Shop Floor
FACILITIES
United Architectural Metals prides itself with providing a clean, efficient, work environment within its shop in order to ensure the highest quality of finished product is delivered to the customer. Since moving to its current location in 1996, the shop has been expanded three times; the first in 2004, the second in 2013, and the third in 2019 in order to fulfill the growing need for additional space in the expanding company. The shop now includes separate working areas for fabrication, frame assembly, door and special hardware fabrication, and a glazing line all in a single 120,000 sq. ft. facility. The shop is fully climate controlled and has added skylights for improved lighting conditions.
With the engineering department located in the middle of the shop and the preconstruction group located in the front of the shop, there is a lot of direct interaction between the staff that allows them to solve complex design challenges.
CAPABILITIES
The shop utilizes state of the art and automated machinery to help ensure the highest standards in quality control available in a product that is often custom in nature. Some of the technology used includes automated saw lines, seven CNC mills for accurate fabrication, and a custom eight-head punch with interchangeable dies. Also in use are added quality assurance tests including an in-house pressure chamber for prototype testing, light emissivity testers to help ensure proper glass make up, movable production lines, overhead lifts, and of course a highly capable trained team of personnel.
LEAN Manufacturing
UAM recognizes that sustainability starts in the manufacture and production of goods. As such, high importance is placed on lean manufacturing techniques such as eliminating waste through optimization, reduced inventory, just in-time production, continuous improvement and built-in quality. These techniques help to maintain a steady work flow that fully utilizes available resources in order to meet project deadlines in an on-time manner with the highest possible quality of products. UAM even uses custom reusable metal bunks as opposed to traditional wood ones to ship the units from shop to job site to help reduce wasted packaging.
