Trailers 2000 adopt new technology to boost production

Building a basic box trailer sounds simple enough. But Sunshine Coast-based Stuart Daniels plans to revolutionise the trailer manufacturing industry by completely redesigning the product.

Daniels, Managing Director of Trailers 2000 Pty Ltd, at Beerwah, is taking his company on a systematic process of building a better trailer. His aim is to develop a more cost-effective product and one that's better for the environment.

Trailers 2000 was launched by Daniels, and his wife, Jenny, in 1993. The couple had four young children but with Daniels struggling to get work, they decided to take the risk and embark on their own business venture – building box trailers in a shed at Maleny, in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. Twin brothers Darren and Craig Henderson joined the Daniels as partners in 1996.

Today, Trailers 2000 is one of the largest trailer manufacturers in Australia, building about 5,500 trailers a year. It has 25 employees housed in a 6,000m² company-owned premises. It has won many awards, including Top Queensland Business in the Telstra Business Awards in 2005.

But Daniels is not satisfied. He knows the trailer industry can make a quantum leap to building a much better product and is investing time and money to achieve that. "With the right systems in place, there is the potential to double or triple the business," he said.

However, it is complex because the industry is very fragmented. It is an industry with low barriers to entry and lacks professionalism, with many trailers built by amateurs. Some states do not even require small trailers to be registered.

The body of a Trailers 2000 trailer is manufactured from Galvanneal, also called zinc anneal. Galvanneal is a hot-dip coated sheet product in which the zinc coating has been changed into a zinc-iron alloy coating for improved paintability. Galvanneal has a dull matte appearance, compared with the shiny surface of hot-dip galvanised steel. The matte surface is excellent for painting and the zinc-iron alloy coating is harder than the soft zinc coating of hot-dip galvanised steel. The harder coating is more resistant to scratches and corrosion. The company manufactures its own raw materials from coiled steel, because that is more efficient and helps defray some of the additional cost of using zinc anneal.

But Daniels wants to go further. He aims to reduce all welding and painting, because those aspects of the process increase energy use and have potentially harmful emissions. They also add to the time required to complete a trailer.

In the current process, the average time to manufacture a trailer is 2.5 to 3 hours. It is then prepared for painting and approximately 25 trailers are completed per day. Under the new production method, Trailers 2000 aims to complete 100 trailers per day, a 300% increase in production.

"We are on the journey to change," Daniels said. He estimates Trailers 2000 is half way towards its end goal of "effectively redesigning the trailer from the ground up."

Another improvement is changing to rubber suspension, because assembling springs and axles is time consuming. Eliminating welding by using self-piercing rivets and eliminating the need to paint the trailers will open opportunities to market the product more broadly. Currently, Trailers 2000 sells in Queensland and northern NSW alone, because finished trailers are expensive to transport.

Duplicating the factory in other locations is not economical. But when the trailers can be manufactured, sub-assembled, transported that way with final assembly being completed offsite, the proposition is financially viable.

Daniels says there are still some problems to solve, but already less welding is being performed at the Beerwah factory, and he is confident that once painting and welding are eliminated, the factory will see a 90% emission reduction. About 30% of trailers are no longer painted.

Sub-assembling also opens avenues for exports. Currently Australian manufacturers must compete with cheap Chinese exports. But with volume and output being "increased dramatically", Trailers 2000 could be a world leader in the market.

Daniels says manufacturing is not "a glamorous industry", so it is difficult to get external investment to assist his plan to build the best trailer. That slows progress for "the big picture", as cash flow is required.  

"But we're passionate about manufacturing, and have good ideas. We've always grown under our own steam, and will continue to do that" he said.

Daniels has had assistance from QMI Solutions in the past to improve production methods. A Value Stream Mapping project identified issues affecting workflow in the production process and recommended improvements that streamlined the flow. The QMI Solutions analysis showed lead time from order to delivery of a trailer was 15.5 days, but could be reduced to less than 5.5 days.

"QMI studied our processes and identified bottlenecks, allowing us to improve our production methods," Daniels said. 

QMI recommended better order scheduling and greater use of e-commerce to allow customers to track orders online. Inventory management, particularly raw materials, needed to be reorganised. Reallocating staff duties could reduce bottlenecks in the assembling and welding production bays.

Using the 5S system to sort required tools would save time searching for items. "5S is particularly effective at maximising use of available space," QMI's report said.

QMI also conducted a Manufacturing Microscope project for Trailers 2000. The project charts manufacturing practices and performance and assesses them against world benchmarks for related companies. Trailers 2000 was assessed against other companies in the Fabricated Metal Products sector. Like the Value Stream Mapping, the Manufacturing Microscope exercise also identified areas of improvement for production processes at Trailers 2000.

Daniels said it was "very useful to have a good look at where we were as part of the journey towards the perfect world".

some members of the Trailers 2000 team

QMI Solutions' suggested improvements saw the company take annual output from 3,000 to 5,500 units. Increasing the number of painting booths speeded that element of production.

"We have taken control of inputs, invested in machines that are more efficient, we are not holding as much pre-cut material, and we've minimised waste. We are now a leaner manufacturer, but still not good enough," Daniels said.

Trailers 2000 is maintaining reasonable sales levels while continuing the development of a better trailer, but Daniels admits it takes time because trailer manufacturing is labour intensive with high raw material content.

When Trailers 2000 is further advanced on its trajectory towards building the optimum trailer, Daniels is likely to ask QMI Solutions to analyse the new processes that will then be in place.

"It's a valuable service for manufacturers," he said.

There are big challenges ahead for Trailers 2000, but Daniels is a man with the courage to meet them.  "We recognise it's a quantum leap, but if you're not going forward you're sitting still," he said.

For more information or advice, please contact:
Consultant: Steve Lennox
Email: info@qmisolutions.com.au