Here are some of the great folks we’ve worked with…

• Sypris Electronics was hemorrhaging and needed to get profitable, grow sales, and fill the new product pipeline.  With a new president, some external support, and team commitment a transformation was undertaken in early 2008. The results speak for themselves. Over a period of 16 months reduced the factory footprint by over 60%; improved production cycle time by 70%; increased customer on-time delivery by 88%; reduced scrap and rework by 70%; drove productivity 61% by reducing direct costs and overheads, and increasing throughput (velocity) through the plant; reduced inventory by 60% and increased turns by 300%; eliminated past due backlog; implemented a New Product Development process and successfully launched several new products while redesigning products to improve cost; injected new technology via strategic partnerships; reimplemented ERP system and established metrics-based reporting; restructured the organization around value streams while implementing Hoshin policy deployment; product sales grew 52% while operating results improved greater than 300%.
• ITT Fluid Technologies, a global manufacturer of machined products optimizing the current manufacturing and distribution network showed significant savings by relocating product lines and consolidating manufacturing and distribution footprint. Low cost country production was optimized to minimize total costs while meeting customer requirements. A two DC solution was selected from 30 potential North American DC sites for parts distribution and imported finished goods. Overall, the modeling projected savings of 13.5% on an expense base of $500 million. Company is now actively in the process of implementing the new network architecture. A similar study of European operations is underway.
• Linens ‘n Things, a large national retailer needed to re-evaluate their warehousing, importing, and transportation consolidation efforts in the face of bankruptcy and pending store closures. Identified $38 million of supply chain (23%) savings (before store reduction) from optimally store-DC assignment and closure of high-overhead, redundant distribution centers.
• United Agri Products, now Crop Production Services is a national distributor of agricultural products that had five company-owned distribution centers in the Northeast region of the US. They wanted to evaluate DC consolidation into one or two 3PL-managed DCs to service the region. Network optimization study identified 12% of supply chain savings on $7.7 million by moving to two 3PL managed DCs.
• Sigvaris, a medical garment manufacturer was importing from South America to the US and then shipping from the US to a DC in Canada to service the Canadian market.  They wanted to consider the impact on freight and duty for direct shipments to Canada from South America. Identified $101k of savings (22%) in freight and duty by implementing flexible shipping routing.
• American Standard, a retail & wholesale bathroom products manufacturer and distributor (faucets, showers & tubs, toilets) conducted US network design study, DC outsourcing 3PL selection, pricing, contracting, warehouse assessments & optimization for greater efficiency, labor productivity and work flows, systems evaluation and selection, transportation and logistics process improvements, carriage and transportation programs.
• Trane, a global heating and air conditioning manufacturer performed a national parts & FG warehouse assessments leading to significant change in productivity and operational efficiency; carrier programs; European parts DC analysis, transportation center assessment.
• Parksite Inc., a wholesale distributor of high end building materials – network analysis, outsourcing, transportation, warehouse assessments, contracting & negotiations, systems, fleet analysis & strategies.
• Carrier Corporation, part of United Technologies, world leader in heating and air conditioning – conducted Finished Goods DC outsourcing and 3PL selection process, pricing, and contract negotiations.
• Ducommun Technologies, an aerospace electronics design and assembly company, located in California and Arizona. Established bid and proposal stage gate process to complement newly launched new product development process.
• Toyota, vehicle processing center and regional parts distribution center located in Texas, this vehicle processing center was running out of capacity even after exhaustive lean and flow improvements. Retained to provide best practices for material handling and facility layout. Specified racking, picking technology, material handling equipment for four point of use facilities to accommodate planned growth and in support of takt and cycle time guidelines. Parts center was running out of room and facing a significant building expansion.  Operational and inventory analysis revealed many opportunities to consolidate and reorganize.
