The General Motors Grand Rapids Metal Fabrication Plant houses four operational areas in its 2,000,000 sq. ft. facility: Tool & Die Operations, Blanking, the Press Room, and Metal Assembly.

The Press Room is where automotive body/structural parts are formed. Some of those parts are welded together in Metal Assembly before being shipped to an assembly plant.

Many pieces of equipment used throughout the plant require cooling, which is carried out by way of a large — more than 180,000 gal. — closed-loop, cooling water system.

The cooling water system, which also is called the welder water system, circulates through a massive matrix of plumbing that covers the entire plant, cooling various equipment and systems such as hydraulic systems, clutch systems, hundreds of welding robots, welding guns and controllers (see Figure 2).

This matrix consists of pipes and hoses that vary in size from 10-in. mains all the way down to ½-in. hoses and smaller orifices.

The Problem

Around the year 2000, Metal Assembly began experiencing unusual equipment failures.

The weld cables (kickless cables) on the welding robots would become completely clogged, sometimes to the point of splitting. They continually experienced low-flow faults to the robot welding tips.

These issues led to production downtime as equipment parts were replaced and repairs made. Another complaint - perhaps the largest - was from the maintenance personnel. They complained of an unpleasant odor coming from the cooling water as they made the repairs.

Partnership

Quaker Chemical Corp.'s relationship with this General Motors plant began in 1998, with a contract to provide chemical management services at all 12 U.S. GM metal fabricating facilities.

During the first few years of the contract, a basic chemical management program was in place.

Quaker assumed management of all oils and greases for the plant, including price comparison shopping, purchasing, maintaining appropriate inventory levels, and tracking usage throughout the plant, as well as condition monitoring of the blank wash fluid used in the metal forming process.

The focus of the program was to reduce the amount of spending for chemicals for the plant.

In 2003, Quaker (www.quakerchem.com) was awarded a second, expanded-scope contract with GM, and chemical management became more integrated into the plant itself.

The number of chemicals managed by Quaker grew to include practically everything — paint pens, glues, and welding rods, among other items.

Quaker also became responsible for managing the plant's material safety data sheets system — a record management and retention system for every chemical item used in the plant. Chemical usage and cost were significantly reduced by implementation of several projects led by the chemical manager, making it difficult to achieve additional chemical savings.

By the end of the second contract term, all of the “low hanging fruit” had begun to disappear, and GM staff members wondered whether their chemical management services program could deliver any additional benefits.

Chemical costs were at their lowest possible levels, eliminating the possibility of squeezing out any more savings.

In 2007, Quaker was awarded a contract renewal with GM.

This chemical management contract was structured in a way that encouraged the chemical manager to look beyond strictly chemical savings; it allowed the chemical manager to go after process savings as well.

At this point, Quaker had been in the plant for nearly 10 years. In working together for so long, the customer and chemical manager at the plant level felt and acted as though they were working for the same company with a common goal: to optimize chemical management and reduce costs.