Foam Fabricators Inc

INTRODUCTION:

For our project we selected Foam Fabricators Inc. We choose this company for numerous reasons; first they were local and had a good size manufacturing plant that we could take a tour of. Second reason we choose them was because the quality manager Mike Heitz was a pleasure to work with. Any question we had for him he gave us the answer and if he didn't have the answer he would help us with finding the answer anyway he could. We also had a lot of help from the plant manager who actually gave us the tour his name was Luke Vejar. Both of these gentlemen were a pleasure to work with and gave us all the information that we needed in order to successfully complete the term project.

OVERVIEW OF THE COMPANY

Foam Fabricators is a solutions-based company. Packaging is one of the main components of their business. The things that this warehouse usually does the most is molded foam on the outside of an item, for example; computer end caps for distribution and retail selling, and typically inside an outer container which is what goes in the boxes that companies use to ship their product. The company also does things like; high tech, medical packaging, and many other things as well. You will also see their product in things like foam in bike helmets and wine cases. These are just a few examples of what they do. To make their products they use a product called EPS. EPS stands for expanded polystyrene; it is a lightweight material that can be manufactured into a variety of products. EPS offers a high-performance yet economical support for a wide variety of items, from sensitive electronics to appliances, to be safely delivered to companies. Manufacturers rely on EPS packaging because of its ability to prevent or minimize product damage during transit and its excellent insulation properties required for food and medical shipments, this is why Foam Fabricators are the first choice in packaging materials for many manufacturers. Yet EPS packaging, just like any disposable packaging, will eventually become a solid waste and have to be managed. Foam Fabricators Inc recycles the waste and also sends reject products that can be repaired to a company that can fix them by grinding to make them usable for other companies.

To make their product they first take the original EPS and steam it to make it expand, from there it is sent to big canvas bags in a certain room depending on what machine it will be going to. From the big bags in the room there are big hoses that are connected to the machines, once the workers knows what bag to use for what product and what machine it's going to be used in, they will take the hose from the directed bag of steamed EPS, and hook it up to the machine that it is going to. Once the EPS goes to the machine it shoots enough into what they call a mold of what they are making and it fills it up. In this process it is steamed again at a very hot temperature and the EPS molds together to form the shape of the mold. After being steamed at a very hot temperature, it is cooled off fast in order to keep the mold from expanding more. After the product is molded employees take them and inspect them for damage or correct sizes and then place them on a rack to be packaged and shipped. This is what they make, and how they do it.

FLOW CHART:

Attached at end of the report.

HOW THE COMPANY CONTROLS, MANAGES AND IMPROVES QUALITY OF ITS PRODUCTS:

The company controls the quality of their products by inspecting the weights of the products the density of the original EPS, and numerous other things. They document at these measurements at each stage of the production process, and make sure they are correct to the specifications. If a product does not meet these specifications it is rejected, and they figure out what happened in the production process to make this reject product. They manage the process of control by always having record of the product from the first step of production. They routinely check the machines to see if they are working properly, and aren't running incorrectly. This is a key step in the process because if you don't check the machines and don't know if they are running properly you won't be able to figure out why the machine is spitting out so many rejects. In our tour of the company we saw how they are continuously trying to improve their customer service by producing the best product they can with as little defects as possible. The ways they improve the quality of their products are things like making sure machines are running properly, making sure they use the highest quality product that ensures a good overall product. Most importantly; the company implements a lot of the quality principles that help guide any company and explains to them how to make a very high quality product.

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