Metal Flow
Facing fluctuating demand and inspection requirements, Metal Flow used on-demand labor to scale quality control, protect throughput, and avoid over-hiring by adjusting labor to daily production needs.
Metal Flow Scales Labor Up and Down With Fluctuating Production and Inspection Workloads
Metal Flow Corporation is a precision metal stamping company based in Holland, Michigan. The company produces airbag and fuel system components for the automotive industry, manufacturing approximately one million parts per day for roughly forty customers across fourteen countries.
In automotive manufacturing, that workload fluctuates. Production volumes rise and fall, incoming orders require a quick response, and new projects create additional work. Beyond supporting production off the presses, Metal Flow needs people to sort and inspect parts, sometimes within a short turnaround.
Those requirements also vary in duration. An increase in production workload may call for additional support on a particular day or week, while a launch-related inspection project may last several months. Metal Flow needed a way to cover that work without making permanent hiring commitments for temporary requirements or pulling employees away from regular production to handle additional inspections.
Through Veryable, Metal Flow developed a Labor Pool of returning Operators it could draw on as those needs changed.
Responding Quickly as Workloads Change
After connecting with the Veryable team at a Lakeshore Advantage event, Metal Flow began building more flexibility into its labor model. Today, Hawkins describes a flexible labor pool equal to roughly 10 to 15 percent of the workforce.
“With Veryable, we're able to do it day by day, week by week,” says Michael Hawkins, VP of Manufacturing. “If we got a heavy workload off the presses or a heavy workload in quality, we're able to flex the labor quite a bit.”
Operators support racking and packing parts coming off the presses, along with sorting and inspection. Supervisors can post work as needed and invite proven Operators from their Labor Pool, adjusting support to the work that needs to be completed.
That ability matters when orders arrive or parts need to be sorted or inspected on a short timeline. Metal Flow can respond with additional labor familiar with the work.
“Orders drop in, we're able to respond quickly,” Hawkins says. “So I think that's the key that I see.”
Covering Temporary Inspection Requirements
Automotive program launches create another source of variability. Customers may require additional inspections over a specified number of parts or period of time to verify that the production process is capable.
For Metal Flow, those requirements can create inspection work lasting anywhere from a week to several months. The work needs to be completed alongside regular production, creating a temporary labor requirement beyond the people already producing parts.
Veryable allows Metal Flow to bring in Operators to perform those inspections for the period they are needed. Hawkins identifies a specific benefit: “not having to pull people off of the regular production of the parts” to do the inspection work.
This gives Metal Flow a way to meet the additional customer requirements while keeping production employees on their regular assignments. Once the inspection requirement ends, the company can reduce the additional labor supporting it.
Building a Labor Pool That Knows the Operation
Metal Flow’s flexibility depends on more than the ability to bring people in. It also depends on bringing back people who understand the work.
Some Operators have returned since Metal Flow first began using Veryable. Over time, they have become familiar with the facility, the tasks, and the expectations, allowing the company to draw on that experience when additional work arises.
“They know where to go. They know what to do. They know what they're looking for,” Hawkins says.
That familiarity has been particularly valuable in the inspection area. Returning Operators know the parts and inspection work they have performed before, making continuity an important part of the Labor Pool’s value.
Metal Flow also emphasizes building relationships with Operators so they want to return. Those relationships help make the Labor Pool a dependable extension of the team, with experienced people the company can invite back as workloads change.
Controlling Labor Costs Through Demand Cycles
The ability to scale labor down is an essential part of the model. Additional work may justify more people for a period of time without supporting the same headcount once that work is complete.
“Once you hire somebody, you're carrying that cost,” says Ed Ploeg, Director of Quality.
Ploeg connects avoiding overhiring directly to Metal Flow’s competitive position. By drawing on its Labor Pool during periods of higher demand, the company can cover additional work while limiting the permanent labor costs it carries into slower periods.
“The key that we learned with Veryable was, once we developed our labor pool, we were able to pull from those people when we needed them,” Ploeg says. “Then we started realizing the value. We get our goals accomplished by doing that.”
For Metal Flow, the result is a practical way to manage the variability of automotive manufacturing: respond quickly to incoming work, cover temporary inspection requirements, and keep labor aligned with the workload as demand rises and falls.
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