eliminating waste: The 43,000-
square-foot facility that exists today is not the same facility Eric and Mary
Isbister purchased 10 years ago.
W
By Dan Davis, Editor-in-Chief
The aisles are open and not cluttered with work-in-process (see Figure 1). Gone are the racks of raw material.
The facility hasn’t had a full-time forklift driver in eight
years; everything is moved on fabricated carts or used
grocery carts.
Manufacturing flows naturally. Material is delivered
in the rear and moved to raw material storage towers
connected to laser cutting machines or a laser/punch
combination machine. Once cut, the material moves to
forming and then welding, in the front of the shop. When
completely fabricated, parts are moved from welding,
which is right next to shipping, where they are packed
and ready for delivery.
“In a perfect world, material is delivered on day one,
cut on day one, formed and welded on day one or day
two, and shipped out soon afterward,” Eric Isbister said.
Nothing’s perfect, but GenMet’s commitment to lean
manufacturing, quality control, and employee training
has helped the company survive 2009 without any layoffs
or wage freezes. In fact, even with revenue decreasing to
$10 million in 2009 from $12.6 million in 2008, the company is more than ready to take on new endeavors, such
as pursuing business in the alternative-energy fields. Its
finished goods inventory is at an all-time low, approximately $3,000 worth compared to $100,000 only a few
years ago. It can deliver prototypes, from concept to sample, in 48 hours. Employee productivity has doubled, and
lead-time for fabricated parts has been cut in half to a
couple of weeks.
GenMet is poised to take advantage of a rebounding
economy. For its efforts to be in this position and the dramatic changes it has made over the years, the company is
the winner of The FABRICATOR‘s 2010 Industry Award.
experience to the company, which helped to transform
the company further. The business that existed at the
time of the purchase certainly is different today.
“Everything needed a skid, and everything needed a
forklift,” Eric recalled.
That’s changed dramatically in recent years as the
company has worked with the Wisconsin Manufacturing
Extension Partnership in lean training initiatives and
made investments in technology and its work force. In
fact, the previous owners would be hard-pressed to recognize the business. Only the Swiss chalet facade of the
building is the same as when it was built in 1972.
Figure 2 The lean environment at GenMet creates an environment where producing 10 battery boxes for a military vehicle makes more sense than making 100 of them and placing
the excess in inventory until the next customer order arrives.
WHAT MAKES FOR AN
INDUSTRY AWARD WINNER?
Getting Started
Eric Isbister didn’t start out as a metal fabricator, but he
was a builder of sorts. He spent 21 years on the East
Coast building nuclear submarines for Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics, Groton, Conn. The end of
the Cold War, however, shrunk the market for those
peacekeeping products.
A new job led him to Wisconsin, but it didn’t float his
boat like submarine building. In 1998 he started looking
for a manufacturing business.
Around that time General Metal Works went up for
sale. The company, originally known as Biersach & Nie-dermeyer Co., had survived the great Chicago fire in 1871
and a relocation to the Milwaukee area afterward, but
was having a hard time making a go of it toward the end
of the last century. The fourth generation of family ownership sold the metal fabricating business to a new owner,
who ultimately sold it as well. An unfortunate event for
him, however, proved fortuitous for the Isbisters.
Eric purchased the business, and his wife, Mary, a 10-
year veteran of the research division of Pfizer Inc., soon
joined him. Mary brought organizational development
Changing the Shop Floor
So where did all the raw material storage go? For starters,
most material isn’t delivered until it’s needed. Typically,
that’s no more than two days before a job starts, according to Mary. When it’s delivered, the material heads
for the towers.
The first tower is a 16-shelf automated storage and retrieval system attached to two 4-k W laser cutting machines that are capable of running unattended. The two
3015 LVP-40CFX Mitsubishi machines, which have 60- by
120-inch beds, can cut mild steel up to 0.625 in., stainless
steel up to 0.5 in., and aluminum up to 0.5 in. Cutting material 0.5 in. thick or less typically comprises the majority
of GenMet’s fabricating business, Eric said.
This automated setup is GenMet’s third generation of
automated laser cutting. The 2-year-old machines cut
twice as fast as the previous-generation laser cutting machines that were replaced, and they have given the company the ability to take on jobs that have tighter
tolerances. Eric said that the laser cutting technology improves at such a rapid pace that GenMet likely will upgrade again in the coming years.
The winner of The FABRICATOR’s 2010 Industry
Award was judged in three categories: operational
improvements, business success, and contributions to the community. Entrants were asked to
detail how their metal fabricating operations have
excelled in each of those areas over the last year.
Upon receiving the entries, The FABRICATOR
staff pared the list and provided three finalists to
its Editorial Advisory Board members, who acted
as the final judges. After reading each submission,
the judges scored the companies in the three areas,
with a maximum of 40 points for operational improvement, 40 points for business success, and 20
points for community involvement. The company
scoring the most points was declared the winner.
As part of winning the 2010 Industry Award,
General MetalWorks won complimentary regis-
tration, travel, and hotel accommodations for The
FABRICATOR’s Leadership Summit: Metal Matters
2010 conference, March 3-5, at Disney’s Board Walk
Resort, in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
If your company is interested in competing for
the 2011 Industry Award, visit www.fmanet.org/
members/ industry-award.cfm for more details.
Figure 3 GenMet employees fabricated a stabilizing table to help with the handling of large parts at the hardware insertion station.
Such suggestions have led to increased shop floor productivity.
