jlg industriesjlg industries - agility business solutions inc
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JLG IndustriesJLG Industries
Challenges
Long manufacturing
lead-times
Excessive
inventories
Frequent stock-outs and
disruptions to
operations
Solutions
Embraced lean
manufacturing
techniques
Implemented Agility
Business Solutions’
Electronic KanBan solu-
tion
Results
Reduced manufacturing
lead times from 88 days
to less than 5
Became an industry
leader
About JLG Industries
A division of The Oshkosh Corporation, JLG Industries is a world leader in aerial
work platforms, industrial man lifts, and material-handlers. JLG
Industries is headquartered in Central Pennsylvania and operates
manufacturing and distribution facilities throughout the world.
Challenges
JLG’s primary customers are large, na-
tional construction rental companies.
These companies will place orders with
JLG as well several competitors, and
will accept the order from the first com-
pany that is able to fulfill it. This prac-
tice leaves slower manufacturers with
partially completed product with no
corresponding customer demand, ad-
versely effecting inventory levels and
profitability. The natural reaction was to
stockpile raw materials and component
inventories, in the hopes of filling
orders faster. This caused inventory
carrying costs to rise and yet their cu-
mula t i ve l ead t i mes d id no t
improve from 88 days.
Service parts are a very profitable part
of JLG’s product offering consequently
if a customer needed a replacement part,
and no parts were available on hand, the
desired parts would be pulled from pro-
duction inventories to fulfill the order,
causing out-of-stocks and material
shortages.
Agility Business Solutions | 7000 Fitzwater Road, Suite 220 | Cleveland, Ohio 44141 Office: 440.546.8384 | Fax: 440.546.9291 | www.agilitybiz.net | [email protected]
The Solution
Based on the recommendations of Agility Business Solutions’ manufacturing consultants, JLG undertook a sys-
temic overhaul of its manufacturing operations and implemented lean manufacturing practices. JLG’s management
chose to implement a continuous flow environment, and utilize visual queues and kanban methodology to trigger
orders on the shop floor.
JLG also implemented shop floor data collection to
ensure the timeliness and accuracy of the information
being fed to their primary planning system, which is a
critical component of a good lean implementation. Agil-
ity Business Solutions’ technical consultants created
programs to streamline the creation of manufacturing
and purchase orders as well as repetitive schedules,
dramatically simplifying the kanban reorder process.
A g i l i t y B u s i n e s s S o l u t i o n s ’ t e c h n i c a l
consultants also created a system to track and estimate
kanban usage and to anticipate and accommodate sea-
sonal demand, as well as irregular demand for service
parts.
The Results
Based on these and other improvements JLG
Industries has become a true world-class manufacturer,
having been recognized as one of “The 10 Best Run
Manufacturers in America” by Industry Week Maga-
zine, as well as being featured in Fortune, MSI and
many other leading publications.
Cumulative manufacturing lead-times were
reduced from over 88 days to less than 5 days. Carrying
inventory was reduced dramatically; in fact, an entire
warehouse of inventory was converted to additional
production lines. Because of their ability to fill cus-
tomer orders so rapidly, the company was able to sub-
stantially increase its market share and profitability.
Agility Business Solutions | 7000 Fitzwater Road, Suite 220 | Cleveland, Ohio 44141 Office: 440.546.8384 | Fax: 440.546.9291 | www.agilitybiz.net | [email protected]