Page 20 - MetalForming May 2011

Electrolux Cuts its Teeth on
Stamping
Stainless Steel
Learn how this appliance OEM stepped up its pressroom operations, brought 23 outsourced dies inhouse, and purchased two new big-bed mechanical presses, all with a lightning-quick return on investment.
BY BRAD F. KUVIN, EDITOR
Stamped stainless-steel doors and drawers for electric and gas ranges once represented the most expensive parts outsourced by the Elec- trolux manufacturing facility in Spring- field, TN. So says the plant’s purchasing engineer, Brenda Carr. Early in 2008, Carr decided to take a closer look at the process. Her hope was that the plant’s production team could run the jobs inhouse and enable tighter control of quality and costs. For starters, its sup- plier was experiencing an extremely high and costly reject rate.
“Rejects, due primarily to scratches and intolerable burrs on the stainless- steel stampings, averaged 12 to 15 per- cent,” Carr says. “We had only allowed for a scrap rate of 5 percent when we awarded the contract. So, we pulled together a team inhouse and exam- ined all of the factors that would con- tribute to the PPV—purchased-part price variant. While we had some naysayers due to the complexity of
Starring at the new Electrolux stainless- steel press shop are two new presses— 600-ton (above) and 400-ton (left) capacity, 144 by 60-in bed. Two associates on each side of the press perform a carefully choreographed rou- tine to manually transfer blanks through the die sets at 300 strokes/hr.
18 MetalForming/May 2011
www.metalformingmagazine.com