08.28.13 / News

PLI Production Floor Upgrade Focused on Efficiency & Quality

In 2013 PLI undertook a renovation of its production floor to increase capacity, streamline process flow, and add flexibility in preparation for increased high-mix system and sub-system assembly work.

The production space was renovated top to bottom with new lighting, flexible electrical drops, and polished white floor tiling. The previous centralized ventilation system was completely removed and replaced with Sentry Air Systems individual fume extraction units. Two new wireless routers were added to service the ERP terminal at each workstation. The flexible electric drops, wireless network, and portable ventilation units allow the production floor to be completely reconfigured within 24 hours to meet unique production needs. We call this the Flexible Factory.

The renovation doubled the workstations on the main production floor to 40.PLI added an additional 15 stations to its ESD safe production lab, bringing the total number of workstations to 55. The flexible nature of the layout would allow the addition of 47 more workstations in the current production space.

The physical improvements coincided with and facilitated process improvements in support of our Continuous Improvement initiatives. The new layout allowed easier identification of process bottlenecks and resulted in an 80% reduction in production white space. Kanban and Lean 5S manufacturing practices were carried over from the previous configuration and improved upon reducing our internal rejection rate from 3.71% to .35%. The entire production floor is now paperless with production floor personnel accessing work instructions and assembly drawings directly from the terminal at their workstation.

PLI is committed to providing world class, U.S. based, engineering and manufacturing services to the defense, aerospace, and energy industries. If you are interested in setting up a visit to tour our upgraded facilities please contact our customer service manager.