In the little upstate town of Munnsville, New York, Ferris Industries, the manufacturer of Ferris brand commercial lawn mowers and Snapper and Simplicity brand consumer lawn mowing equipment, is proving that innovation and teamwork on which the company was founded remain key elements of their continuing growth and business success. The company started operations in 1909 as Uebler Milking Machine company after William Uebler invented the milking machine and joined forces with local businessman, Jesse Ferris. Over the next 80 years, the company developed a wide range of gas-powered farm machinery and earned a reputation for building quality, reliable machinery. By the mid-1980s, when faced with a rapidly declining dairy farm market, third generation owner, Dave Ferris, saw an opportunity to bring to market a rugged, high quality, commercial lawn mower. The innovative thinking, teamwork, and can-do attitude that were the hallmark of the company was put to work reinventing themselves.

Today, Ferris Industries is owned by Simplicity Manufacturing and builds the largest lineup of zero radius, twin commercial and residential lawnmowers under the brands, Ferris, Simplicity, and Snapper.

As their mower manufacturing business developed and grew, Ferris management needed larger facilities. They wanted a cost-effective solution. Working with state and local government officials, they were able to secure the abandoned Stockbridge High School building and received Empire Zone state grants. This provided a building that could be retrofitted for much needed office space, while the funds were used to construct a new state-of-the-art factory behind the old school building.

With the introduction of new models and the addition of the Simplicity and Snapper brands to their factory, Ferris needed extra capacity and greater productivity. This need was satisfied with the purchase and installation of an automated in-floor towline assembly system from SI Systems, Easton, PA.

“When we investigated our alternatives, we, as a team, decided that the three most important evaluation factors would be safety, quality, and productivity. SI scored highest in all three categories,” stated John Orth, Plant Manager for Ferris. “Since installing the SI towline system in late September of 2003, we’ve been able to cut our cycle times in half by systematically pacing the production and balancing workstation assignments. Not only has that greatly improved our productivity, but we now have much better control of the assembly process and a less fatigued workforce.”

The Ferris team used this opportunity to adopt lean manufacturing concepts and reduce many off-line material handling moves that added no value to the assembly process. Additionally, they were able to balance the twelve station, 340-feet long line and incorporate much of their bench subassembly right into the final assembly process. They also benefited from incoming steel inventory turns. The SI LO-TOW^® conveyor fits perfectly into their assembly process. In addition to the conveyor system, the ergonomically designed carriers have fixtures that rotate the mowers to proper assembly angles and eliminate much of the bending and reaching that add to worker fatigue and stress. “We used our in-house talent to both design and build the carriers and, in the process, lowered our investment,” stated Orth.

The Ferris plant is a model of manufacturing efficiency and a tribute of how lean manufacturing and innovation can breathe new life into former Rust Belt factories. And with the cooperation of local and state officials, Ferris increased their shop workforce five-fold in the past few years. The plant operates three shifts for welding, fabrication, and painting to support the single shift mower assembly.

Towline system is currently dedicated to the highest volume model of Simplicity and Snapper branded mowers. The system currently builds four types of mowers. The four models are the 44- and 50-inch wide mower deck Simplicity Consumer Z models and 44-and 50-inch wide mower deck Snapper fast cut, zero turn models.