Project Abstracts

Manufacturing indirect costs had grown faster than sales. The Value Stream project was used to identify all indirect costs, quantify them to supporting operations and make adjustments to staffing. Identified 10 major indirect manufacturing tasks and time studied to identify the real time required for each task Calculated labor required per day to complete each indirect task Evaluated ... >

Conducted a Value Stream Rapid Improvement Event to identify areas of waste and launch Lean improvement projects. Analyzed entire value stream in the manufacturing plant: Receiving, Processing, Packaging, Warehouse Operations, Shipping Gathered data on OEE, Labor, Changeover time, Maintenance costs, Inventory and Material Yield Conducted 68 time studies Converted all costs to cost-per-case to evaluate equivalent units Used Pareto Analysis ... >

Conducted a complete Field-to-Table analysis of Save-A-Lot's grocery value stream to identify areas of waste to launch Lean improvement projects. Analyzed Procurement, Inbound and Outbound Transportation, Distribution Center Operations, Store Ordering, Store Receiving, Customer checkout Identified 30 areas for improvement with 4 having multi-million dollar savings opportunities: SKU Proliferation: Company executives thought they had 1500 active SKUs but ... >

Save-A-Lot created a supply chain and operations transformation that they labeled, “Farm to Table.” It was to streamline all processes used to plan, source, produce, store and deliver groceries from the most upstream part of their supply chain to their customers. Mapped their supply chain including food producers, distribution centers and stores with considerations of ... >

Midwest power utility initiated a supply chain transformation initiative. Part of that initiative was the parts network redesign to reduce inventory and transportation costs while staging parts closer to operating centers that serve as hubs for Ameren Operations. Mapped the 3 tier supply network including 2 distribution centers (DCs), major parts supply hubs and operating centers, ... >

Healthcare logistics company needed to support the overall business strategy by developing a supply chain strategy that would improve performance and create alignment in different supply chain functions Used SWOT and Porters 5 Forces models to understand the current state of the supply chain Created a mission statement, “To drive value while connecting members to healthcare solutions” Aligned ... >

A franchise cleaning business was being carved out of large chemical manufacturing business. Historically, they had used the supply chain of the parent company. They needed support in the short term to stand-up a supply chain to maintain product flow to their franchisees. We analyze various options for the medium-term supply chain design. Short term solution ... >

Schaeffer is a family-owned business that expanded from $10 million to $180 million in sales in the last 20 years. Growth has been accelerating recently and Schaeffer is expected to reach $400 million in sales in the next 5 years. However, systems are still based on being a small company, requiring a lot of communication ... >

Rio Grande, a Berkshire Hathaway company, experienced accelerated growth that outpaced the capabilities of its supply chain, warehouse operations and manufacturing capacity. In addition, the company initiated a Customer Experience / Journey strategy to focus on specific segments to support growth. On time delivery, fill rate, and labor productivity in operations had all suffered poor ... >

Terrasource manufactures mining equipment and parts. A significant portion of their sales are for replacement and repair parts. They were losing sales because of not having the finished goods or raw materials to meet customer leadtime requirements. Developed a model for classifying all finished goods inventory items based on multiple criteria to align sales, finance and ... >

Horizon designs, manages the manufacturing, and distributes high-end radio-controlled planes, cars, locomotives and boats. Their sales increased dramatically during the 2020 pandemic while experiencing significant supply chain disruption. In addition, they plan to triple sales in the next 5 years. Developed demand planning and production planning functions to prepare for S&OP Implemented Lean Process Improvement in various ... >

Layout for new warehouse site that will combine three existing warehouses into one Warehouse served customer pick-up, delivery to customers and customers shopping in retail branch connected to the warehouse Analyzed demand to predict new SKU inventory levels of the 3-to-1 combined warehouse Calculated space requirements for each SKU based on: 1) Maximum inventory levels, 2) Size, ... >

New layout for existing warehouse, implemented during the Client’s busy season Analyzed the current state of: 1) receiving to putaway, 2) pick/pack/ship, and 3) information flows from customer order to ship Discovered: 1) No identifiable “center of gravity” around shipping dock doors, 2) Racks are aligned wrong, 3) SKU locations do not match velocity, and 4) Value-add ... >

New layout to separate finished goods storage from production and to increase throughput and labor productivity for organization that employs Adults with Developmental Disabilities Used Spaghetti Mapping, Time & Motion Studies and Process Flow Mapping to analyze the current state of: 1) Raw material staging, 2) Scheduling, 3) Packaging, and 4) Palletizing and prepare for outbound ... >

New plant layout for test / assembly / paint operations to improve safety and product tracking Plant receives compressed gas cylinders from customers to test, performs re-assembly as needed and paints before returning to customers Used Spaghetti Mapping, Time & Motion Studies and Process Flow Mapping to analyze the current state of: 1) Inbound from customers, 2) ... >

