Case Study - Midwest Fabrication & Supply
Midwest Fabrication & Supply Fabrication Plant - Zumbrota, MN
Midwest Fabrication & Supply (Zumbrota, MN) is a primary fabrication shop for Harris, a leading national mechanical contractor specializing in design and engineering, construction, building automation, service, manufacturing, conveyors, and end-to-end building systems. Harris started Midwest Fabrication and Supply in 2008 to support a broad swathe of projects tackled by their national team as well as their 14 regional offices.
Mike Nelsen
Plant Manager
Mike has been the Plant Manager since 2020. He started as a pre-apprentice in the sheet metal trade, then earned a B.S. in Manufacturing Management. Mike has 25 years with Harris/Midwest in fabrication, a Six Sigma Yellow Belt, served as a foreman for eight years, then became the Plant Manager.
Mike has vast experience planning and leading operations in the manufacturing environment. As Plant Manager, he provides support for his team evaluating and implementing continuous process improvements to help minimize waste and reduce cost while maximizing quality and safety.
The Business Challenge:
Midwest Fabrication & Supply was cutting pipe on an old machine and facing a changing market. "It was time to replace our old machine," said Mike Nelsen, Plant Manager for Midwest Fabrication. "We started searching for a new machine that would expand our pipe cutting abilities, reduce our material handling, and expand our capabilities from 20ft to 40ft pipe."
"We have a 78,000 sq.ft. shop," Nelsen continued, "but we had some unique obstacles with our floor space layout. We needed to convey 40ft pipe, but aspects of our building could not be easily changed. This is partially where Watts-Specialties began to stand out."
"We have seen a lot of shops and configurations," explains Dave Dunham, Managing Director for Watts-Specialties. "We custom-build every machine for each customer. We also do 3D-modeling for the floor space on each installation to help our customers improve their workflow. This is part of our approach to each and every machine installation."
Some of this site analysis was augmented by Gladwin Machinery in Minnesota, one of the Watts-Specialties distributors. "We interacted with David Gladwin for around three years," said Mike Nelsen. "David came to our shop to gather some details of our situation. I also visited the Watts-Specialties manufacturing facility in Washington state. That visit was the deciding factor," notes Nelsen. "Gladwin continued to give us support through the entire process."
The Watts Solution:
The machine was going to fit the floor space nicely, but our exterior brick wall was standing in the way where we needed a conveyor system. "Midwest Fabrication cut a 4-foot opening in the exterior wall and we did some custom-design with the sizes of the racks and conveyors," said Dunham. "We installed a rack on the outside of the building, through the small opening, to the machine."
Mike Nelsen comments on this work around:
"This 'pass-through' door from outside the building straight to the machine reduces our time handling pipe around structural columns and other machinery," explained Nelsen. "We reduced our footprint with the new CNC pipe cutter from 60 feet to 50 feet, yet we doubled the length of pipe we could handle."
Midwest Fabrication
Photo Gallery
The Watts Difference:
"Before the W-364 was installed," continued Nelsen, "we had a pipe cutting machine that could not cut 2" OD pipe. We used a band saw to cut 2-inch pipe much of which was stainless. The pipe cut with the band saw required a lot of prep work before welding.
"We are saving more on labor than we anticipated," notes Nelsen, "because this W-364 cuts with superior quality and leaves a clean bevel. This machine goes through stainless steel like butter. We rarely have to do more than knock off a few bits of oxide. We reduced our labor costs, our run times and costs for welding consumables. At the same time, we reduced material handling by 20% and thus increased the safety in our facility. The result has been an overall improvement in operational efficiency."
3D-Profile Plus
Equipped with Watts-Specialties 3D-Profile Plus Software, the W-364 gives operators the option to dry run complex cuts. "We had a customer that manufactures tanks. They needed some holes and squares cut into some tanks," said Nelsen. "This was expensive material and the customer was nervous, so we did a dry run. After watching the dry run, they were confident and gave us the OK to proceed."
"We had issues using STRATUS with the Watts 3-D software," continued Nelsen, "but the Watts software was easy for our operator to learn. We also like it that all Watts machines are made in the USA."
