The Problem
In 2004, a General Motors (GM) plant manager faced significant inefficiencies related to internal logistics and mobile equipment maintenance. The reliance on outdated, legacy equipment and ill-fitting standard forklifts for transporting critical supplies and production components was severely compromising operational flow and safety within their facilities. Furthermore, GM lacked a reliable, high-volume resource capable of remanufacturing complex electrical, hydraulic, and mechanical components for their extensive mobile equipment fleet. This forced GM to rely on expensive new parts or unreliable third-party repairs, leading to unpredictable maintenance budgets, increased inventory holding costs, and unnecessary equipment downtime.
The Solution
KIRKS partnered with General Motors to implement a comprehensive, two-pronged strategy that addressed both the logistics inefficiencies and the fleet maintenance expense simultaneously.
- The Eagle Tug: Working directly with GM production managers, KIRKS provided custom engineering expertise to design a purpose-built solution for internal material handling. This led to the creation of the Eagle Tugs, a custom Stand/Sit Tugger designed for optimal efficiency and ergonomics on the production floor. The success of this custom unit was so profound that it was adopted as a GM Standard in 2005 across numerous facilities.
- Scalable Repairable Assets Program: KIRKS established a strategic Repairable Assets Program designed to maximize the lifespan and reduce the lifecycle cost of GM’s entire mobile equipment fleet at local SE Michigan plants. This program standardizes the repair process for complex components, including electrical systems, hydraulics, steering mechanisms, and suspension parts, across a wide range of forklift and mobile equipment brands.
- Proprietary Core Management and Logistics: We integrated our logistics network directly into GM’s operations. The KIRKS delivery fleet manages a proprietary core pickup program, retrieving damaged components (cores) directly from all local GM plants and simultaneously delivering certified remanufactured components daily. This systematic exchange dramatically improves repair turnaround time, reduces waste management burdens for GM, and minimizes the human resource hours GM staff previously spent coordinating fragmented repairs.
The Result
The partnership successfully transformed GM’s fleet maintenance and logistics from a cost-center and source of frustration into a streamlined, high-efficiency operation that continues to generate significant savings.
- Financial Impact: By switching from purchasing expensive new replacements (CAPEX) to utilizing the reliable, guaranteed remanufactured components (OPEX), GM achieves significant, quantifiable cost savings. At this writing, KIRKS has saved just seven (7) GM plants more than $800,000 over the past five years alone through the Repairable Assets Program.
- Operational Predictability: The program provides GM with a predictable, high-quality remanufacturing resource, eliminating the gamble on third-party vendors and ensuring component quality is comparable to, or better than, new OEM parts.
- Logistical Efficiency: Our daily core exchange and delivery model dramatically shortens the repair cycle, ensuring critical components are back in rotation faster, thereby improving vehicle uptime and optimizing internal production flows established by the custom Eagle Tug standard.
KIRKS is proud to remain a trusted partner, continuously providing the custom solutions and standardized service necessary to keep GM’s critical industrial operations running with maximum efficiency and minimal cost.