Outsourced Manufacturing for the Mass Transit Industry

Custom rail car seats from Leonhardt manufacturing Working with prominent customers supporting the urban commuter and long-distance passenger rail industry, a leading manufacturer of passenger rail seating needed a tube bending supplier with the capability of delivering complex bent and welded stainless steel tubular assemblies on a just-in-time basis.

Our client needed a solution that delivered the highest-quality work with strict QA for both cosmetic and structural accuracy and already had a backlog to overcome at the onset of the project.

The successful completion of this project required a supplier who:

  • Had the equipment and know-how to produce stainless steel tubular fabrications that involved complicated tube bending, welding, and metal finishing to demanding cosmetic standards.
  • Was ISO certified and could support the engineering and quality needs of an outsourcing project of this scope.
  • Had in-house tooling capabilities to create the needed tools and fixtures to assure a smooth launch.

Solution:

After evaluating multiple contract outsourcing vendors, the client chose Leonhardt Manufacturing as their preferred partner for this project because Leonhardt offers a complete suite of engineering, fabrication, welding, and polishing services providing a turnkey solution.

rail car seatTo complete this fabrication, Leonhardt developed 13 custom check fixtures and 7 sets of bending tools. Our team worked side-by-side with the client’s team of engineers, technicians and product managers from prototyping through production to deliver five different assemblies.

Leonhardt’s approach is to become an integrated extension of our customer’s value chain, recognizing that successfully completing this project involved more than just meeting the product diagram requirements.

“We learned person to person, welder to welder, side by side to make sure we transferred the knowledge,’ said Jason Jacobs, President of Leonhardt Manufacturing.

Within 4 months of the initial contact, Leonhardt Manufacturing had quoted, tooled, delivered approved first parts, and was shipping production quantities on time.

Results:

By partnering with Leonhardt Manufacturing, the client:

  • Increased its speed to market
  • Boosted overall capacity and product quality
  • Solidified their relationships with their partners in the railcar industry

 

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