• US Air Force, Air Logistics Command, Tinker Air Force Base, located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma this facility is some 6 million square feet of jet and jet engine repair and overhaul. The site has begun a very large multi-year transformation from functional facility layout to integrated product teams. Almost all equipment and people in this operation are being physically and culturally reorganized. Independent Verification and Validation is one of the program and contract management controls common for very large projects. Changes to manufacturing cell designs are best made before moving all of the equipment and utilities. Conducted 16 formal design reviews. Careful independent review of customer demand, machine and labor capacity, flow disruptions allowed for constructive refinements in the cell layouts to better achieve the quality, cost, delivery objectives.
• AstenJohnson, paper machine cloth, a highly technical product used in large industrial paper mills to carry the pulp and paper through the forming, press, and drying stages. Activities included coaching leadership, developing roll out strategies that lead to mentoring and training Lean Sigma green belts, black belts, master black belts, and champions. AstenJohnson Lean Enterprise has been credited with industry changing cost, lead time, and revenue enhancements. Over a four year period manufacturing lead times cut from 12 weeks to 2 or 3, resulting in several million dollars in bottom line savings.
• L3 Display Systems, avionics design and assembly, located in Alpharetta Georgia. This electronics design and assembly house was one of Boeing’s worst suppliers with chronic delivery problems. Starting in 2001 with a conversion from functional factory lay out to dedicated product line manufacturing cell, and organizational change to integrated product team this facility is now a Boeing Gold Supplier.
• Litehouse Foods, a bottled food products manufacturer, located in Grand Rapids. Implemented strategic inventory and re-engineered the planning, scheduling, and inventory control systems. Plant throughput is up 60% and inventory turns are improving, almost double so far this year. Activities include training, analysis, procedure and metrics development, and team based continuous improvement events (kaizen).
• Glaxo Wellcome, a multinational pharmaceutical company, mentoring LeanSigma students in South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, and Saudi Arabia. Frequent instructor for the materials management and culture change week of the 5 week LeanSigma blackbelt program. Guiding internal consultants through their lean journey is exciting, especially when use of the LeanSigma tools leads to rapid and sustainable changes.
• Premium Allied Tool, a high precision metal stamper, located in Owensboro Kentucky. Provided Lean overview and operational analysis training. Formed three project teams in quick die change, metrology work load balancing, and wire EDM throughput. Ongoing engagement shows steady skill and cultural development particularly with team building and team based problem solving.
• ChemRex, a cementaceous construction materials supplier, with many plants and warehouses. Conducted strategic inventory, warehouse and product line rationalization studies based on statistical demand management techniques and modeling. Implemented savings exceeded several million dollars.
• Raytheon Systems, a defense electronics assembler, located near Santa Barbara. Formed a team and trained them on Kanban and Heijunka. Data collection, kanban and product family turnover rate calculations lead to a conference room simulation that clearly illustrated the problems with the current push procedures. Implementation began within the first week.
• Tones Brothers, a $250 mm dried packaged food processor, located in Des Moines. Inventory reduction was identified as a strategic initiative. Achieving reductions beyond disposal of excess and obsolete required changes in planning and scheduling methods. Inventory went from $70m to less than $25m while sales were climbing. Lean Supply Chain and Kanban training lead to discovery of significant wasted inventory. Sustainable improvements are in millions of dollars.
• Raytheon, provided materials management, pull system, kanban, and heijunka training for the Raytheon Six Sigma Experts program. This program consists of six weeks of lecture and workshop exercises spread over a six month period. Broke new ground on the application of lean thinking to knowledge worker and administration processes.
• Delphi Harrison, automotive heating and cooling systems manufacturer, needed tighter linkage with key suppliers. The planning process was causing erratic supplier schedules that resulted in excess inventory and at the same time some parts shortages. Analysis of part demand characteristics, package quantity, and replenishment frequency leads to a replenishment method selection. The main replenishment methods available were reorder point scheduling, pull, and rated based sequencing. The Stable Supplier Scheduling methodology was implemented in the Rio Bravo and Tuscaloosa plants.
