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John Deere Horicon Works
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- Published: Friday, 23 October 2009 19:44
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Nestled in a farming community of 3,700 in South-Central Wisconsin lies one of the major underpinnings of John Deere’s Golf & Turf division. Encompassing 214 acres and employing up to 1700 people, with a long and rich history of providing equipment for the consumer, agriculture and the golf & turf industry is John Deere Horicon Works.
Originally a grain drill company built and owned by George and Daniel Van Brunt in the early 1860’s, JD bought them out in 1911. In 1958 the name was changed to John Deere Horicon Works. In 1963 the first lawn tractor rolled off the assembly line and recently they passed the 5 million mark for lawn tractor production. From 1971 to 1984 snowmobiles were made here; that segment was then sold to Polaris. In the late 1980’s the facility came under the umbrella of the Commercial and Consumer Equipment division, where it remains today. In 1991 the “Reel Cell” was created, consolidating the manufacturing and assembly of all reels, reel cutting units and the green and tee walkers.
I had the chance to tour the facility with my host Dick Thier from Engineering and Jerry Hagen, who recently retired after 32 years here. Jerry gives the tours probably because he’s one of the few around who knows every square inch of the 214 acres, as well as what went on in every nook and cranny of the facility for the last 32 years. Today was a “slow” day by their standards; the busy time usually runs from January to July.
The Reel Cell
As a separate area of the plant created in 1991, the first reel was made in late ’91-early ’92. The only thing on the reel itself that is outsourced is the center shaft. The machining of the center shaft ends, stamping of the spiders, and the reel blades themselves are all done in-house; as well as the robotic welding and heat treating of the reels. The welded and cast bedbars are machined by an outside supplier, but the bedknife / bedbar assemblies are finish ground here. The rollers are done in-house. The 18, 22 and 26 inch walkers are completely assembled here, as well as all the cutting units for the triplex and fairway mowers. The reels and bedknives are both ground prior to cutting unit assembly. The cutting units are then shipped to JD Turf Care in Fuquay-Varina, NC to be shipped with the traction units made there.
Paint
They use an electrostatic powder paint process which includes a “dip” or submersion in a bath. I was happy to see that. After working on various makes of equipment over the years, I found “if you just spray and bake; it’s going to flake”. Paint coming off in sheets on a cutting unit or deck. The submersion bath is the key. They’ve got 9 miles of overhead track carrying parts on racks through the painting process, which takes 8 hours from start to finish. For the hard to reach places on some parts, a robot is there to spray those areas; programmed for the specific part that’s in front of it.
A Pressing Matter
Or as the rock group Queen would say…”Under Pressure”. Besides making all the decks for the lawn tractors, all the 7 IronII™ decks for Commercial and G&T are made here. The “7” refers to the 7 gauge steel used in the deck; it’s the thickest currently being used by the Big Three for rotary decks. These decks are pressed out in one piece. The only welds are for brackets for the anti-scalp rollers on the outside and the baffle chamber on the inside. It’s a safe bet that they have the biggest, baddest press in the golf industry. It stands 3 stories tall and has 2,000 ton capacity. That’s 4 million pounds of force. And you might want to schedule your vacation for when you change the hydraulic fluid; the hyd. tank holds 4,000 gallons.
On The Line
Besides the reels, cutting units and walkers, the X300, X500 and X700 series tractors for the consumer market are also made here; as well as the compact and heavy duty Gator™ Utility Vehicles with gas and diesel engines. Even though they may be the “new kid on the block” in the golf industry, their 100+ years experience with manufacturing is very evident. They have AGV’s and AGC’s (auto-guided vehicles and carts) that roam the facility. AGV’s have been in the auto industry for quite a while, but this is the first time in my visits to three different manufacturing plants in the golf industry I’ve seen them used. The vehicles are all electric and follow a wire buried in the floor. They pull up to a conveyor belt loaded with pallets of parts, the conveyor loads the pallet onto it, and it takes off on it’s merry way headed to the station on the line where the parts will be used. I watched one pull up to a conveyor, get it’s parts, get on an elevator, go down 1 level, and head off to a station on a line there. If they have no further job assignments, they head back to their staging area or “corral” to await further instructions or get plugged in for a recharge. There are still forklifts, just a lot less of them. The main aisles are as wide as they were before to handle any forklift traffic; these things run next to the aisle like in a “carpool” lane. As one line was getting ready to start, I saw a whole bunch of the AGC’s appear out of nowhere; lining up with the same distance between them and each carrying a complete rear end assembly; all headed to the same station on the line. The first time you see these things; you just stop and stare.
