Huddig finds their complete solution at Edmolift

The previous installation process generated high inventory costs, a tough working environment for the assemblers and was a time consuming element in the overall production.

Huddig is a leading company in developing, manufacturing and selling backhoe loaders on the Swedish market. One of the largest areas of usage for their backhoe loaders is for construction and maintenance work of railroads. Since there is a continuous focus of renewing and developing the products, Huddig has started to install additional equipment together with rail cradles in the front and back of their backhoe loaders, which enables the loaders to drive on rail.

“The back cradle consists of a bracket and a movable cradle that contains rail wheels which are pushed down on the rail and lifts the machine up. This allows you to drive the machine on the rail. It is the same with the cradle in the back, where it is two brackets and a cradle. We had previously mounted a couple of different versions of the additional equipment, but you had to mount it part by part,” says Urban Jonsson, Production Technician at Huddig.

The need to develop the assembly line

The previous installation process generated high inventory costs, a tough working environment for the assemblers and was a time consuming element in the assembly line.

“When we assemble these machines they are moved along an assembly line. The line is pretty long and we needed to start installing the components already at the first station. This meant that we needed to have the components as inventory long before we could deliver a complete machine to the end customer. From an economic perspective we want to mount the components on to the machine as late as possible, because then we do not need to have them at home until the last stage of the assembly process. If we can delay the process of bringing in large and expensive components until the end of the value chain it is highly favorable as we then can avoid high inventory costs.”

The importance of a good working environment

It was not only the economical aspect that Huddig wanted to solve. The bigger challenge was to find a solution to improve the assemblers working environment and contribute to a more effective assembly process.

“Above all we looked at the working environment. Our assemblers had previously been standing on their knees when they assembled the equipment onto the machines. The assembly work was also very time consuming, and we always want to reduce the time on every station in the line.”

These three obstacles were the reason for why Huddig started to look for a solution.

EdmoLift could offer a complete solution

“We started to look around on the internet to see what options that were available. We had previously bought lift tables from EdmoLift so we looked at what solutions they had, but we also looked at other suppliers. What I noticed was that EdmoLift had mobile lift tables, but also that they had products from Movexx. And why not buy both a lift table and a Movexx product so that you can move the lift table around? Also, I have experienced that it is almost always better to buy a complete solution from one supplier instead of buying from two different suppliers.”

After working out the prerequisites for the lift table in terms of height, width and length, as well as the lift capacity, bottom position and driven by electricity, EdmoLift came back with quotation.

Testing the products at EdmoLift

An important step before implementing a new solution is to have the ability to test it out before making any final decisions. To have the opportunity to form a deep understanding about the products, Urban and a colleague from Huddig was invited to try them out for real.

“A colleague of mine that works in the assembly line and I was invited to EdmoLift to see how the products work. It was very important that the colleague joined since it is he who will use the products on a daily basis. He could also provide input on if this was what we needed to improve the work in the assembly line. EdmoLift had brought out both a Movexx T1500 and a mobile lift table of the modell TL 2000 that was compatible with the Movexx electrical tug, and we were therefore able to try out the complete solution during the visit. And it looked really great! So we decided then and there to go for this concept.”

Major improvement at the assembly line

Ever since the solution has been delivered to Huddig’s assembly line they have been able to see the improvements.

“Now we have a fixture on top of the lift table on which we assemble a complete package for both the front frames and the back frames of the machines. It was very easy to apply this for the package to the back frames. We have just recently tested this for the packages to the front frames and it works very well there too. The advantage is that we now can wait with assembling all the components until the end of the assembly line, and then mount in complete packages both in the front and back. It is a tremendous victory in pure working hours since we have been able to shorten the assembly time in the overall assembly line. With this we have also been able to cut down our inventory costs on the components because now do not need them until considerably later in the process. Looking at the working environment our assemblers are highly satisfied as the Movexx electrical tug is easy to handle. In combination with the lift table it enables you to place the packages with large precision when they are about to be mounted on to the backhoe loader,” concludes Urban Jonsson.