A manufacturer of agricultural machinery wanted to replace its in-house receiving and parts stores with an offsite 3PL provider. After awarding Jacobson with the offsite parts receiving operation, the company collaborated with Jacobson to identify cost saving opportunities as it related to inbound and dealer replacement parts.

Jacobson relocated the parts receiving department and storage warehouse to a 400,000 sq. ft. facility in Illinois using Jacobson trucks to provide "Just in Time" delivery to the production floor. Over the past 17 years, Jacobson developed and built the company's Logistics Service Center (LSC), which is part of an overall operation that includes 830,000 square feet of warehouse space across seven facilities - five in Illinois and two in Des Moines, IA.

Across all of these facilities, Jacobson has collaborated with the company to engage in a process of continuous improvement. The companies worked together to develop a multi-functional operation to enable lean manufacturing processes, employing such tools as Six Sigma, Value Stream Mapping, 5S and the Jacobson Quality Management System.

As a result, JIT delivery to the LSC production floor is now a point of use delivery (P.O.U.D.) to the specific assembly line. Jacobson delivers line requirements on mixed pallets to designated dock doors, reducing time and handling within the manufacturing plant.

After monitoring product movement, Jacobson identified redundancy in product handling as full pallets were shipped and returned to the warehouse. Jacobson and the company implemented a new process of picking parts for a specific assembly, sorting onto specially designed carts, and delivering the carts to the production site. Returned carts triggered a replenishment for a continuous delivery stream of parts. Over time, Jacobson sequencing parts for delivery again redesigned this process with even more efficiency.

The company and Jacobson also collaborated in dedicating part of the LSC as a powder and e-coating facility operated by another existing supplier. Jacobson and this supplier work hand in hand. 

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