Each station on the line has a 19” LCD screen which shows the assembly area for that station; listing the part numbers, their location, and the assembly sequence if needed. Those stations that perform multiple tasks have touch-screen capability to change menus.
All the air ratchets are calibrated to a specified torque; some stations can have 6 to 8 of them hanging down. In each air line for each ratchet there is an electro/pneumatic sensor that detects how many times the ratchet was used, if at all. If something doesn’t match up with the number of ratchets used or the number of times a specific one was used, the station automatically locks itself down and the unit being assembled cannot move forward to the next station until the problem is corrected.
All engines are run and tested on the line to make sure everything is working OK, both gas and diesel. Diesels are left with about a gallon in the tank so they don’t have to be bled after purchase. For the gas engines an auxiliary fuel line is hooked up directly to the carburetor for starting. Jerry says they use a type of aviation gas in the engines so that when the fuel line is disconnected and the engine runs until it dies, any residual aviation fuel in the carburetor evaporates quickly and leaves no deposits.
Just in Time
John Deere and many others in the business of manufacturing products use the “Just in Time” model for stocking parts and their availability to the assembly lines. It is what it says. Parts arrive from vendors just in time to be used; usually a few days in advance. This eliminates the need for a massive warehouse and it’s associated maintenance costs; as well as having excessive inventory that’s just sitting around off the books.
The Horicon Works really knows how to put this model to the test. Remember I said this was a slow day? Jerry showed me one assembly line where they have the capability when fully manned to turn out over 400 lawn tractors per shift…about 1 every minute. There are lines making other tractors, Gators, cutting units, walkers and reels at the same time. In the picture you can see a bridge across some water and a road cutting through the facility. That’s Main St. in town. To eliminate the problems of dealing with traffic and the weather(we do have winter in Wisconsin) they have a tunnel running underneath Main St. so they can shuttle parts and product back and forth seamlessly. It takes a well coordinated effort to keep the parts moving.
They may be the new kid on the block, but they’ve grown up quickly.
Originally a grain drill company built and owned by George and Daniel Van Brunt in the early 1860’s, JD bought them out in 1911. In 1958 the name was changed to John Deere Horicon Works. In 1963 the first lawn tractor rolled off the assembly line and recently they passed the 5 million mark for lawn tractor production. From 1971 to 1984 snowmobiles were made here; that segment was then sold to Polaris. In the late 1980’s the facility came under the umbrella of the Commercial and Consumer Equipment division, where it remains today. In 1991 the “Reel Cell” was created, consolidating the manufacturing and assembly of all reels, reel cutting units and the green and tee walkers.
I had the chance to tour the facility with my host Dick Thier from Engineering and Jerry Hagen, who recently retired after 32 years here. Jerry gives the tours probably because he’s one of the few around who knows every square inch of the 214 acres, as well as what went on in every nook and cranny of the facility for the last 32 years. Today was a “slow” day by their standards; the busy time usually runs from January to July.
The Reel Cell
As a separate area of the plant created in 1991, the first reel was made in late ’91-early ’92. The only thing on the reel itself that is outsourced is the center shaft. The machining of the center shaft ends, stamping of the spiders, and the reel blades themselves are all done in-house; as well as the robotic welding and heat treating of the reels. The welded and cast bedbars are machined by an outside supplier, but the bedknife / bedbar assemblies are finish ground here. The rollers are done in-house. The 18, 22 and 26 inch walkers are completely assembled here, as well as all the cutting units for the triplex and fairway mowers. The reels and bedknives are both ground prior to cutting unit assembly. The cutting units are then shipped to JD Turf Care in Fuquay-Varina, NC to be shipped with the traction units made there.
Paint
They use an electrostatic powder paint process which includes a “dip” or submersion in a bath. I was happy to see that. After working on various makes of equipment over the years, I found “if you just spray and bake; it’s going to flake”. Paint coming off in sheets on a cutting unit or deck. The submersion bath is the key. They’ve got 9 miles of overhead track carrying parts on racks through the painting process, which takes 8 hours from start to finish. For the hard to reach places on some parts, a robot is there to spray those areas; programmed for the specific part that’s in front of it.
