CASE STUDY:

HAWORTH

With long lead times and thin margins, an office furniture manufacturer was facing growing customer dissatisfaction. Until S2O stepped in.

S2O leveraged our best resources and stocked the production line in just 6 days, when it used to take 6 weeks!

CASE STUDY:

How Contract Manufacturing Solved the Challenges of a Top Office Furniture Supplier

OVERVIEW

Haworth, a global commercial office furniture leader, faced two major supply chain binds. A subsupplier struggled to deliver drawer assemblies for their case goods lines in the quantity and quality needed.

Haworth’s sales team was discouraged by the long lead times and trimmed margins. Customer dissatisfaction was growing due to damaged goods and ballooned lead times. Finally, upper management showed frustration at the top and bottom-line revenue and profit reduction.

The supply chain binds directly resulted from the subsupplier’s specialized production line, the inability to find sufficient staffing, and trouble managing raw materials.

Due to the troubles outlined, Supply Source Options (S2O) was contracted to help.

S2O provides custom solutions for assembly and subassembly for numerous companies. We can refine your entire process for maximum efficiency and throughput. Our ability to “get stuff done” and solve critical issues by leveraging a talented team, previously learned skills and relationships, and automated technology offered a huge opportunity to address the supply chain binds Haworth was facing.

MANUFACTURER’S CHALLENGES

The current sub-supplier was failing to meet delivery dates. This was due to inadequate labor resources and inefficiencies in production.

The failure to deliver drawer assemblies on time increased customer lead time and the potential for delivering sub-standard products to an end user as Haworth’s manufacturing line faced additional pressure to catch up.

To solve these challenges, new machinery needed to be put online, professional certifications were required, shipping standards needed to be reviewed, and skilled labor resources needed to be tapped.

Typically, these activities take six months to a year unless existing relationships and experiences can be leveraged. Therefore, Haworth sought a company with people, space, equipment, machinery, and expertise to resolve an escalating situation.

The expectation was to resolve the above issues within two weeks. This timeline required around-the-clock care and dedication by multiple parties. Not an easy task!

S2O SOLUTIONS

Supply Source Options leveraged many of their competitive advantages to help Haworth succeed!

To get the appropriate piece of machinery called a “case clamp,” the standard lead time was six months. Supply Source Options leveraged a previous machinery relationship to commission a case clamp and rapidly ship it to our location.

S2O leadership worked nights and weekends to set up a complete working production line stocked with all the required equipment. This process typically takes 4 to 8 weeks. S2O was able to complete this in six days.

Getting the production line going required management and lead production personnel working in tandem to refine the process, document and create work instructions and ensure the required quality output.

S2O already had a skilled and seasoned workforce that could absorb the necessary production capacity.

Quality inspections were added on initial raw good receiving and outgoing finished drawer assemblies.

Revised shipping standards were tested and implemented using a different, more efficient packaging solution that netted in cost savings for Haworth.

Finally, FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certification was achieved.

All aspects of the problem and solution were before S2O and Haworth. Mountains had to be moved; however, S2O was up to the task. After the additional refinement, S2O had a certified, world-class production cell to handle Haworth miter fold and bore and dowel drawer assemblies.

With access to our proprietary inventory software systems, Haworth can see exact inventory levels for components, the number of products in the warehouse available for shipment, and when they will be shipped.

And because of our “all-in pricing” model, their costs were easy to understand and predictable.

RESULTS

The product started flowing to Haworth. The number of products arriving undamaged, unscratched, and ready to use in the case goods production line improved dramatically overnight.

Haworth’s sales team was delighted. Customer orders went through without a hitch, and lead times improved dramatically.

Ultimately, upper management saw top and bottom-line revenue and profit margins return. Months of backlog were cleared up in weeks.

S2O did the impossible. A 6-month project was up and going in two weeks, and a daunting backlog was cleared in less than a third of the time expected.