Titan Trailers Puts Philosophy in Action with New Facility
The 37,000 sq. ft. addition at the Titan Trailers Inc. head office and factory includes a new expanded home for the company's in house R&D Engineering team.
Delhi, ON - Titan Trailers' R&D operations, Quality Control and Final Finish has moved into a new 37,000 square foot facility that will also accommodate all scheduling, accounting and training facilities. Using his personal philosophy of "The only way to change the future is to invent it", Mike Kloepfer, Titan Trailers' President and founder, has done just that with the company's new facility. "First of all, we have created a state-of-the-art green facility that incorporates the latest technology and an ideal working environment for our employees. Additionally, by combining our R&D facility with Final Finish, our Engineering teams will be able to keep an eye on product development from the inception to the delivery stage." According to Andy Maertens, the Head of Titan Trailers' R&D facility, "Along with the new trailer bays for design and testing, the R&D centre will provide us with expanded meeting and demonstration space, room for library and reference resources along with a suite of individual work stations for FEA, CAD and modeling."
The new training facility will be used to keep everyone up-to-date on everything including the latest equipment, software and safety initiatives. Titan's new training facility will allow the team to be prepared for every new idea and challenge.
The Green Building
Mike Kloepfer worked on all elements of design with his architects. The first thing you will notice is how bright it is in the working areas. Mike explains that the see-through energy-efficient overhead doors with southern exposure let in the most light possible. "There are light sensors strategically positioned to monitor the overall brightness inside. The sensors activate and deactivate the low energy lights to maintain a consistent level of brightness indoors. As the sun rises the lights begin to shut down and continue to shut more down throughout the day until late afternoon when they begin turning back on. The south facing transparent doors also assist the heating process by delivering extra radiant heat to the building. On sunny winter days, the floor heating system will not even turn on because the radiant heat from the doors will warm the shop about 2º warmer than our thermostat setting. Our objective all along was to have the most environmentally friendly building possible while incorporating an employee friendly design to increase overall productivity."
Another unique feature of this building according to Mike is the in-floor heating system. This method was chosen for employee comfort and efficiency. "It delivers heat at the floor level where it is needed most and is up to 30% more efficient than conventional heating systems." According to the research, continued Kloepfer, "Even in this large facility with the high ceilings the precision system temperature control with integrated floor sensors delivers quick and constant heat recovery even with overhead doors opening and closing." As Kloepfer pointed out, in a typical manufacturing facility with ceiling mounted heaters, warm air rises, collects and is wasted at the ceiling. It also takes a great deal of energy to drive the air down to the floor and it is a struggle to keep the building warm. This in-floor heating system maintains even heat with very little temperature differences between the floor and the ceiling.
Expected Productivity
While a green building is a sound investment in tomorrow, it is still an investment and requires a proper return on investment. According to Kloepfer, expectations are that this recent expansion will increase productivity capability over 30%. "By streamlining the operation and facilitating the manufacturing process, our efficiency will rise. This means less movement of work-in-process. This is designed to make us more efficient. By having all the Final Finish activity and Quality Control in the same area, we can assure our customers of an even better product than we are delivering today." Kloepfer points out that another significant benefit of having R&D, Quality Control and Final Finish in the same area is that it will speed up the R&D process and will enable customers' needs to be met by bringing continuous improvements to market that much faster.
The new building has 20 bays and 3 loading docks. Two of the bays are dedicated to R&D. According to Kloepfer, "This gives the R&D people a constant in-process view of their work before it goes out the door. They also get to work directly with Final Finish ensuring that the features designed into the trailers work exactly as they were intended to.
Each bay is fully equipped as a 'self sufficient unit'. Kloepfer feels that in order to maximize the productivity of each individual on the shop floor, they need their 'own tools'. This means that each bay has its own welding equipment as well as pneumatic tool set ups. "With every bay set up to do every job, the efficiency of the individuals is maximized. We truly want to empower our people by giving them the very best in equipment and environment to ensure our customers will continue to get the level of quality they have come to expect."
"We are extremely excited, not only about the building, but the fact that we have increased our capability and have created a physical environment that will let people do their very best work and at the same time enjoy their work place," said Kloepfer.
Titan's original facility will continue to house its head office, primary manufacturing and production engineering departments.
About Titan Trailers
Titan Trailers is a world-class innovation leader in the hauling industry long recognized for job-specific functionality and attention to manufacturing detail. Titan Trailers offer business-minded haulers a complete line of trailers utilizing advanced design and manufacturing technologies based on the patented THINWALL(TM) extruded aluminium panel. Titan focuses its extensive R&D activities on making its trailers the best business choice for operators in the custom trailer market.
For more information about Titan Trailers, visit the Titan web site at www.titantrailers.com or contact:
Sandy Kloepfer
Tel: 519-688-4826
Fax: 519-688-6453
E-mail: info@titantrailers.com
