GlobalRoll Conveyance Systems: A FireFlight Success Story
GlobalRoll Conveyance Systems, Inc. didn’t set out to build a digital manufacturing ecosystem. They set out to build rollers that never failed — and the conveyor systems that depend on them.
But as their product line expanded and customization became the norm, GlobalRoll found themselves running a full-scale build-to-order manufacturing operation on spreadsheets, whiteboards, PDFs, and memory.
FireFlight gave them the structure, traceability, and scalability they needed to support the next stage of growth.
Who GlobalRoll Is
From their headquarters on Precision Drive in Dayton, Ohio, GlobalRoll produces rollers, fabricated components, and the subassemblies that form the backbone of ten major conveyor products. These configurable systems include:
Inline Box Conveyor System
Pallet Infeed Conveyor with Turntable
Overhead Chain Conveyor for Parts
Accumulation Conveyor with Zero-Pressure Zones
Spiral Lift Conveyor
Modular Belt Washdown Conveyor
Powered Roller Transfer Conveyor
Telescoping Extendable Dock Conveyor
Multi-Lane Merge Conveyor
Gravity Roller Conveyor with Adjustable Stands
Each product blends fabricated steel structures, machined rollers, drive assemblies, sensors, wiring, hardware, and finishing processes. GlobalRoll ships thousands of rollers and assemblies every month — yet for years, they relied on informal tracking, memory-based workflows, and manual coordination.
Eventually, the complexity outgrew the tools.
The Pain Before FireFlight
As demand accelerated, several chronic challenges emerged:
Engineering chaos
Customers frequently requested variations — different roller diameters, coatings, shaft types, bearings, brackets, or load ratings. Engineering exported PDFs from CAD and emailed BOMs to purchasing, hoping nothing got lost on the way.
Inventory surprises
The West Campus team often discovered shortages during kitting. Rollers, brackets, bearings, shafts, and control components were consumed by other jobs without visibility, creating costly expedites and production delays.
Scheduling whiplash
Rush orders forced constant reshuffling of the whiteboard schedule, causing partial builds, stalled assemblies, and repeated rework
No clear cost picture
Material costs were spread across spreadsheets. Labor was handwritten. Rework rarely made it into the system. Profitability per product line was impossible to measure.
GlobalRoll realized they weren’t just building rollers — they were running a multi-stage, multi-product manufacturing operation without a system to support it.
FireFlight changed that.
FireFlight Comes In: Getting the 10 Products Under Control
GlobalRoll partnered with FireFlight to rebuild their entire product and manufacturing structure using two core concepts:
Product Templates
Each conveyor system was modeled as its own FireFlight Product Template, complete with:
Assemblies
Subassemblies
Components
Inventory items
Fabricated pieces
Hardware
Stages & steps
Inline processes
Component Templates
Reusable structures — roller sets, drive assemblies, brackets, plates, welded frames, tensioners, and electrical modules — were standardized so they could be referenced across multiple products.
The team then mapped the entire operation:
Company & Facilities
GlobalRoll Headquarters
West Campus Manufacturing (machining, fabrication, coating, roller assembly)
Distribution & QA Center (inspection, testing, packing, shipping)
Work Centers
Two main facilities:
Tube cutting
Shaft machining
Welding & Fabrication
Roller assembly
Coating/finishing
Electrical Wiring
Final QA
With this foundation, FireFlight built the complete BOM + routing system for each of the ten products.
Below are examples reflecting the updated, realistic template-driven structure:
Inline Box Conveyor System
Configurable template supporting hundreds of rollers, frames, brackets, and electrical work — all costed and routed automatically.
Pallet Infeed Conveyor with Turntable
Load-rated rollers, fabricated steel supports, and a driven rotation assembly — standardized and validated through template logic.
Overhead Chain Conveyor for Parts
FireFlight controlled roller selection, bracket geometry, and guided updates across all dependent builds when engineering changed specs.
Accumulation Conveyor with Zero-Pressure Zones
Driven by parametric logic: number of zones, drive rollers, photo-eyes, control modules, wiring harnesses, and zone sequencing.
Spiral Lift Conveyor
Curved rollers, structural plates, specialized brackets, and weldments managed as nested fabrication templates.
Modular Belt Washdown Conveyor
Stainless steel construction, washdown-rated components, and sanitary hardware tracked as separate material groups.
Telescoping Extendable Dock Conveyor
Template-driven subassemblies for each telescoping stage created predictable scheduling and clear WIP structure.
Powered Roller Transfer Conveyor
High-torque drive rollers serialized and fully traceable through FireFlight’s QA integration.
Gravity Roller Conveyor with Adjustable Stands
High-volume system benefitting from forecasting, inventory stability, and reusable standard components.
Multi-Lane Merge Conveyor
Template logic ensured lane speed synchronization, matched roller types, and correct controller assignments.
What Changed With FireFlight
Sales & Quoting
FireFlight enabled real-time, parameter-driven quoting with accurate costs, material needs, and lead times based on template configurations.
Planning & Inventory
MRP drove forecasting across all ten products, stabilized stock levels, and eliminated emergency material runs.
Production & Scheduling
Work centers received digital routing instructions with sequences based on resource constraints — no more whiteboard scheduling.
Quality & Traceability
Serialized motors, drive rollers, and key components connected directly to QA events, enabling instant root-cause analysis.
Costing & Profitability
Template-driven costing revealed true labor and material usage, showing which products delivered margin and which needed redesign.
The Outcome
Within a year of adopting FireFlight, GlobalRoll achieved:
Higher on-time delivery rates
Fewer shortages, expedites, and unplanned changeovers
Consistent, engineering-controlled BOMs and assemblies
Dramatically improved QA tracking and traceability
Accurate, data-driven quoting
Strong visibility into product-line profitability
A scalable manufacturing framework ready for continued growth
FireFlight didn’t change who GlobalRoll was.
It amplified their strengths
— transforming a hardworking roller shop into a data-driven, scalable, modern manufacturing operation.