Production Capacity Defined

At Design Ready Controls, we are committed to delivering control panels with excellence at scale and on schedule. To do this successfully, we have intentionally defined production capacity around three main levers: (1) equipment, (2) infrastructure, and (3) people, each playing a pivotal role in how our process is built and executed. Our team is accountable for managing these levers with discipline through MACRO and MICRO SIOP reviews to ensure we effectively align with customer demand across all Design Ready Controls facilities.

Equipment Capacity: The Machines Behind the Work

Automated machines support the team in delivering repeatable, high-quality precision for every panel, from cutting exact holes in metal enclosures and back panels to processing wire and engraving labels. We continually evaluate the utilization of each machine to maintain a healthy cadence and meet volume expectations, asking questions such as: What is the throughput capacity of each piece of equipment? How many wires need to be processed each week? How many enclosures need to be routed or drilled? These discussions give us a clear understanding of how much work each machine can reliably deliver.

A few machines that we leverage are:

• Perforex Machines: To cut precise holes into metal enclosures and back panels
• Komax Wire Processing Machines: To cut, strip, and crimp wires to exact specifications and print label information
• Engravers: To create the required labeling within each control panel
• Automated Test Fixtures: To ensure every control panel is properly wired, powered, and functioning as intended, Design Ready Controls uses five generations of testing that range from basic point-to-point verification to fully automated functional validation.
• ARGUS Camera System: To capture photos from all required viewpoints, documenting each panel’s condition and configuration prior to shipment

Infrastructure Capacity: Square Footage, Workstations, and Tools

The infrastructure that supports the building of control panels is the second lever of capacity planning. The physical space and floor layout of a facility determine how efficiently panels move from raw material to tested and finished product. Every layout decision—aisle width, rack location, bench orientation, and shared tooling—directly impacts team productivity, safety, and how many panels we can successfully ship on time.

Because our team builds a wide variety of panel sizes and complexities, we design the manufacturing floor with intentional flexibility so we can reconfigure lines as new products and customers are brought on. Tools are part of this infrastructure as well; we equip each person with the right fixtures, torque tools, lifts, and test equipment to set them up for success and help ensure a high-quality product. Infrastructure is how we convert square footage into real, repeatable output and support the measurement of production capacity.

Another extremely important tool is our proprietary AME system. AME stands for Automated Manufacturing Expert. It is essentially a conduit between engineering and manufacturing. It allows panel builders to access all information necessary to build panels in a paperless format. It is also a two-way platform that allows manufacturing to ask clarifying questions of engineering and receive the necessary answers.

People Capacity: The Team

Across every department, there is a shared passion for building control panels. The leadership, drive, and innovation of our team power our ability to build control panels at scale and call ourselves one of the world’s largest and most automated control panel builders. None of this has happened by accident; we are intentional in ensuring we have the right people, in the right roles, with the right skills.

People planning starts at the MACRO SIOP level, which stands for Sales, Inventory, and Operations Planning. This monthly review begins with a 90-day sales forecast and includes an analysis of the staffing needed to support projected production. Factors such as labor estimates, efficiency trends, indirect labor ratios, absenteeism, and attrition are all considered. The result is a staffing plan for each manufacturing plant to support recruiting, hiring, and training needs.

The next level is MICRO SIOP, where leadership reviews staffing on a weekly basis to ensure each facility has the right number of people in the right roles to support actual orders. This review is done line by line across all manufacturing locations.

We consistently review current skill sets and identify how we can continue developing our people through cross-training and external training and development so they can grow personally and professionally and build long-term careers in manufacturing.

Bringing It All Together

In summary, our approach to capacity comes down to a single, decisive question: How do we align our equipment, infrastructure and tools, and people with customer demand at each facility? The answer is a disciplined review of equipment throughput, floor layout, workstation design, and team member skills and availability against detailed sales forecasts. This allows our team to proactively arrange and control our production capacity in a data-driven way.

Our vision is to be the world’s best control panel builder for original equipment manufacturers who require excellence and scale, and our production capacity, along with many other elements of our organization, supports that vision. As our customers grow and their needs evolve, we are intentionally positioning ourselves to deliver the excellence at scale they expect from Design Ready Controls.