CASE STUDY:

FREEDOM ELECTRIC MARINE

Surging sales for a rotomolded, personal fishing boat left a manufacturer out of their element. S2O streamlined production to keep them afloat.

S2O created automated systems and fabricated flexible assembly strategies to create unparalleled efficiency!

CASE STUDY:

How Contract Manufacturing Solved the Challenges of a Fishing Boat Manufacturer

OVERVIEW

An online personal-use rotomolded fishing boat company was experiencing an explosion in growth. They were using a boat hull manufacturer as the final assembly arm for their product.

The boat hull manufacturer did a great job producing rotomolded parts but struggled to assemble an end-user consumer good. The assembly process meant finding a different type of employee than they were accustomed to hiring. As a result, the number of quality issues, late shipments, and missed orders compounded as fishing boat sales grew.

Supply Source Options was contracted to create an automated system to streamline order management, production, shipping, and part procurement. The custom-built automated system resulted in significantly better customer satisfaction, decreased labor overhead, higher quality throughput, and more reliable components going into the finished assembly.

By outsourcing the assembly of their semi-custom boats, the boat hull manufacturer and online sales teams have freed time to focus on the strength of their employees, allowing them to focus on growing their footprint in what they do best. This has led to new product lines and more efficient production and sales cycles.

MANUFACTURER’S CHALLENGES

With sales increasing dramatically quickly, the boat company had difficulty scaling out the production process and delivering quality products due to the limitations of the hull manufacturer’s assembly teams. Finding the proper labor needed, holding the assembly tolerances, and managing parts not part of other production processes was challenging.

Orders were shipping out slowly, often with quality concerns – the fishing boat company was experiencing an alarming increase in customer dissatisfaction. This was crushing bottom-line profits and hurting their reputation.

They needed help quickly to handle a growing company, which is where Supply Source Options stepped in.

S2O SOLUTIONS

Supply Source Options leveraged its seasoned workforce, custom-built warehouse production cells, and proprietary customizable contract manufacturing software system to quickly overcome the fishing boat company’s challenges.

S2O developed a module within its production software system that utilizes an automated triple-check system that uses barcodes and sophisticated tracking to streamline incoming and outgoing inventory. This ensured product coming in and going out was correct.

S2O needed to track each component and the building process flawlessly to assemble a semi-custom boat accurately. The proprietary software and standard rigid work instructions were developed to do just that! These processes allowed for nearly unlimited, customizable options for the end user and eliminated the assembler’s need to make subjective decisions while building each boat.

With a strong labor market in West Michigan and years of production and assembly experience, S2O leveraged its existing production team and infrastructure to streamline the new project and set standards followed by every team member touching the product. The seasonality of the boat business was complementary to our current production volume so that we could get started quickly, adding additional labor when needed. Helping the sales team never to miss a sale due to lead time.

S2O has taken over the boat company’s complete assembly and fulfillment processes. We receive and manage 100+ individual inventory components, assemble each boat to the end user’s specifications, and ship orders daily. We also handle all component troubleshooting and rework, giving 100% transparent reporting to the boat company, so they understand the entire process.