Walker Corporation (Ontario, CA)
A Tiered Automotive Supplier’s Drive To Success
Shifting From an “All Markets” to “Automotive Specific” Focus Demands Stamping Equipment that Meets Increased Speed, Tougher Quality Standards and Longer Run Reliability

Bruce Walker is president of Walker Corporation, Ontario, CA. Over the past five decades, it has served many different industries with a variety of products and services.

“Our main business is progressive-die forming and value added assembly,” Walker says. “We are a Tier 1 supplier to Toyota (North America). We ship all over North America and also export some product to Japan for Toyota.? We have a lot of Tier 1 customers that serve Toyota and other domestic auto makers, which means we are pretty diversified in the kind of automotive products we make.”

Presses at Walker Corporation range from 80 to 550 tons. With the 550-ton capacity presses, Walker can make some fairly large parts and add value to the parts right in the press.? They also can perform secondary operations including welding and other value-added assembly, PEM nuts, foam pieces, different hardware and other items such as custom packaging.

“I think our customers would say that Walker offers great value in all the products we produce,” Bruce explains.? “We’re a small company, relatively speaking, for an automotive supplier.? Our sales are around $30 million per year.? We’re nimble and flexible, and can respond quickly to our customers’ needs.? Automotive companies like Toyota want their suppliers to be located where their products are going to be made.? Our location in southern California is advantageous from the standpoint of serving the NUMMI plant in central California and the Tacoma truck facility in Mexico”

alker uses the “Lean Production System” they’ve embraced from Toyota and are implementing it throughout their facility to reduce cost and waste.? As Walker points out, “Our Lean Production System and our Asian tooling capabilities make us competitive even though we’re located in California, a high-cost manufacturing state.”

From Humble Beginnings

“My father started the company back in 1954,” Walker says.? “As a toolmaker with a dream to own his own company, he borrowed a little bit of money, rented a garage, and founded what became Walker Corporation.? I have two brothers and we all grew up in the business. My dad was still a young man when he died leaving his three sons to take over the business.”

“We were able to get some good people to join us and started growing the company,” Bruce remembers.? “In the early days, we did a little bit of everything: lots of industrial hardware, some aircraft parts, some military parts, some machining, anything we could get.”

In the mid-1980s, Walker became heavily involved in manufacturing coil springs. But it wasn’t until the late 1990s that Walker became a leading player in the automotive business through NUMMI and some of the other automotive opportunities located on the West Coast.

“Little by little, we divested ourselves of the spring and wire product businesses to concentrate on stamping and value-added in stamping opportunities present in the automotive industry,” Bruce explains.? “Our heavy concentration on automotive started when we were awarded some new business for the next generation Toyota Corolla and the Tacoma.”

“As a contract stamper that also made different products, such as springs and wire forms,” Bruce continues, “we probably had as many as 500 different customers. Some orders were very small and some were larger.? There was a lot of competition and not much customer loyalty. At this point, we made a strategic decision to move away from this type of business and focus on the automotive business.”

The Good Old Days

“Profitability has been a struggle,” Bruce admits.? “That old saying: These ARE the good old days, certainly holds true.? Back in the 1970s and ‘80s, a manufacturer could make a few mistakes, generate some scrap, and still make a lot of money.? Now days, it’s a lot more difficult to be profitable. For a high-volume manufacturer in North America, there are really not a lot of choices other than automotive.? The hardware industry has gone away.? The computer industry has gone away.? The consumer electronics industry is gone.? Aerospace, military, and automotive are about the only games in town right now.”

Walker started purchasing SEYI (SEYI Presses, Inc., Walnut, CA) presses back in the 1980s.? “The reason we bought SEYI presses was the value they offer--larger-bed presses for lower cost,” Bruce explains.? “We were running a lot of very long, multi-stage progressive dies.? Our material was not particularly heavy gauge at that time and the SEYI presses were ideal.? We started with smaller presses and eventually moved up to bigger-bed presses.? We found that, for the type of automotive parts we were making, the reliability and capabilities of the SEYI presses worked out well for us.”

“As the company evolved,” Bruce continues, “we got into larger presses, which provided us with opportunities to get orders for larger and heavier parts.? Because our SEYI presses are very versatile, we are able to handle everything from thin materials up to relatively thick material, depending upon individual press size.”

“As we added presses,” Walker says, “we thought about what would be coming down the line and what our customers on the West Coast would require to satisfy their needs.? We looked to larger presses because larger, value-added parts and freight issues were becoming real factors when shipping parts within this geographic area.”

