Category: Lean Manufacturing

Situation A carpet manufacturer was receiving complaints from clients regarding changes in color. The manufacturer makes vinyl carpet for pontoon boats. They needed help finding out why the color change was taking place, and how to solve the problem. Actions: MetaExpert Richard was called to help test and analyze the uv stability of the fabrics. […]

Social distancing, masks, contact tracing, close contacts, and quarantining are all new and frequent words in the manufacturer’s lexicon in the current pandemiconomy. COVID has presented a whole new way to work and interact with each other in the workplace. The novelty of a virtual workplace does not work in manufacturing. There is no way […]

Situation A carpet manufacturing company wanted to reduce its waste. The company makes its own colored yarn and had a problem with waste being produced from changing yarn colors. They needed to create a less expensive product with the same quality by reducing the waste associated with color changing. Actions: MetaExpert Richard was brought on […]

Situation: Multi-Site operations for the manufacturing of commercial and home products recently acquired a competitor. The company needed to standardize and streamline the operational best practices across all facilities. Immediate improvements were required to ensure customer satisfaction regarding quality and on-time delivery. The business had no existing improvement program, standardized process documentation, or KPI reporting. […]

Situation The sterile injectable manufacturing site of a multi-national pharmaceutical company experienced a sudden and unexpected increase in units with visible crystals. Despite the drug being on the FDA drug shortage list, manufacturing was temporarily halted. Sufficient determination of the root cause of the crystallization with proposed countermeasures was required to restart manufacturing. The company […]

Situation A manufacturer for protein bar packaging recently moved relocated from a 50,000 square foot operation facility to a new 350,000-square-foot operation facility. This resulted in an assembly line production change where stand-up assembly packaging lines were converted to brand new automated packaging lines. In addition, there was a folding carton redesign where the Straight […]

Alignment diagrams by themselves do much more than present a linear flow of activities. Buried in the process are various levels of analysis and strategies. Indeed, Aligned process mapping defines the “engineered customer and company experience.” The company wants its customers to have a great experience to the point that they will recommend the company […]

Situation A manufacturing plant was suffering from excessively high in-process scrap rates (6.8%) in the zinc smelting department. Although the raw material could be re-melted and salvaged, the labor costs were excessive and on-time product deliveries were at stake.  Actions To remedy the inefficiencies in the manufacturing process, the company called on MetaExpert Michael. Micheal […]

Have you ever wondered if putting money into your organization’s safety policy was worth it? If so, you’re not alone. Many people think they can put safety off, until something happens, and then, they instantly regret their decision. One organization in particular made an investment in improving their safety and truly reaped the benefits. Their […]