Quality Products Begin With a Quality Process

What is it that sets Hunter apart from all the other companies in the highly competitive irrigation industry?

If you ask people outside the company, they'll point to a wide range of products or great customer service. Ask people on the inside of the company and one answer turns up with great regularity - Hunter's quality engineering and manufacturing process.

The Team Concept

"At Hunter there is a team in place for each of the projects we are working on," said Loren Scott, manager of Hunter's engineering department. "Other companies prefer to bring in a group of individuals and try to team them together to work on a particular project only to disband the group when that project is finished. They are constantly forming, disbanding and reforming teams and thus there is no continuity. It's as if each project is a freelance project unto itself.

"On the other hand, at Hunter, we prefer to have the same team in place on a project from start to finish. We then move them together as a team onto the next project. The benefit is that when fine-tuning is necessary on a project, the same team that created the product is there to do the adjusting."

This team concept has resulted in low personnel turnover. The majority of Hunter's engineering department has been with the company for many years.

The engineering department also handles the selection of materials used in the construction of the company's products. Hunter engineers sample the many different material options before determiring which will work best. "We don't just blindly pick our materials out of a catalog," added Scott.

These materials are then fashioned into Hunter products that feature individual parts designed to perform multiple functions. Why multiple? This results in lower costs (fewer total parts per product) and better inventory control (less parts need to be stocked).

No Band-Aids on Broken Arms

When there is a problem that arises in the mechanics of a product, Hunter does not throw a quick fix - a "band aid" - at it. Rather, the company seeks a true solution that eliminates the problem instead of simply covering it up. For example, if a flaw is discovered in the functioning of a product, Hunter engineers won't respond by simply throwing in an extra seal or an O-ring to mask the problem, they'll look for a way to revise the construction of that product in order to completely remove the elemant that is causing the problem.

"It's part of the philosophy of 'continuous improvement' and why the Hunter warranty - up to 5 years on some products - is such a good deal," said Scott.

The Assembly Innovators

The mental approach to producing products sets Hunter apart. But there are tangible, physical methods that are uniquely Hunter, as well.

Perhaps the most notable of all the mechanical innovations that the company has implemented is the carousel design of the product assembly area. Most firms use the standard, time-honored assembly line method where every individual worker performs a single function in the process of putting together a product. For sprinkler assembly, that might mean that one employee's job may consist of nothing more than putting a screen inside the riser all day long.

At Hunter, production on the carousel takes place with the employee work station making a revolution past different assembly positions so that each individual worker builds an entire sprinkler by themselves every couple of minutes or so. This assembly method not only involves the employee in a greater diversity of tasks, it also gives them greater pride in the fact that they alone have created a complete product.

Along with the carousel design, Hunter has made use of its two-level production facility by molding product components on the second story directly above the product assembly area (making Hunter one of the few facilities in the world that has molding above the production lines). This makes storing the parts and supplying them to the assembly area simple - the parts are delivered "just-in-time" via chutes to the floor below as needed.

In addition, Hunter also has created customized molding machines to fabricate the variety of irrigation components that make up Hunter products. To date, there are more than 150 different machines and over 500 different molds in active use.

Listen and Learn

What the company does internally makes a difference, but one of the most valuable assets that Hunter possesses is the ability to listen to comments from the outside. Hunter's Data Line and Customer Service Representatives, along with the company's worldwide network of Sales Representatives continually get comments and feedback from customers.

"We're always striving to achieve quicker response times to customer input," said Scott. "When our market asks for innovation, we try to give it to them as fast as possible.

"Of course, our work up-front limits the need for making changes to our products. We work hard to verify the design and function of each product before it ever leaves our department. We don't leave it up to the customer to do product testing to see if it works. But we definitely listen to the customer as we are looking to develop better, more innovative products."