Fastener health check
Rapierstar is providing extensive support to window and door manufacturer Shelforce to streamline fastener usage and ensure its workforce is fully supported to achieve the highest quality finished products.
The Birmingham-based manufacturer is already benefiting from a 25% reduction in the number of different types of fasteners it uses following a Rapierstar fastener ‘health check’. This identified instances where a single fastener type and size could be used for multiple purposes throughout the assembly, a move that has reduced fastener stockholding, made ordering easier and simplified manufacture.
Since Shelforce provides employment for people living with a wide range of disabilities, its production lines are configured in a way that enables operatives to clearly identify which fasteners to use for each part of the window or door’s construction. Here, Rapierstar has helped by not only reducing the number of different types of fasteners being used – and thus the scope for selecting the wrong one – but also by producing colour-coded charts for every workstation so fabricators have a quick and easy-to-use fastener reference guide in front of them at all times.
Rapierstar is supplying Shelforce with an all-austenitic stainless steel suite of fasteners for the manufacture of PVCU windows and doors using Eurocell systems.
Howard Trotter, business manager at Shelforce, said: “The process changes that Rapierstar have helped us to implement have enabled us to further improve manufacturing efficiency and optimise quality, while multi-skilling workers so they are able to work on any part of the production line as required. This ensures we remain competitive in the market with a range of windows and doors that offer significant quality benefits, supported by technical documentation and test data that satisfies client audit requirements, which our loyal and growing customer base really values.”
