Guaranteed Cost Reduction Program Grows Business and Strengthens Supplier Partnership

The GCR program for Holland Binkley began with a two-day site audit of the Warrenton plant where a team of Lincoln engineers evaluated welding procedures and identified specific improvement targets. The recommended solutions as well as dollar figure for costs savings were presented to the company.

Under the GCR program, Lincoln guarantees a total savings in writing if a company will follow its cost-cutting recommendations. If savings do not equal the amount forecasted, Lincoln will write a check for the difference.

According to Tom Angelino, District Manager of the Lincoln St. Louis office, this first site visit as a group is an important step. “After you service an account for a while, you tend to develop tunnel vision. By bringing in other, knowledgeable people, you get different perspectives, you also have an opportunity to brainstorm and bounce ideas off each other to come up with the best solutions.”

The Holland Binkley Company chose to work on a number of initiatives as part of the GCR program including a part redesign to make one troublesome part quicker and easier to weld; a change to pulse welding for some parts to reduce spatter and undercut problems; a switch from coils of wire to bulk packaging to save costs; and a reduction in inventory through the use of a purchasing plan.

With the switch to pulse welding in some areas of the plant, Holland Binkley purchased new, Lincoln Invertec® V300 power sources. The GCR program also provided follow-up training for employees on these new systems. Operators attended training sessions to learn the fundamentals of the process and how to set procedures on the machine.

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