CASE STUDY No. 9639

KEY WORDS RETURNABLE DUNNAGE

Ford Electronics and Refrigeration Corp.
Electrical Fuel Handling Division
3120 W. 16th Street
Bedford, IN 47421

Contacts: Steven G. Holda, Controller. Tel: 812-279-6030.
Ron A. Baughn, Industrial/Packaging Engineer. Tel: 812-279-6023;  Fax: 812-279-6063.

Summary

A reusable shipping container (returnable dunnage) for transporting rubber gaskets from the factory to the assembly line eliminates 67.5 tons of corrugated cardboard and saves the company 10 cents per gasket--$150,000 per year.

Action

The Bedford plant manufactures an automobile fuel pump which requires rubber gaskets. Ford purchases the gaskets from Goshen Rubber Company, Inc., a factory located in Goshen, Indiana, approximately 190 miles north of Bedford. Gaskets are shipped from Goshen every other day by common carrier. During 1996, Ford purchased about 1.1 million gaskets.

Before adoption of a reusable shipping container in late 1995, gaskets were shipped in corrugated cardboard (CC) boxes fitted with CC grids to separate gaskets and avoid damage during transit. Boxes and grids were used only once and then thrown away. The company estimated it disposed of 67.5 tons of old cardboard a year at a cost of $100 per ton.

Development of a reusable container was a joint project initiated by the Lawrence County Solid Waste District, in which the Ford plant is located; in partnership with Ford, Goshen Rubber, and Robinson Industries, Coleman, Michigan, which designed and manufactured the reusable shipping tray that replaced the disposable container. In the interest of supporting a model industrial program to reduce the solid waste stream, the Indiana Department of Environmental Management provided a grant of $44,750 to cover about half of the cost to develop a reusable gasket shipper.

Besides the large volume of material disposed, the corrugated shipper had other drawbacks:

  1. Corrugated fibers and paper separators often would stick to gaskets, causing rejects.
  2. Projections molded into gaskets to align them properly in the fuel pump assembly often were damaged in transit.

Robinson Industries designed a reusable shipper of vacuum-formed, high density polyethylene (HDPE). 75% of the plastic content was recycled material acquired mostly from defective fuel tanks and damaged or obsolete dunnage from other Ford plants. Although trays are expected to last 7 years in continuous service, they may be made obsolete sooner by design changes. Trays that are damaged in the Goshen-to-Bedford loop will be recycled as new trays.

Payback

Ford estimated that it recovered its investment of $42,050 in about 6 months.

Other benefits

  1. The new shipper is designed to accommodate two different sizes of gasket, with easy visual identification.
  2. Labor required to dispose of corrugated waste is permanently eliminated.
  3. The Bedford initiative serves as a good example to other assembly plants and suppliers.
 

 

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