Gobar Systems, Inc (Matamoros, Mexico)
Mexican Contract
Stamper Successfully Shifts Manufacturing Strategy from Dedicated
Automotive to Larger Market Mix with SEYI Straight and Gap Frame Presses
Twenty years ago,
Mexican stampers had a fairly straightforward path to success—often tied
to a stamped parts dedication for one or two different customers. For
these same companies today, survival has led to market diversification,
increased services provided, and often, new manufacturing methods to
improve upon quality and/or production rates. One company found just
across the border from Brownsville, Texas, Gobar Systems, Inc., has met
the challenges of an ever-changing marketplace…and has done so with
the help of SEYI Presses, Inc.
Defining Gobar’s Capabilities
The Gobar name was created as a family operation and is a
derivative of two family names…Gonzalez and Barron. The company started
out as an automotive stamper supplying interior part (especially
dashboards) stampings to the likes of General Motors and Delphi. Then, a
shift to supplying complete sub-assemblies that included a large
amount of value-added operations (IE: welding, fastening, part
insertion, etc.) to this same customer group grew their capabilities
even more. Today, the company is viewed as a comprehensive contract
manufacturer involved in the processing of metals, plastics, and
electronic components/assemblies. Their 90,000 sq ft stamping facility
has been in operation for more than 20 years and employs 75 associates.
World class standards and lean manufacturing principles are practiced.
A total of 25 stamping presses are in operation and tonnages range
from 66 to 660 tons. A second state-of-the-art stamping facility was
added in July of 1998. Both facilities produce a wide range of parts for
numerous industries including automotive air bag components, car
stereo chassis and dashboard components, home appliance
parts/assemblies, fire and safety components for extinguishers and the
like. They also operate a considerably-sized plastics division (87
associates, 7 injection molding machines from 55 to 165 tons). Key
customers include Autoliv, General Motors, Delphi, Bosch Systems, Kidde
Corporation, and others too numerous to include.
Evolving from “Delphi heavy” into Other Non-Automotive Opportunities
“We realized that our 100% automotive roots needed to be
diversified when we had financial issues with a key customer a number
of years back,” states Rolando Gonzalez Baron, Gobar President/CEO. “At
one time in our early stages, we were about 90% dedicated to Delphi.
Both we and the customer knew that this was unhealthy and the goal was
to diversify to other markets and other types of manufacturing
operations. While we still serve automotive customers with pride, our
current customer base is about two-thirds non-automotive. Additionally,
we’re not just a stamper…50% of our current business base is in metals
processing, but our growth toward plastics and other advanced materials
is also key to our success.” A key goal for Gobar is to target an
equal amount of business from automotive, plastics processing
customers, and all other contract manufacturing sectors such as
telecommunications, medical and consumer goods.
While the company has
shrunk in employee size from 600 to 250 total employees, their annual
sales growth has gone from $20 million to nearly $45 million. Key to
that was found in the market and operation diversification, but also
through their growth in the automation of nearly every production
operation, investments in capital equipment improvements, and always
seeking out more value added purposes found throughout their
manufacturing facilities. Part of that rationale includes their taking
automotive work that offered much smaller lot size production than
typical contract stamping operations (although they can perform lot size
production in the tens of thousands, as well).
Tooling Up To Meet Future Challenges
“We were tooled up to do a lot of GM’s component/bracket work in
the mid- to late-eighties,” stated Rolando. “Then, an influx of
competition hit our area. We knew this would take a toll on our
electronic component business. We went from no area competition in 1986
to four local competitors in 1992 to more than a dozen area companies
vying for their type of business today. We knew that we had to change
our lower tonnage, c-frame press stampings to produce larger and more
sophisticated stampings and assemblies.” And that took both a broader
vision and a new mix of presses.
“Our older, lower tech
smaller presses weren’t going to allow us to meet our growth goals,”
states Rolando. “We were using the used equipment from our German joint
venture partner initially and struggled with maintenance issues. We
then started investigating all of the press technologies out there…from
C-frames to straightsides and even link motion presses. We liked what
we saw in SEYI’s presses, both in technology offering and purchase
price. And after twenty years of SEYI’s in operation here, we haven’t
regretted the decision once.” A total of nearly two dozen SEYI
presses have been installed over the last twenty years. Gap frame and
straight side presses ranging from 66 to 660 ton models are used
throughout the plant.
But
it demanded more than just the need for higher tonnage presses for
bigger part production. It required a much broader vision toward
delivering the complete answer to the customer. And to maintain that
competitive edge, Gobar invested in building their own dies, became much
more involved in the design end of the process (overall part design
and the manufacturability of the part’s production), improving
production training and greater understanding of the manufacturing
process for their associates, and driving the organization to become
more value-added in their overall mindset. And a diversification into
markets never served before, as well as increasing their overall
capabilities to produce tougher jobs. “Today, we can produce both simple
stampings and more complex parts/assemblies…our niche is making what
others around us cannot do,” says Rolando. This has really helped their profit margin growth. For example, their initial bracket production only netted 3-4% profit on average. But as they added more value-added work and contract manufacturing concepts, the margins grew in leaps and bounds.
