While relocating an assembly operation for a major diesel engine manufacturing company in the US, we recognized they were handling the parts they used in their assembly process 5 x before putting them on the assembled product. 

They would take the parts off the truck and put them on a cart, take them off the cart and put them in a bin, take them out of the bin onto another cart and move the cart to the assembly area, then take them off the cart and put them on the assembly. 

We suggested for the client to fabricate carts that would hold all the parts needed for every assembly they would perform in a month. 

The carts were staged near the loading dock so the parts were taken from the truck and put on the carts in the order they would be installed on the final assembly. 

This accomplished 3 things.

1. It reduced handling of parts from 4 to 2
2. It served as a quality control device…when all the parts are gone, the assembly is complete
3. It allowed for ultimate flexibility in their assembly process…let them provide fast service in the event of an emergency. The main component, the diesel engine could be put on the assembly line along with the cart related to the end product and the cart would be moved down the line with other assemblies without disruption to normal production…which provided better service to their customers. 

Our customer estimated that we saved him $50,000 per month and eliminated the need to add 2 more assembly lines and the people needed to work on them.