Tugger Machine & Cart System Cuts Crane Use by Half

A manufacturer of motors & pumps has slashed overhead crane use and eliminated lift trucks from pedestrian areas by combining tugger machines and mobile workstations.

Hayward Tyler manufactures motors and pumps that weigh up to 88,000lbs and can reach 20 feet long. While planning their new state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, they were looking for an innovative solution that provided both safety and productivity improvements.

Unhappy with the way the product moved through the production process and aware of the time lost to transferring the product from station to station using cranes, the engineering team started looking for a leaner and more efficient model.

Setting the Stage

The first step was to straighten the flow of product through the plant. This was quickly followed by a search to find a better way to transport ‘work in progress’. They were looking for a method that wasn’t time-consuming or involved risk associated with an overhead crane or forklift. The answer came in the form of intelligent mobile workstations which Hayward Tyler has called Crusers®.

Enter MasterMover Tugger Machine

The operations team tried a handful of different tugger options, testing their ability to move a typical 21,000lb load through the facility. Buhlinger explains, “the key benefit of the MasterMover tugger was the maneuverability. The emergency stop button could bring the machine and load to an immediate halt safely and the operation was very smooth. Hayward Tyler’s operators were given a questionnaire and the results meant we just ‘had to go’ with the MasterMover tugger.”

MasterMover Tugger Machine Improved Efficiency

Since implementing the tugger machine and Cruser® solution, the company has saved large blocks of wasted time by halving overhead crane use. Another major gain was realized by eliminating lift trucks from the pedestrian areas of the plant. Before the tugger machine and Cruser® solution were implemented they relied on a heavy-duty lift truck to transfer product in areas of the plant that were out of reach of the overhead. The change delivered an instant improvement both in terms of time and safety.

The combination of flow line production with a flexible and efficient means of moving work in progress between stations has proved to be an unrivaled success for Hayward Tyler. So much so that they are already looking at how the lessons learned can be applied to other parts of their operation.