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In Hydro’s November overhaul of the Monett facility’s material handling processes, it re-engineered ovens, redesigned material racks, replaced carts and remapped material movement through the plant speeding up material flow, reducing fork-truck travel by 25 percent, improving floor space use by 15 percent, and reducing scrap caused by handling damage by 50 percent.
To increase overall manufacturing capabilities and customer satisfaction, Hydro Aluminum ’s (Linthicum, MD) Extrusion North America unit has invested significant capital and personnel in its Monett, MO, extrusion facility. This investment is part of Hydro’s long-term strategy to build its portfolio of services for the Central region to include second-stage manufacturing processes – fabrication, bending and computer numerical control (CNC) machining.
In March, Hydro consolidated into the Monett facility select equipment and personnel from its Cassville, MO, plant, which was located 20 miles from the Monett facility. All extrusion, second-stage manufacturing processes, material handling, packaging, loading and shipping to support the Central region customers will now be handled out of Monett.
“Now that all of our processes take place under one roof, filling a customer order from start to finish is completely visible to the plant team responsible for it so they can be more efficient,” said Rhonda Wright, vice president of operations/general manager of Hydro’s Central Region. “All of our operations personnel are focused on meeting customer needs, which really comes down to being able to offer good prices and deliver quality products on time and on spec.”
To further enhance Monett’s fabrication capabilities, Hydro has hired Mark Groene as Fabrication Sales Engineer. “Mark’s strong background in fabrication and program management compliments our equipment investment and gives Monett a greatly enhanced ability to assist our customers in effectively using extruded components in their products,” added Wright.
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