Fewer But Better Suppliers

Most, if not all, automotive customers are continuing to reduce their supplier base.? “We feel this will continue in North America,” Bruce says.? “To offset that trend and continue our growth, we need to be flexible and offer a lot of different capabilities including larger press capacity.? Customers are expanding their global supplier base and reducing their North American supplier base.? For us to be a successful supplier in North America, we must be competitive and have quality they can depend upon.? SEYI presses allow us to make quality parts, with good value, so we can remain competitive.”

In general, Walker believes suppliers that work for Toyota and other Japanese manufacturers, such as Honda or Nissan, probably are happier and have more of a feeling of partnership.? “At least we’re not worrying about the customer coming in tomorrow and taking all of our tools away,” Bruce explains.? “They seem to be more long-term-thinking than the domestic auto suppliers.? Domestic automakers have been hurt really badly, and their market share has gone away because of a wide variety of circumstances. Suppliers to the domestic auto industry get that same type of backlash from their customers--drastic price-reduction demands; orders to setup a new plant or they won’t get any more business; that type of thing.”

“I don’t want to say that our customers do not expect price reductions every year,” Bruce says.? “They do.? That’s why we embrace the Toyota production system.? They want their suppliers to get better and take real cost away, so we can reduce our cost and still make a profit.? That’s what Toyota or any Asian auto maker’s preference would be.? They don’t want us to go broke.? They want us to be here for the long-term.”

Press Selection Supports Growth

“Originally most of our presses were smaller gap frames,” Bruce added.? “We bought a lot of equipment at auctions. From an equipment acquisition standpoint, Walker always tried to find the best value.? As we’ve moved to increase our size capability, we’ve bought a combination of new machines and good-value used machines as they became available.? However, we did want to stick with a standard press manufacturer and related systems rather than have different feed lines, and different presses, which make it difficult to get good repeatability.”

“We made a conscious effort to go with SEYI presses and use feed lines that would be compatible so everything is more or less standardized,” Bruce says. “That’s our thinking for the future as well.? As we get into larger presses, we’ll try to stick with the same brand of machines for the reliability, the service, and the standardization.”

“Along the same line of thinking,” Bruce continues, “going to the Wintriss (Honeywell Sensing and Control, Acton, MA) SmartPACR (Press Automation Control) system was a conscious, strategic decision to standardize controls on all of our presses. Quite a few years ago, we started a sensor die protection program here and the Wintriss SmartPACs are at the heart of that program.? It enables us to have a single, one-point connection from the press to the die, and makes it simple for quick die change.? And it eliminates a lot of extra time for setups and avoids confusion.”

“As we look ahead, larger presses are the way of our future,” Bruce says.? “We know that logistics make it cost prohibitive for customers to ship larger parts to the West Coast from the Midwest or overseas.? We feel there’s a real opportunity for us to supply larger, heavier parts with welding and other assembly involved to automotive customers on the West Coast.”

“Initially we bought SEYI presses for their value,” Bruce reports.? “They were lower in cost and suited the kind of work Walker was doing at the time.? Through our transition from electronic components to automotive components, we found that SEYI presses were capable of running bigger, thicker parts with no maintenance issues. We were pleasantly surprised and very happy that our investment paid off so well.”

“We must be able to change dies in anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes,” Bruce points out.? “The combination of a good feeder, a good control, and a good press is critical to quick die change and exceptional reliability.? At one time, we took as long as 4 hours to change dies in a big press. We’ve cut that down significantly, and we have initiatives that we’re working on to reduce that even lower.? Our goal on the large presses is somewhere around 10 minutes, although we still have a lot of work to do in that regard.”

The GM’s Viewpoint

Michael Bermudez is the General Manager at Walker Corporation. Since his primary background has been in manufacturing, he spends a lot of time on the shop floor.? He says that’s where the action is and he likes to be close to what’s going on.

“I get involved with all new tooling projects right from the start,” Bermudez says, “from material selection to assembly, and everything in between. We work together as a team to come up with the best possible solution and obviously, cost is always a big factor.”
“Ten years ago,” Bermudez remembers, “we had presses that went from 35-ton up to about 175-ton, maybe one 300-ton.? Today, we have more and larger presses: two 550-ton, a 330-ton, a 400-ton and two-275 ton machines. When the electronics industry exited the southern California scene, we were left with a gaping hole in our production mix.”

