Some manufacturers do more than just practice lean manufacturing. They help other manufacturers achieve it. A good example is Hamilton Caster & Manufacturing Co., which recently helped Cummins Inc. improve lean practices at one of its engine manufacturing plants in South Carolina.
For many years, Cummins used a tugger to tow heavy carts full of diesel engine parts to workstations along an assembly line. The parts sat in bins on conveyor tracks built into the cart base. Unfortunately, loading the cart was very time-consuming because each part had to be placed in a separate bin to ensure that the part was used in the correct sequence during assembly.