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RELY · Case Study · Legacy program transferNO. 21

PROGRAM TRANSFER & REQUALIFICATION · MAJOR APPLIANCE OEM

Anyone can inherit the equipment. Very few suppliers will inherit the responsibility.

A major appliance OEM's incumbent exited three UL product lines. The tooling could ship in a truck. The real question: who will own the missing pieces after the equipment arrives?

RELY took over the tooling, rebuilt the supply chain underneath it, and requalified ten UL part numbers through full PPAP under RELY's name.

Download the PDFDiscuss a handoff
RELY associate inspecting small parts at a workstation
  • 3Legacy product lines transferred from the incumbent supplier
  • 10UL part numbers, requalified and PPAP approved
  • 85Raw-material & component SKUs planned and stocked
  • 20Of those SKUs require multi-supplier routing before reaching RELY

The tooling transferred in a truck. The manufacturing system had to be rebuilt.

An incumbent's exit looks like a clean handoff: dies, anvils, testers, and BOMs, boxed up and shipped. What doesn't fit in that truck is the responsibility: years of undocumented tribal knowledge, with none of the people who built it.

RELY received it as a full manufacturing program transfer, taking responsibility for the tooling, the supply chain underneath it and requalification.

The customer didn't need another place to run the tooling. They needed a supplier willing to own everything around it.

WHAT RELY ACTUALLY OWNED

Not just the transferred equipment.
  1. TOOLING REQUALIFICATION
  2. SUPPLIER & BOM CONTINUITY
  3. FULL PPAP, START TO FINISH
  4. BOM COMPLEXITY MAPPING
  5. TOOLING RESILIENCE
  6. WEEKLY PRODUCTION CADENCE

FIRST PRODUCTION ORDER

THE FIRST ORDER EXPOSED WHAT THE TRANSFER DIDN'T.

INCIDENT 01 · OBSOLETE RESIN

SPECIFIED RESIN
OBSOLETE
SUPPLIER INVENTORY
ZERO

RELY went directly to the resin manufacturer.

The specified resin was obsolete and the molding supplier had none left. RELY identified two replacements meeting the full UL specification and purchased the material to keep the program moving. Both materials became PPAP-approved primary and secondary options.

  1. OBSOLETE MATERIAL
  2. UL-SPEC REPLACEMENTS

INCIDENT 02 · FAILED CUSTOM ANVIL

The already-overdue first order began, and the inherited custom anvil failed.

Spare tooling included anvils with broken tips, and others built for different rivets.

  • INHERITED CUSTOM ANVIL

    FAILED ON FIRST PRODUCTION ORDER

The spare-parts box told part of the program's history the transfer documentation didn't.

Broken spare anvils suggested this wasn't the program's first tooling failure.

WHAT OWNERSHIP LOOKED LIKE

Friday 11 AM to Monday shipment: the recovery, hour by hour.

  1. FRI 11 AM

    Damaged tooling arrives back at RELY. Recovery begins.

  2. FRI PM

    Customer flags a shortage one week out. RELY gets an outside machine shop to reopen after hours.

  3. FRI 10:23 PM

    Bridge fix produces the first good parts.

  4. MON AM

    Bridge solution fails. Team immediately develops a second fix.

  5. MON PM

    400 parts finished and shipped that same day.

AFTER SHIPMENT · PERMANENT CORRECTIVE ACTION
Three replacement anvils ordered.

Thank you for the extra effort from your team ... working after hours to help us avoid a production impact.

Supplier operations sr. manager, major appliance OEM

START HERE

Have a legacy program nobody wants to inherit?

Tell us what makes the handoff difficult. We'll identify the next step in assessing the transfer. Ready to scope? Start with a representative part or product family.

Tell us what makes the handoff difficultCall 262.276.0050
NextCase Study No. 20: PVC subassembly and control panels