Another manufacturing
success key is found in the elimination of most manual secondary
operation-heavy work. “It’s a very labor intensive operation and we
can’t compete with those in China, Vietnam, Malaysia and other areas,”
Rolando says. “They pay much lower salaries in these areas, but we
also have more restrictions on environmental compliances, human rights
issues, and other “democracy” factors…and all of these have a cost that
they don’t have to consider.” Where possible, they help redirect the
overall design and/or build their tooling to eliminate as many
secondary operations as possible.
Link Motion Presses Key To Future Growth
Sometimes, using higher technology can allow you to make the
part/assembly better and/or faster than traditional methods. Gobar sees
SEYI Link Motion technology in that vein.
“We were easily sold on the fact that link motion could grow our productivity rates in very substantial amounts over traditional presses,” explains Rolando.
SEYI’s link motion design offers the following benefits:
“We were easily sold on the fact that link motion could grow our productivity rates in very substantial amounts over traditional presses,” explains Rolando.
SEYI’s link motion design offers the following benefits:
- increased approach and return slide speeds paired with appropriate pressworking speeds enable faster production rates (up to a 30% increase in many cases),
- reduced material springback due to slide velocity slowdown,
- extended die life performance due to decreased shock, noise, heat and vibration,
- multiple functions in a single machine…draw work, forming, blanking, etc.
One would think that
getting the customer to believe in a totally new process—moving from
hydraulic pressworking to do the draw work in a progressive die
mechanical pressworking operation—is the toughest part of the job.
“Because we felt confident that we could switch the process over, we
had their blessing to proceed with prototyping, and, with that success,
on to prove all of the production tests for this part,” stated
Rolando. “We said that we could increase production rates by two or
three times over their older methods and so they came in and validated
our processes. And it all worked out beautifully. But it takes a special
kind of trust and respect between the customer and vendor to make
something like this work out. The SEYI link motion presses were key to
this success.”
“And
in the end, most of our customers don't care exactly what type of
process or what type of machinery you use,” adds Rolando. “What they
are interested in is that you are stable on your quality and that you
are competitive in price, and that you can deliver because you have the
capacity to produce what they request. But I can tell you that we feel
very comfortable that our SEYI presses are going to produce a stable
part and that we are going to produce a stable part with processes that
no one in the past thought could be done.”
A big part of these
capabilities comes from a R&D Center that was introduced in 1999.
The operation is focused in developing new tooling designs…engineering
high tech automation and robotics technologies…utilizing the latest in
CAD/CAM design…incorporating wire EDM for tooling production…and most
important, ensuring Gobar’s total involvement of the manufacturing
process—from the front end concepting and design throughout the entire
tooling build and tryout. They have also integrated a strategy of
utilizing press sensors to help with improving press operations and
part inspection.
Pertaining to part
quality, Gobar has met the challenges of tight tolerance stampings that
both automotive and electronics markets are asking for. Dimensional
tolerances can be as tight as one-tenth of a millimeter on some parts.
“We have great presses to make this happen on a regular basis, but it
takes all of the elements of the process…the die design, the precision
of the feed equipment and all other elements are just as critical,”
Rolando says. “It’s important that you've got your coil payoff in line
and you don't have issues such as camber. All of these factors and
more are important to a good quality operation.”
The Importance of Reliability/Uptime to a Mexican Stamper
Gobar
has been utilizing SEYI presses for more than twenty years and the
reliability factor has been key to why they endorse their performance.
And this is especially important when you’re talking about a region of
the world in which next-door parts and service support isn’t readily
available.
“They’ve really held up
to the promises made from the early days,” states Rolando. “ Our press
uptime has been great and whenever we’ve had some type of issue,
they’ve been quick to respond to our needs. These presses have evolved
from dry clutches to the use of more reliable wet clutch technology.
And our uptime seems to be better with the link motion technology…not
to mention it’s faster and delivers better quality parts. In our
experience, SEYI just doesn't sell you and then abandon you. They’ve
worked with us on as-needed repair issues promptly and they’ve set us
up on a good preventive maintenance schedule. They've been training
us so well that our technicians are fairly self-sufficient for
maintenance and repair work. As for the factors of investment price and
overall quality and performance, we are more than satisfied with our
SEYI presses.”
On Gobar’s Future…
Gobar views overall growth and
improvements in two areas. The first one can be found in their training
commitments. The company operates their own “corporate university”, a
place in which their people (other local companies send key personnel
there for training, too) are sent for various training disciplines.
Their overall purpose is to “enable our associate’s competencies to
achieve the goals and objectives of the organization with a strong
emphasis on a culture of discipline, quality, precision and teamwork.” A
wide range of subjects are taught including CAD/CAM and other
programming, mechanical engineering, management, quality control and
others. It is a focused learning environment that they feel that no area
training center can match to fulfill their needs.
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