Modine named Supplier of the Year to John Deere Dubuque Works
16 May 2000
Modine named Supplier of the Year to John Deere Dubuque Works
LOGANSPORT, Ind.--May 16, 2000--Modine Manufacturing Company's plant here has been named supplier of the year to John Deere Dubuque Works in Dubuque, Iowa. The Modine plant provides John Deere Dubuque Works with brazed-plate oil coolers for use on Deere engines made in Dubuque and several other locations in the world.In being named Supplier of the Year, Modine joins an elite group - only 14 of 1,600 John Deere suppliers have been named Supplier of the Year.
Modine's Logansport, Ind., plant was established in 1973 and has been a supplier to John Deere since 1977. The plant first achieved John Deere Dubuque Works' designation of Partner-level Supplier, Deere's highest preferred-supplier rating, in 1992. In 1999, the Logansport plant achieved Partner-level Supplier status for the seventh year in a row. To achieve Supplier of the Year status, a supplier must consistently demonstrate superior performance in the six areas of the Deere Achieving Excellence supplier program, plus help Deere reduce costs and maintain or improve quality while doing so. The six rated areas of achievement are quality, delivery, warranty, cost-management, wavelength, which is a measure of responsiveness, and technical support.
"You might say that being named Partner-level Supplier for seven years in a row and Supplier of the Year makes Logansport a lucky plant," commented Bill Tincher, plant manager. "But it wasn't just luck that allowed us to achieve this honor. It took a lot of hard work by a lot of conscientious people, coupled with a desire to be the best supplier possible."
Modine's plant in Logansport employs 245 people. As part of Logansport's efforts to achieve Supplier of the Year status, the plant focused on ways to reduce cost. One of the ways Modine succeeded in this was to work with Deere's engineering group to develop a common oil cooler design that could meet the heat-transfer requirements of both short- and long-stroke engines in the Deere 300-series of engines, plus allow Deere to use a single style of water pump. Previously, the engines used three different oil coolers.
The new design was a single size of brazed-plate oil coolers with a variable number of plates. By consolidating to a common design, Modine was able to offer a tremendous cost-reduction, particularly for the long-stroke engines, which previously had required two different sizes of tube-bundle oil coolers with costly castings. The new brazed-plate oil cooler is mounted in the same place and has the same 'footprint' on each engine in the series. The short-stroke engines in the series use three or five plates and the long-stroke take seven or nine. It also eliminates the need for castings, which can add cost, because the engine block itself provides the housing.
The work on the common design actually began in 1994, when Modine's Logansport plant and Deere Dubuque Works participated in a joint Process Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (PFMEA). This early involvement made all the difference. It allowed Modine to plan its approach early, create a more robust design, and minimize the number of parts. Once the design was planned, the plant had plenty of time to determine the best way to manufacture the new line of oil coolers.