Manufacturer bringing work back home from overseas
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
By Dave Alexander
CHRONICLE BUSINESS EDITOR
American Coil Spring is proving global competition doesn't have to be a one-way street sending manufacturing work out of the town.
American Coil Spring has a relationship with Japanese-owned American Showa Inc. and now produces five different varieties of suspension springs being put onto Harley-Davidson motorcycles. That is the part that gives Harley -- one of American's most venerable brands -- its unique feel on the road.
The Muskegon spring maker, which is part of the Hines Corp. family of companies, is producing Showa parts that once were imported from Japan. Now, Showa picks up the front-fork springs weekly at American Coil Spring and takes them to Sunbury, Ohio, before the entire assembled suspension system is shipped to Harley-Davidson in Milwaukee.
"We read about so much going overseas," company President Mark Litke said. "It is still possible to compete in global markets based on technology. This is something to embrace in Muskegon."
American Coil Spring, 1041 E. Keating, was working with Showa for more than three years on the research and development of the American-produced spring. Besides a price advantage on shipping, American Coil received the motorcycle suspension spring contracts based on quality and technical issues, Litke said.
The specific spring provides high-speed performance over multiple terrains, according to Dick Carter, American Coil Spring's engineering manager. The development of the Showa spring for Harley-Davidson was developed under the direction of Carter and Quality Director Rhonda Paterra, Litke said.
"This is not a standard spring, but it is very high-end," Carter said. "The design and manufacturing of it is very proprietary. Very few have the capacity and technical knowledge to produce it."
Production on the springs began at the Muskegon plant a year and a half ago in a traditional "batch" method of moving parts from one machine operation to another throughout the plant. To better serve the customer, American Coil Spring has set up a manufacturing "cell" with equipment specifically developed for Showa that handles all of the operations in a small area in the shop's 125,000-square-foot facility.
The prior batch process had a year's volume production of Showa springs traveling more than 300 miles within the plant as parts moved from one operation to another. The new cellular manufacturing unit has not one part moving more than 50 feet from a wire spool on the CNC coiler to a box of final products.
This "lean manufacturing" technique has been supported throughout the American Coil Spring operations, with a training grant from the state of Michigan, Litke said. Lean manufacturing is in the process of eliminating waste and time in manufacturing, a concept that is used on the shop floor as well as in all aspects of the business, he said.
George Hefter of Muskegon has been working at American Coil Spring for 32 years and is a coiler machine operator. Working in a small team in a cell is a different way of producing springs, he said.
"This is going to work good," Hefter said. "It is a lot more efficient."
Showa officials were in Muskegon late last week certifying the cell operations.
"American Coil Spring has worked extremely well with us on the five parts that had been sourced from Japan," said Bill Purtee, Showa purchasing assistant manager. "This is a nice trend for us. We appreciate the relationships and partnerships that we can build with our supplier base."
Showa has 17 plants worldwide, providing suspension, power-steering and chassis components from the transportation industry. It does a lot of work for Honda and Harley-Davidson from its Ohio plant.
There are other Harley-Davidson parts that American Coil Spring hopes to produce from Muskegon as it tries to expand its business. Showa also supplies other motorcycle manufacturers. Litke said that similar spring products also are used in snowmobiles.
