How a Manufacturing Company Streamlined Operational Best Practices

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. They also had limited exposure to Lean Manufacturing techniques through local college classes.

Actions:

MetaExperts Chris implemented Lean Manufacturing across 7 US facilities in a structured process. He also created shop floor teams with daily KPI discussion and reporting. The development of support teams improved bottom-to-top communication and assured accountability of reaching goals. The principles of 4S, Ideas/Suggestions, and SoPs were engaged in all of the departments, including customer service, sales, and finance.

Executive management and cross-functional teams instituted Value Stream Mapping and conducted kaizen events in specific manufacturing and engineering areas. The business created bilingual training materials explicitly created for employee on-boarding. This training is now with their suppliers and customers.

Results:

1. Team leadership at the shop floor level contributed to the rapid implementation of improvements – over 1,000 ideas per plant implemented.
2. Visual workplace established to showcase performance and goal attainment – most extensive and sustained quarterly gain share payouts of up to $1,100 per employee.
3. New product introduction following the kaizen event allowed rapid delivery to over 250 big box stores with an outstanding quality of the technically difficult laminate forming process.
4. SOPs contributed to faster and more consistent training allowing new employees to participate quickly and safely. Best practice SOPs shared across entire US operations.
5. Full implementation across all departments from material sourcing to customer service allowed more than 90% acceptance of customer requests for customized products opening new value streams of highly profitable business.

RoI

By implementing an operational best practices plan across all facilities, MetaExpert Chris was able to help achieve 10 times ROI in the first 6 months of each facility.