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Question 1

Truss Manufacturing Plant.

Case Study 2

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STARTING POINT

A truss manufacturing plant had just secured a major new contract requiring 20,000 m² of trusses, with the client asking for 1,800 m² delivered per week within five weeks. At the time, the plant was producing only 250–300 m² per week, a small fraction of what the contract demanded.

metal-roof-trusses

INITIAL CHALLENGE

The plant was running a single machine line, one truss trolley, and one truss table staffed by two workers, with two more workers receiving material at the end of the line. Materials handling was a constant bottleneck, and the existing setup had nowhere near the capacity to meet the new contract's timeline.

CHANGES IMPLEMENTED

We worked with the plant to redesign the floor for capacity, including:

    • Running the existing machine line at full capacity
    • Adding two extra truss trolleys (from 1 to 3) to remove the materials-handling bottleneck
    • Rebalancing the receiving crew and reallocating staff to table work
    • Expanding from one truss table to three, each staffed by two workers
    • Introducing a new, dedicated forklift/rouseabout role to keep the machine fed and manage stacking and transport

CHALLENGES ALONG THE WAY

Growing the factory floor crew from 4 to 8 workers meant restructuring roles around the new equipment and layout, and it took a four-week ramp-up before the plant reached its new sustained output rate. The final result also landed at 83% of the client's original 1,800 m²/week request, rather than the full figure, a step-change the client accepted as meeting their needs.

TIMEFRAME

Output rose to its new sustained rate within 4 weeks, and that rate was held consistently for the following 3 months.

metal-roof-truss-manufacturing

OVERALL OUTCOME

  • Weekly output rose 445%, from 275 m² to 1,500 m²
  • Output per worker rose 173%, showing the gain came from better workflow, not just extra headcount
  • The improved rate meant the 20,000 m² contract could be completed in approximately 13.3 weeks
  • Projected across a full year, the plant's throughput capacity rose an estimated 432.6% — from around 14,300 m² to approximately 76,163 m²
  • Using indicative revenue and labour figures, weekly labour-adjusted margin grew 628%, from roughly $9,438 to $68,750
  • Annualised, this represents an estimated additional $3.08 million in labour-adjusted margin

A handful of targeted changes, more trolleys, more tables, and the right roles in the right places, took this plant from a fraction of contract capacity to a sustained, contract-beating output within a month.