Electri-Cord Helps Streamline Production of Solar Light Trailers with Custom Turn-Key Solution

Overview

This specific customer offers a unique solar solution for the industrial energy market by providing reliable worksite power and lighting, managing to save their customer’s money. Their units provide portable, clean, renewable, emission-free energy through modern power generation. Their fifth-generation solar generators and mobile solar light towers are built on the success of technology currently being utilized by Fortune 500 companies, powered by Electri-Cords custom control panel and associated harnessing. Their innovative solar trailers can be towed by a small truck or SUV for ultimate mobility and quick deployment, which are necessary aspects at most construction sites, oil fields, parking lots, and other off-grid locations.

Business Challenges

When our customer came to us with manufacturing challenges, they were assembling many of their panels and harnesses in house. Because they were relying on multiple cable suppliers for one business unit, their management, manufacturing, and administrative costs were much too high. Additionally, at the time they were working with predominantly small-scale local shops, requiring them to order and drop ship higher valued components to complete the build of their in-demand solar trailers. Faced with a tight deadline and limited capacity to meet it, our customer required our help to overcome the following challenges:

• Needed to move production to a new facility and manufacture 1,200 trailers within 6 months
• Lacked an ISO 9001 certified partner with experience building a mix of products, including HLA’s and wiring harnesses
• No in-house quality team that could test the electrical functionality of products and ensure their compliance with industry standards

Our Solution

We employed a Globally Local approach to the customer’s product sourcing initiative, supporting custom development of solar trailer assembly from prototyping all the way through production. With design for manufacturing practices, we were able to optimize the design of their solar panels, all the while lowering assembly costs. In addition, we utilized our highly engineered supply chain solutions to vet and consolidate vendors and manage their inventory, allowing Electri-Cord to maintain stock of materials under the ownership of the customer. After months of collaboration, Electri-Cord was able to help achieve the following:

• Consolidate their supply chain to include mix of products
• Utilize a full turn-key solution, no longer requiring them to consign raw materials
• Support the mix of products & volumes at a 72/week production level
• Apply quality procedures, documentation, & two custom testers
• Develop local sheet metal fabricators to support custom project
• Implement long term-DFM exercise to offer lowest cost solutions & meet target prices

Results 

Electri-Cord started shipping production orders within months of start-up for a blanket order. The customer was able to successfully deliver the full year of production assemblies within 6 months while moving to a new facility—allowing them to receive enough grants to continue production. Our customer is actively developing new products around the design of our control panels and wiring assemblies, hoping to increase their business in the coming years.

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