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Description
NTF is a family-owned, full-service tube and pipe assembly manufacturer. NTF’s operations are quite diverse. It manufactures its tube and pipe assemblies from steel, stainless steel, brass, copper, aluminum, alloy steel, Inconel and Hastalloy and offers round, square and rectangular parts, either hollow or solid. NTF customizes parts via a variety of services, like beading, dimpling, flaring, notching, painting, plating, polishing, tapering, threading, and several others.
Established in 1990, Equalizer Systems is an OEM that manufactures electric and hydraulic lifting/leveling systems for a wide range of transportation equipment. Equalizer Systems’ 100,000 square foot facility manufactures from one point to four point leveling systems with manual and automatic capabilities. They serve the motor home/RVs, horse and cargo, motor sports, and commercial/specialty marketplaces. With this wide range of markets served, the company’s shipping department distributes locally, across the country, and even to global sources.
Established in 1983, Haas Automation, Inc. is an international organization with distribution locations worldwide, but all of their machine tools are manufactured in USA. The company manufactures an extensive line of CNC machine tools, including vertical and horizontal machining centers, turning centers, and rotary tables. Haas Automation’s Oxnard, CA location occupies a 1,000,000 square foot facility, employing more than 200 engineers that work to accomplish their goal of “perfection” in machine tool manufacturing. With such a large-scale operation, the internal process of moving parts/sub-assemblies/assemblies to all the different areas in the plant, including manufacturing, assembly, and inventory is a crucial element of their operation.
On average, Haas Automation was preparing 200-250 pallets a day for internal preparation and transportation. Joe McKenna, Machine Shop Manager at Haas Automation, explains, “We move a lot of parts to and from our machine shop to our assembly line, inventory warehouse, and to other out-of-house processes. So, throughout the day we constantly have trucks coming and going, loading and unloading pallets of parts. And we were plastic wrapping the parts by hand. It was a very slow process, very labor intensive, and an old-fashioned method of doing it.” Pallet preparation by hand-wrapping was a lengthy process that required two men to hand off the stretch-wrap under and over the pallet to secure the load.