Contract Manufacturing for Digital Printers

A Fortune 500 company needed an enclosure for the complex inner workings of an 8,000-pound digital printer.
The framework required 31 different components – each one requiring subassembly. All told, 450 parts and pieces went into each finished enclosure, including drawers, doors and roof sections for the machine. Major panels were made by twin-sheet and thermal-formed sheet metal, both RIM-molded and injection-molded.

Eighty percent of the components, from hinges to keypads, came from either domestic or global suppliers – requiring complicated supply-chain management and subassembly.

The manufacturer called Ferriot because of our established track record for producing enclosures for business machines, our ability to manage a complex supply line and our capacity for handling large parts extending up to nine feet long.

Ferriot developed testing and qualification procedures to ensure that every part of the assembly and subassembly would function properly.

For each of the components produced in house, we developed blueprints and work instructions. Workers had to be trained and pass internal certification requirements before participating in any part of the production.

Meanwhile, supply-chain managers applied time-tested procedures for the qualification, scheduling and inspection of the hundreds of different outsourced components. Ferriot ramped up to production in less than a year.

Managing multiple teams, designs and supply lines, Ferriot produced best-in-class finished enclosures for the manufacturer’s 8,000-pound digital printers – delivering with cost efficiency and on-time delivery.