A power product manufacturer relied on three employees to manually assemble three fastener components — a bolt, flat washer, and lock washer — on the assembly line. These fasteners were threaded into the product as it moved down a roller conveyor. However, during the intervals when no product was on the line, the employees experienced downtime, resulting in reduced productivity.

What are SEMS fasteners? SEMS fasteners are preassembled fasteners that combine a screw or bolt with one or more permanently attached washers (typically a flat washer and lock washer). This design prevents the washers from falling off and reduces the number of parts that must be handled during assembly, significantly improving efficiency and reliability in manufacturing environments.

Martin introduced a SEMS fastener solution, providing the manufacturer with pre-assembled fasteners that combined the bolt, flat washer, and lock washer into a single unit. By using SEMS fasteners, the need for employees to manually assemble the individual components before threading them into the product was eliminated. Additionally, the customer was able to consolidate SKUs, reducing inventory complexity by combining three part numbers into one.

The SEMS fastener solution eliminated the need for the employees to take on higher value tasks since the parts were delivered to the line preassembled. This streamlined process resulted in significant time savings:

• 400,000 fasteners saved 6 seconds per assembly, totaling 2,400,000 seconds or 667 hours annually.
• At a labor and burden rate of $40 per hour, this change generated an annual savings of $26,680 per SEMS application.
• The customer had four such applications, multiplying the savings across their operations to $106,720.

Enhanced Efficiency with Pre-assembled Fasteners: The introduction of SEMS fasteners eliminated manual assembly on the line, saving 6 seconds per fastener and significantly streamlining the process.

Substantial Labor Savings: The new process saved 667 hours annually per SEMS application, translating to $26,680 in labor savings per application and $106,720 across all four applications.

Reduced Inventory Complexity: By consolidating three SKUs into one, Martin simplified inventory management, reducing administrative tasks and boosting operational efficiency.