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Cascade Corporation Success Story: Equipment Manufacturing Company Takes a Holistic Approach to Achieving Short and Long-term Goals
With the help of: Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP) at Georgia Tech
About
Cascade Corporation manufactures material handling equipment for many different industries including warehousing and logistics, food and beverage manufacturing, agriculture, construction, and many others. The company started as a small machine shop in Portland, Oregon, and has grown to become a global leader of attachments, forks, masts, and related technologies for forklifts and AGVs.
The Challenge
In 2023, when Vance Merritt joined Cascade Corporation as plant manager for the 87-person manufacturing facility in Warner Robins, Georgia, the company was doing well. During the pandemic, demand for material handling equipment skyrocketed and the plant met demand by increasing workforce numbers and running regular overtime shifts. While this solution worked in the short-term, the company had a long-term goal of expanding operations at the Warner Robins plant by 20 percent over the next 3-5 years.
We appreciate the excellent service and support we get from the GaMEP. They are readily available and willing to help in any way possible. They have experts with real manufacturing experience that come in, recommend solutions, and then actively participate in the implementation. The improvements we have achieved across many different parts of the company will help us stay competitive in the future.
MEP's Role
Merritt engaged the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP) at Georgia Tech, part of the MEP National Network™ to take the improvement efforts to the next level, by digging deeper into their lean efforts while also bringing in project managers with other types of expertise to look at different aspects of their business. One of the first areas Merritt wanted to explore was how the company could use technology to improve efficiency, while also considering employee experience. Some parts of the company’s production process were necessary but could be repetitive or tedious for workers. Finding and keeping employees to do this work had been difficult, especially in a competitive labor market.
GaMEP Technology Project Manager Tom Sammon evaluated ten equipment areas to identify opportunities for modernization, automation, or upgrade. He then built a technology roadmap that gave the company a step-by-step approach to strategically incorporate new technology throughout the facility and prepare for future growth.
One of the first projects on the roadmap was implementing the use of collaborative robots or “cobots” to complete high drudgery processes throughout the plant, freeing up employees to complete more value-added tasks. Sammon scoped out processes that could effectively be performed by cobots and helped the company create an RFP for their specific needs. Over the course of the next several months, the company also worked with GaMEP on a series of operational excellence projects.