Key SEYI press lines at Walker (a total of 8 SEYI’s) include:

• SN2 Series: Two point (double crank) gap frame presses with a three sided die access to the fabricated steel frame/cast slide and bolster, pneumatic high-torque wet clutch and brake system for low noise/long life operation, and a full length high precision six point gibbing system with a motorized slide adjustment.
• SAG Series: Two point straightside presses built for all general purpose stamping applications. Two key press features include its unitized or tie-rod frame designed with ultra wide connection points (including modular design for various greater specification flexibility on bed size, widow openings, die height, etc.), as well as the Wintriss WPC 2000 / SmartPAC2 automation control system for tonnage monitoring, die protection, programmable cams and job memory storage, pneumatic high-torque wet clutch and brake system for low noise/long life operation

“Eight years ago, probably 50 percent of our business was automotive.? Today it’s closer to 95 percent automotive, mainly due to our success in acquiring the larger presses and in getting them up and running quickly.”

Bermudez adds, “We can count on the SEYI presses to keep running.? If there are issues, we have local support.? We call them, and whether it’s from here in California or from Tennessee, we get response right away.? We can get parts within a day if necessary, but they virtually run and run and run. We also have had very good support from the factory, all the way from Taiwan. Consequently, every new press we’ve purchased has been a SEYI.? It’s helped us with keeping our inventory of components standardized.? Our technicians that work on the presses become very familiar with them.? This helps us to keep the equipment up and running.”

“When we think about new equipment, we think SEYI.? Overall, a big plus has been the ability of a machine to hold its precision after millions of cycles.? We run the presses two shifts.? That’s equivalent to about 20 hours per day, plus 8 to 10 hours on Saturday.”

The Larger Part Feeding/Stamping Challenge

“Recently, we’ve been awarded some seat rail assembly programs where we need a large press with a feed line that can handle 3mm material,” Bermudez says.? “We are also doing in-die assembly anywhere from 3 to 4 press-fit nuts at a time.? The combination of the feed line to handle the heavier-gauge material, and the tonnage and bed size of the SEYI press are ideal.”

“We have a key requirement to process 20-in. wide, 3-mm material,” Bermudez points out.? “That’s a larger than average large coil for us--about 5,000 lbs.? Our COE (COE Press Equipment, Sterling Heights, MI) feed line is able to handle it easily and is equipped with a peeler safely, which protects the operator.? We can un-band the coil, and re-band it when we’re finished running. It’s very easy to thread the material through the press.? With the heavy gauge and width of this material, it can be very dangerous for an operator using a system that does not have all the safety features of the COE equipment.? We have two 550-ton presses that are equipped with COE feed lines, which in my opinion, are the safest, quickest, and easiest for the operators to use.”
The COE coil feed line consists of:

• a CPRF-442 AC servo-driven digital roll feed (capable of 42” wide material processing at .090” thickness…or 12” widths at .210” thicknesses) that feeds the press at over 100’ per minute,
• a CPPS-350-42 free standing power straightener (4” diameter rolls and 42” width processing),
• a Coe coil reel (capable of handling 15,000 pound coil weights) with hydraulic traveling coil car for effective coil staging and coil changeover,
• and a Coe hands-free threading table to better facilitate coil handling.

Many of the company’s jobs require extreme care in part quality, especially material flatness. “Leveling material going through the feed lines needs to be within 0.004-in. flatness across the 20-in. width of the strip,” Bermudez observes.? “We’re able to obtain that flatness repeatedly.? It’s easy, for the operator to verify setup and adjust on the fly.? In most cases, the feed line is keeping up with or exceeding the capabilities of the press. In all cases where we have a SEYI press and a COE feed line, it’s been a very good marriage.”

What It’s All About…SPM

“Speed is about productivity,” Bermudez says.? “The faster we can run that press, the more press time we free up, and the more capacity becomes available.? The difference between 25 and 35 strokes per minute performance can be the difference in needing to purchase another press with an additional feed line for this type of difference in increased throughput.?

Bermudez speaks of a recent consumer electronics order they were awarded,” Bermudez reports.? “We started out running at 25 spm, then increasing to 35 and then 45.? Now we’ve got the press pretty much maxed out, but the feed line can easily keep up.? Speed is always an important issue.? Strokes-per-minute is really what it’s about at the end of the day.”

“To me, the SEYI brand name means quality and value for the dollar invested,” Bermudez says.? “This is very important.? Uptime and technical support are the key when we have an issue.? It doesn’t matter how good the equipment is if we have an issue and we cannot get it resolved quickly.”

Learn more about Walker Corporation here.