• Lesco, a fertilizer producer, located in West Virginia. This plant was experiencing capacity shortages and excess labor costs. Operational analysis and discrete event simulation modeling uncovered the understaffed constraint operation. By staffing the constraint continuously planned capital expansion costs were avoided.
• AlliedSignal – Primary authors of the “Materials” week of the four weeks Six Sigma Lean Enterprise training program. The class consists of lecture and workshop exercises on the topics of lean materials systems, customer and supplier linkage, shop floor control, mixed model heijunka, kanban and MRP integration, business systems issues, control mechanisms, supplier management, and supply chain development.
• Michigan Hanger, a hardware manufacturer, located in Ohio, had very significant sales growth over the past 3 years due to high order fill and short lead time. Holding significant finished goods inventory was the strategy. This lead to low inventory turns of 3 to 4. With increasing price pressure and faster competition delivery this client had to find a better way to operate. Detailed inventory and demand analysis indicated consigned inventory was not being managed adequately. We designed a statistically based stocking program and began the process of reducing manufacturing leadtime; monthly scheduling became weekly with a large number of ‘A’ items placed on daily demand pull. Inventory was reduced by over $1 million or 15% over a 5 month period. Inventory was clogging the flow. Not so surprisingly on time delivery improved as inventory went down.
• AlliedSignal, a manufacturer of jet engines, located in Phoenix AZ. Coordinated the design of an automated supplier replenishment pull system for one of the production cells. The system utilized the legacy (MACPAC) inventory and demand forecast systems that dynamically recalculated kanban requirements for raw materials. Suppliers were given blanket purchase orders. The trigger to deliver raw materials came from the weekly replenishment kanban report. Lean manufacturing implementation training materials, guidelines, forms, and templates were also provided.
• K&M, a defense electronics assembler, now part of ITT, located in West Springfield MA. Assisted this $30 mm company drastically cut its supplier base by defining commodities, analyzing QAD-MFG Pro data, and preparing consolidation plans. American Express procurement cards were implemented which greatly reducing the effort in supporting prototype and development activities. MRO and reorder point electronic components were outsourced to iPower, a distribution consortium. Supplier consolidation procedures were developed and implemented on the chemical commodity group cutting 50 odd suppliers down to 4. A follow on project lead to the development of a new manufacturing and materials management strategy that emphasized repetitive and flow processes. The company is now in a transition from a traditional MRP job order system to a Hybrid MRP system utilizing lean pull techniques.
• PTA, an injection molding tooling and plastic molder, located in Connecticut, Illinois, Colorado. This $25 mm company was in management transition and needed to upgrade its materials management and manufacturing science capabilities. Sales and Operations planning was implemented along with Performance Measurements. A number of Symix reports were designed, tested, and implemented. Sales & Operations Planning, ABC Cycle Counting, Inventory Reduction, Lead Time Reduction projects all had significant financial impact helping turn the company around. Set Up Reduction, 5S, and Kaizen events demonstrated the new management’s commitment to change and instilled lean manufacturing practices in this traditional short run job shop. Mold set up time went from 4.5 hours to 35 minutes, raw material inventory cut by 50%, Resin inventory turns increased from <5 to 11+, tool build lead time cut from 8+ weeks to less than 5.
• KVH, a marine electronics manufacturer, located in Rhode Island. This aggressively growing company had outgrown its business system and had little internal experience in software selection and implementation. A system readiness assessment revealed organizational as well as procedural deficiencies. Formal process mapping led to a concise yet cross-functional set of system requirements. Software evaluation and selection recommendations were made and implementation assistance is on going.
• Ensign-Bickford, an explosives manufacturer, supplying commercial mining, defense ordnance, and specialty chemicals, with 6 plants in North America. Five years experience as MRP II implementation project manager. Implemented CA-PRMS, all modules but financials, extensive system testing and business process re-engineering experience. Four years experience with Sales & Operations Planning, Forecasting, Demand Management, Rough Cut, MPS, MRP, SFC. Then two years deploying Lean Manufacturing and Kaizen techniques through the supplier base.