Water Wolf

Site Assessment and Suggestions for Painting Process Improvement

• Objective
• Background
• How ETAC Helped
• Results/Benefits

Objective
To reduce volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions in the painting process and refine the overall operation and product process flow.

Background
Water Wolf is a small business that manufactures fishing lures. Water Wolf makes three sizes of lures in more than 20 color combinations. Originally, manufacturing operations were temporarily located in two facilities in Berwick, Pennsylvania.

How ETAC Helped
Water Wolf initially worked with the Pennsylvania Technical Assistance Program (PENNTAP). PENNTAP provided guidance for marketing the lures and developed a preliminary process map of both the woodworking and painting areas. PENNTAP suggested that ETAC be enlisted to provide more detailed process-improvement support.

At the company's request, the ETAC staff visited the plant, defined the challenges and conducted an assessment of available technologies to improve process efficiencies. They then suggested various alternatives to the processes, prepared basic product flow charts and proposed alternative suppliers.

One facility was enlarged and all operations are now in one building-reducing time spent traveling between two locations and increasing efficiency. The painting application is now accomplished with spray, reducing the amount of paint used, and thus reducing costs and VOC emissions. A high-tech spray booth is now in place with a filtering system.

Results/Benefits
By consolidating operations and employing an improved painting process, Water Wolf was able to:

• Increase manufacturing efficiency; and thus
• Improve their productivity;
• Reduce drying time between coats and amount of paint used; and thus
• Reduce painting costs and VOC emissions.

For more information on how Water Wolf benefited from detailed process improvement, contact us.

Note: ETAC has received approval from the company above to disclose its name and specific information about its work with ETAC.