Schleuniger provides support and flexibility to Goodman Manufacturing’s wire harness assembly process
Goodman Manufacturing Company LP., located in Waller, Texas, is a leading manufacturer of HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) products. It is a subsidiary of Daikin Industries Ltd., a global Fortune 1000 company. In 2016 the company broke ground on a new 4.2 million square foot facility in Waller, TX.
Goodman had owned and operated a variety of wire processing equipment at two of their four facilities. As they prepared to consolidate all four facilities into the new Waller location, a decision had to be made whether or not they would keep the existing mix of equipment or pursue plans to upgrade the department with new wire processing equipment. When they decided on the latter, they needed to determine what options were now available and whether their current suppliers still offered the best solution to meet their needs.
The company colors, cuts, strips, and terminates wires to assemble harnesses for Daikin, Goodman and Amana HVAC units. They are continually challenged to incorporate more advanced applications such as wire printing, doubling, barcode labeling and more while maintaining the current value added processes. This must be accomplished without lengthening process times, or affecting the overall production volumes. They needed equipment that would provide them with that flexibility now and in the future.
After looking at several companies, Goodman purchased their first piece of Schleuniger equipment, a CrimpCenter 36 S, fully automatic crimping machine. According to their Production Engineer, Meredith LaBarge, what made Schleuniger stand out was not only the machine capabilities, but the level of technical support she received. “Knowing that the support was there when I needed it was huge,” says LaBarge. “Plus, Schleuniger’s approach was more informative about the process and industry as a whole, rather than just trying to sell us a machine. The interest and flexibility that Schleuniger demonstrated told me they were genuinely interested in Goodman’s needs.”
Another major factor in their decision was how simple Schleuniger’s EASY platform was. “I learned it in just three days,” said LaBarge. “It was perfect for our situation.” Goodman also opted to include quality monitoring systems, which resulted in a vast improvement over what they previously had in place. To build onto the EASY program platform, they have recently added the EASY ProductionServer software to better optimize all processing orders across the department.
In the last year, Goodman Manufacturing has purchased a total of five Schleuniger CrimpCenter 36 S machines, a UniCrimp 200 Crimping Machine, and a CT 36 Pneumatic Crimping Machine, with plans for additional equipment in the future.
LaBarge is also very excited about incorporating Schleuniger University, Schleuniger’s new online eLearning platform, into Goodman’s production process. ”I can see a time when each employee will be certified in basic wire knowledge and in the latest wire processing advances, just as I was prior to launching production on our first CrimpCenter 36 S. Each employee could be certified based on his/her position and interest in certain processes,” explains LaBarge. “This added training and certification process will be a true benefit to the company.”
