Buckhorn
Custom Molding - An Easy Choice for the Backyard
Backyard Products,
a division of Hedstrom Corp.
is a manufacturer of residential playground equipment and needed a
custom molder to manufacture 8-foot slides for their Family Adventure®
play centers.
Backyard approached Buckhorn
with a few key requirements, a desire for stable pricing, and the
ultimate goal of a quality product consistently delivered on time
for the peak selling season.
"We approached this project
as a true team," revealed Don Thomas, Buckhorn Assistant General
Manager. "We pulled every department together to develop a solid
manufacturing plan that ensured we could meet Backyard's requirements."
Next, we invited Backyard representatives to visit our manufacturing
facility in Bluffton, Indiana. They were so impressed with our production
facility and its capabilities, they gave us an opportunity to prove
we could satisfy their needs.
A contract to manufacture
Backyard Products' 8-foot "wave" slide was the result. The
slide is molded of HDPE structural foam in a wide variety of colors.
, and the tooling required only slight modification to work with Buckhorn's
robotic equipment. With only slight tooling modifications, Buckhorn
significantly improved final part quality. An automated robot now
pulls the slides from the mold, reducing labor and eliminating the
scratches and marks that usually occur when the slide is manually
removed from the mold.
"Our first delivery was
right on time. To ensure Backyard's total satisfaction with the products,
our Quality Assurance manager accompanied the shipment and inspected
the products with the customer," relates Thomas.
Buckhorn has received high
praise from Backyard. "We are extremely pleased with Buckhorn
not only in the quality of the product, but also with the commitment
by its people to customer service," said Mike McCormick, commodity
manager for Backyard Products, a division of Hedstrom Corp. "Buckhorn
has identified other areas where they might help us with future business.
This has been mutually beneficial process." |
