Nahanni Steel Products Work Flow Design

Nahanni Steel Products (Nahanni), located in Brampton, Ontario, is a Tier 2 supplier that provides products and services to the automotive, mining and solar industries, as well as to both residential and commercial roofing businesses. Nahanni’s specialty, however, is automotive parts manufacturing. They offer a range of fabrication processes, including stamping, welding, assembly, press tool and injection mould builds. In the summer of 2014, Nahanni was awarded a contract to produce three automotive brackets, Figure 1, which serve as a cargo floor support to hold up a plastic floor in the back of a vehicle. The production of these steel brackets requires the use of 2 automated welding machines and a press, with production volumes of at least 80,000 parts per year. To proceed with production, Nahanni Steel Products requires a process flow and schedule that will efficiently produce all three parts.

Darrin Wiegard, a plant engineer at Nahanni Steel Products, was responsible for determining the most efficient work process to produce these automotive brackets.

Figure 1 - Diagram of the three automotive brackets planned for production