Signicast Corporation Revenue and Competitors

Signicast was founded in Milwaukee in 1959 as manufacturer of investment-cast metal signs. In the 1980s, the company's management began looking at the investment casting process in a new way. Although Signicast's customers were enthusiastic about the quality of its investment castings, the long lead times and high incidence of problems were serious drawbacks. In response, Signicast developed and implemented a new way of investment casting, based on the principles of Continuous Flow Manufacturing (CFM). By looking at investment casting through the prism of CFM, Signicast eliminated earlier complaints. It managed to help customers increase their profits by providing them with complete, high-quality components, delivered on time, at a low cost.Today, the Signicast plant in Harlford, WI, demonstrates how this is done. Rather than moving large batches from station to station, in the typical manufacturing model, Signicast maintains an unending stream of individual components flowing continuously through the plant. Even smaller orders go from entry to shipping with no interruptions. Process monitoring and control is managed though Signicast's proprietary software, which helps to ensure that production schedules stay on track. The core of Signicast's CFM approach are a series of automatic storage and retrieval systems (ASRS), which function as both a material handling and storage system. The ASRS units automatically move products from one department to the next, eliminating forklifts and making sure the parts get to where they need to be, when they need to be there. In addition, an electronic tracking system provides flexibility by allowing for processes to be changed in mid-stream, if necessary.