Background
In 2020, Fox built a 340,000-square-foot plant in Gainesville, GA to support a rise in demand for their powered vehicles business. The new facility has provided Fox with the capacity to control their entire manufacturing process and prompted their decision to take on their own anodizing process.
The Problem
- After decades of outsourcing the anodizing for shocks and OEM’s, Fox wanted control over their own anodizing process.
- Fox wanted the ability to examine products before they were packaged and shipped to customers, to ensure they met quality standards.
- Fox wanted to increase overall production rates while maintaining cost efficiency.
- Fox needed to quickly learn the operating process for the new anodizing equipment to produce the best quality finish.
The Solution
- Fox teamed up with PriceWalgren to design, engineer, install, and start a Type II Anodizing line that places all phases of Fox’s manufacturing process under the roof of their Gainesville, GA facility.
- The Type II Anodizing line provides a uniform finish and precise color matching capabilities to achieve Fox’s signature black, blue, orange, and clear finishes.
- The PriceWalgren Anodizing system gives Fox the ability to assess products after their final production phase, providing assurance that every product shipped on FOX’s behalf meets their quality standards.
- After installing the anodizing system, PriceWalgren worked with Fox to ensure confidence in their ability to operate the anodizing equipment on their own. “Before PriceWalgren left us with the Anodizing line, they were onsite providing training, helping work through questions and concerns, and creating control plans and quality documents. Even after the Anodizing line was handed over to us, PriceWalgren has done a great job responding to our questions,” said FOX Plant Manager, Arun Subramanian.
Outcome
- “The Anodizing line became operational in August and has since allowed for better process control and vertical integration into production.”
- Fox’s Anodizing line will allow the company to achieve a production capacity of 8M pieces per year; more than triple the P702 requirement of 420k pieces per year.
- “Test plaques anodized using the Fox in house anodizing formulation have outperformed all external suppliers.”
- After only a year of using the anodizing line, Fox already has a line expansion in the works.
