Since its inception 35 years ago, Starline Windows in Langley, B.C., has been involved in all sectors of the residential construction market. In January 2002, Starline Architectural Windows Ltd., was formed due primarily to the overall growth of the company but also to focus specifically on the highly specialized products needed for the high-rise residential market. According to its website, Starline Architectural has gained the reputation of quality products and excellencein performance.

The company decided to bring their finishing in-house in 2005 to reduce manufacturing lead time, decrease inventory and increase the overall quality and consistency of their products, according to Pat Murphy, Lean Manufacturing Manager, at Starline. Before 2005, all extrusions and fabricated components were coated by outside vendors. “Powder coating was chosen because it is environmentally friendly and extremely durable, meeting the demands of our customer base,” Murphy says.

Prior to installing its powder line, Starline’s product was wet coated by outside vendors and inventoried in its facility. Murphy says that the product coated with wet coat fluoropolymer was very durable when installed, but it was prone to damage during the manufacturing and installation process. “We chose AAMA 2605 powder because it is not only superior in long-term durability to wet coat but is also far less likely to be damaged during the many stages of manufacturing, shipping and installation that our products go through. Making the switch to powder greatly reduced the amount of manufacturing rework and site replacements because of paint damage,” he says.

Murphy explains that early in the shift to powder, the window maker experienced some resistance from its customers to changing from the fluoropolymer wet products that they were used to. “Fortunately, after having the benefits explained and seeing examples, everyone has felt comfortable enough to make the change,” Murphy says. “No one has been disappointed with their decision as all the projects we have done have had excellent results. We have never had to convince anyone to use powder a second time.”

When asked about color selection, Murphy explains that Starline has a selection of “standard colors” that they stock, but as their customers are building residential high rises, most projects are custom colors specified by the building architects. “During any given period, we will have 50-plus active colors going through our operation,” Murphy says.

Before installing the powder coating line, Murphy says that every extrusion and fabricated component would need to be meticulously coordinated so that everything was available for final assembly. As with any other manufacturing facility, this leads to complex planning models, high inventory and long leads times. The other downside is that the slightest glitch results in late shipments and backorders.

“High-rise construction demands that shipments arrive on time, because unloading space and cranes must be booked days or weeks in advance, and often there is no second chance,” Murphy explains.

“By bringing our coating in house, we have been able to make major improvements in ‘on-time deliveries,’ so we have orders on site, on time, so our trades can meet their completion dates. We have also been able to run just-intime (JIT) to the assemble line, with backorders virtually eliminated,” he says.

Starline installed a two-booth system with extremely fast color change capability that allows them to paint whatever quantity of a color that is needed for that day’s production.

“We currently average 25 color changes a day, and the line never stops for booth cleaning. Our booth cleaning time is less than 8 minutes and our load bars are at 4- minute intervals so a worst-case scenario is we leave one bar empty,” Murphy says.

The booths have a continuously self-cleaning floor. “They stay amazingly clean even when we are painting dark powders. Along with the self-cleaning guns, the booth floor has flaps that rotate up making cleaning very easy. We have found that quickly blowing the walls and floor down is all that is required between color changes, even going from dark to light,” Murphy says.

Having the ability to run lean on ...

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