A Pressing Matter
Or as the rock group Queen would say…”Under Pressure”. Besides making all the decks for the lawn tractors, all the 7 IronII™ decks for Commercial and G&T are made here. The “7” refers to the 7 gauge steel used in the deck; it’s the thickest currently being used by the Big Three for rotary decks. These decks are pressed out in one piece. The only welds are for brackets for the anti-scalp rollers on the outside and the baffle chamber on the inside. It’s a safe bet that they have the biggest, baddest press in the golf industry. It stands 3 stories tall and has 2,000 ton capacity. That’s 4 million pounds of force. And you might want to schedule your vacation for when you change the hydraulic fluid; the hyd. tank holds 4,000 gallons.
On The Line
Besides the reels, cutting units and walkers, the X300, X500 and X700 series tractors for the consumer market are also made here; as well as the compact and heavy duty Gator™ Utility Vehicles with gas and diesel engines. Even though they may be the “new kid on the block” in the golf industry, their 100+ years experience with manufacturing is very evident. They have AGV’s and AGC’s (auto-guided vehicles and carts) that roam the facility. AGV’s have been in the auto industry for quite a while, but this is the first time in my visits to three different manufacturing plants in the golf industry I’ve seen them used. The vehicles are all electric and follow a wire buried in the floor. They pull up to a conveyor belt loaded with pallets of parts, the conveyor loads the pallet onto it, and it takes off on it’s merry way headed to the station on the line where the parts will be used. I watched one pull up to a conveyor, get it’s parts, get on an elevator, go down 1 level, and head off to a station on a line there. If they have no further job assignments, they head back to their staging area or “corral” to await further instructions or get plugged in for a recharge. There are still forklifts, just a lot less of them. The main aisles are as wide as they were before to handle any forklift traffic; these things run next to the aisle like in a “carpool” lane. As one line was getting ready to start, I saw a whole bunch of the AGC’s appear out of nowhere; lining up with the same distance between them and each carrying a complete rear end assembly; all headed to the same station on the line. The first time you see these things; you just stop and stare.
Each station on the line has a 19” LCD screen which shows the assembly area for that station; listing the part numbers, their location, and the assembly sequence if needed. Those stations that perform multiple tasks have touch-screen capability to change menus.
All the air ratchets are calibrated to a specified torque; some stations can have 6 to 8 of them hanging down. In each air line for each ratchet there is an electro/pneumatic sensor that detects how many times the ratchet was used, if at all. If something doesn’t match up with the number of ratchets used or the number of times a specific one was used, the station automatically locks itself down and the unit being assembled cannot move forward to the next station until the problem is corrected.
All engines are run and tested on the line to make sure everything is working OK, both gas and diesel. Diesels are left with about a gallon in the tank so they don’t have to be bled after purchase. For the gas engines an auxiliary fuel line is hooked up directly to the carburetor for starting. Jerry says they use a type of aviation gas in the engines so that when the fuel line is disconnected and the engine runs until it dies, any residual aviation fuel in the carburetor evaporates quickly and leaves no deposits.
Just in Time
John Deere and many others in the business of manufacturing products use the “Just in Time” model for stocking parts and their availability to the assembly lines. It is what it says. Parts arrive from vendors just in time to be used; usually a few days in advance. This eliminates the need for a massive warehouse and it’s associated maintenance costs; as well as having excessive inventory that’s just sitting around off the books.
The Horicon Works really knows how to put this model to the test. Remember I said this was a slow day? Jerry showed me one assembly line where they have the capability when fully manned to turn out over 400 lawn tractors per shift…about 1 every minute. There are lines making other tractors, Gators, cutting units, walkers and reels at the same time. In the picture you can see a bridge across some water and a road cutting through the facility. That’s Main St. in town. To eliminate the problems of dealing with traffic and the weather(we do have winter in Wisconsin) they have a tunnel running underneath Main St. so they can shuttle parts and product back and forth seamlessly. It takes a well coordinated effort to keep the parts moving.
They may be the new kid on the block, but they’ve grown up quickly.