WMS Gaming, No gamble here

Manufacturing in Action, Source : The Manufacturer US

With states across the US approving legal gaming, the need for traditional and video-style slot machines like those from WMS Gaming has grown rapidly in recent years. Keith Regan reports

The growth of legal gaming means opportunities for WMS Gaming, which was founded 70 years ago as a maker of pinball machines but now focuses exclusively on making slot and video poker games for casinos and similar environments.

How much advantage it can take of those new opportunities will depend largely on whether the company can continue to find ways to improve its assembly processes and its sprawling supply chain, says Will Jones, vice president of manufacturing and field operations at the company’s Waukegan, IL, headquarters.

Most of the manufacturing WMS does would more accurately be called assembly—there’s no raw materials and no fabrication taking place. But Jones knows that in order to remain competitive WMS has to strive to match or exceed world-class manufacturing principles.

Jones considers manufacturing a “full contact activity,” which offers countless opportunities for improvements each and every day. That aspect of Kaizen principles is embraced by the plant, even if the name is not.

“We do have an active, continuous improvement program.” That program includes a designated corporate quality group that works with the plant’s employees on a number of initiatives. Current efforts are focused on handling parts and directing them from the loading dock to one of the 10 different assembly lines at the company’s 180,000-square-foot facility “in the most efficient and effective manner.”

“We’re always looking to eliminate non-value added activities,” Jones adds.

Streamlining operations is a complicated proposition, partly because WMS builds an almost limitless number of products. It makes three main categories of machines: traditional mechanical reel slot machines, video slot devices, and a hybrid participation device. But because each unit can have scores of different features, it’s all but impossible to count the number of variations the plant produces. Each machine can have a number of different visual options, an array of control-knob choices, and operate on cash or with cashless tickets.

“It’s like going into a car dealer. By the time you go through the ten types of tires and all the options for the interior, there are almost a million combinations,” Jones says.

And because WMS can’t always know what a customer will want—though it does closely monitor the pulse of the industry and occasionally makes extra games for stock—it can’t practically build machines in advance without taking on the risk of being left with product customers don’t want.

WMS is looking at ways to partially build some machines, leaving off certain options, in order to reduce the time it takes to get finished machines to customers and to help modulate work flow and the supply chain on the other end. “The past four years we’ve attempted a build-to-order system,” he adds. “The problem is the games require quite a bit of engineering-to-order because of the number of features and options.”

The supply chain itself is a complex one, with more than 100 regular suppliers providing electronics, sound systems, video cards, sheet metal, and other parts. “We do a very good job of managing the supply chain,” Jones says, making sure a wide array of parts, from electrical and mechanical components to sheet metal game shells and other materials “all show up at the right time.” That includes parts from nearby Chicago as well as electronics from overseas locations.

Jones says WMS takes the long view when it comes to working and negotiating with its suppliers and uses what he calls “a fairly comprehensive” supplier evaluation program.

“The classic supply chain approach is to continually squeeze for price reduction and additional peripheral services. We try not to leave any money on the table, but first and foremost, we want them to provide us high quality parts delivered on time at market competitive prices and to perceive a benefit in our relationship with them. We don’t want them to walk away from negotiations with a bad taste in their mouth, thinking WMS is in business solely to squeeze the last drop of profit out of everyone else. We’d like them to be a partner, to feel good about our relationship.”

Another priority for WMS is to attract and keep the best employees it can. “We want to be the preferred employer in town,” Jones says. So far, the plant operates only a single daily shift, which has helped “keep us in effect all together. We’re here at the same time and that keeps us all on the same page.”

The company also works to make sure employees at all levels feel their contributions—and their ideas—are valued. A quarterly cash incentive plan based on productivity helps drive improvements on the line and open lines of communication ensure that any good idea can be acted upon.

Comments on this story

click here to add a comment

Loading