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PRJ-2022-09Halbrook Equipment Works — 2022
Eleven fabricated and plumbed components consolidated into two machined manifolds, cutting part cost 42% and removing 26 leak paths per machine.
Halbrook's loader hydraulic circuit was assembled from eleven fabricated brackets, blocks, and hose runs. It worked, but it carried 26 threaded joints that could weep, and it took 38 minutes of assembly time per machine.
Warranty data showed hydraulic leaks as the second most common field claim on the platform, almost all of them at threaded joints rather than at components.
The DFM review started from the circuit rather than from the parts. Consolidating the routing into two machined manifolds eliminated the joints instead of improving them.
Gallery layout was designed for deep-hole drilling and cross-drill intersection quality, with every gallery deburred and verified by borescope — the failure mode that turns a good manifold into a contaminated system.
Volume justified dedicated fixturing and a pallet-pool routing, which is what brought the piece price below the eleven-part assembly it replaced.
Part cost fell 42% against the components it replaced, and assembly time dropped 38 minutes per machine.
Hydraulic leak claims on the platform fell to a quarter of their previous rate within the first full year in the field.
The manifolds have run at 40,000 pieces per year since 2022, the highest-volume program in the group.
“We asked for a cheaper bracket. They came back and asked why the circuit needed eleven parts. That question was worth more than the quote.”
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