Client planned an addition onto their production and warehouse facility to support more finished goods storage and facilitate increased material flow in assembly operations. This project layout included (i) raw materials and purchased components, (ii) work-in-process, and (iii) finished goods Process flow mapped information flow supporting production and customer ordering, identifying 22 of 73 information flow ... >

Re-layout of uniform stockroom, including inventory storage locations and uniform customization/assembly operations to relieve congestion and allow for growth Process flow mapped stock room process, identifying 26 of 95 steps to be eliminated Used Spaghetti Mapping, Time & Motion Studies and Process Flow Mapping to analyze the current state of: 1) receiving to putaway, 2) pull for ... >

New (green-field) facility consolidating separate manufacturing and distribution center sites into one facility Value Stream Mapped manufacturing operations to identify non-value added steps and internal best practices Used Spaghetti Mapping, Time & Motion Studies and Process Flow Mapping to analyze the current state of: 1) receiving to putaway, 2) pick/pack/ship, and 3) information flows from manufacturing plans, ... >

Telecommunications/electronics specialty manufacturer with highly complex, multi-departmental processes for handling Non-Conforming Material, needed more effective processes that ensured governmental and regulatory compliance Created high-level process overview to graphically show the core value-added steps in the process Overlayed the departmental/functional owners associated with each core step Identified the Key Performance Measures for the four high-level process owners and created ... >

Manufacturer of highly specialized and diverse technology products that were assimilated via acquisition, needed performance improvement, focus and alignment under a single operations management team Implemented Key Performance Scorecard for Operations VP, including Key Performance Measures for each Product Family Implemented Key Performance Scorecard for the Operations VP’s direct reports, creating an aligned organization With the Scorecard framework ... >

Rapidly growing, health care related transportation service company with highly complex organization structure and poorly defined / overlapping roles, needed to improve their processes and performance Implemented Key Performance Scorecards from C-Level down through Departmental VPs to establish and quantify the company’s core focus and objectives Rolled out Key Performance Scorecards to Functional Managers and deeper into ... >

Critical metal component manufacturer was not meeting customer demand and had excess work-in-process inventory. Assessed that bottleneck operations were not being fully utilized and were often “starved” of work while non-bottleneck operations were overloaded Scheduling was releasing new work-orders without consideration of current workload Confirmed constraint operations’ capacity Implemented Theory of Constraints – Drum/Buffer/Rope pull and scheduling system to ... >

Ice cream cake manufacturer consolidated two plants into one new facility, with a completely new workforce. Throughput was half of required capacity, causing one of the old plants to stay open in order to meet demand. Assessed the current state of operations and material flow at the new plant Identified: 1) Production cells were sometimes over-staffed and ... >

Service organization struggled with capacity and meeting customer deadlines. As the business grew their profitability and on-time delivery suffered. Time studied operations to understand costs required to support various service lines and customers. Aggregated time study data, other cost information and revenue data to create a full profitability model Using the profitability model, identified highest (and lowest) ... >

Production and logistics company needed to standardize labor across 5 plants to develop time standards that are used in an incentive-based pay system Organized time studies across all 5 plants based on product families using a time-study matrix Engaged management and direct labor to conduct all time studies and document results, creating transparency across the company Used time ... >

Implemented Kanban-Flow Cell for machining / assembly / paint operation to increase throughput and improve labor productivity Conducted Time & Motion Studies to understand labor standards and non-value-added steps Created balanced flow process using Takt-Time Grouping to flow all machining operations to a work-in-process Kanban Created one-piece flow process to flow all assembly and test operations to finished ... >

Facilitated the organizational transformation to split the purchasing department into two functional teams: demand planners and production planners while developing and implementing a Demand, Supply and Operations Planning process Leveraged lean process improvement tools to split the legacy procurement processes into efficient and separate demand planning processes and production planning processes Eliminated the manual “group think” forecasting ... >

Augmented existing ERP system with inventory-optimization-as-a-service (Optimal Velocity) to update reorder points and reorder quantities every month Educated purchasing and inventory team on forecasting, planning and inventory management models and methods Facilitated twice-a-year Multi-Criteria Inventory Classification (MCIC) to update A+, A, B, C and F SKU rankings Update reorder points and reorder quantities based on optimization model that ... >

Helped Volpi use their existing forecasting software (Demand Solutions) and MRP (Great Plaines) to create robust sales and operations planning process Used Multi-Criteria Inventory Classification (MCIC) to create A+, A, B, C and F SKU rankings and upload to MRP system Researched Demand Solutions capabilities and settings to optimize forecast configuration for different types of finished goods ... >

A freight brokerage built through acquisition has numerous non-standard manual processes that complicated the already complex highly transactional business. The growth of the business volume and transition to a new IT system was the catalyst for the organization to focus on streamlining their business processes. Due to the cross functional nature of the business, we ... >

Industrial valve manufacturer wanted to shorten new product development (NPD) time, improve new product quality and increase new product sales. The NPD process begins with input from Sales and Marketing and ends with commercialization by Sales and Marketing departments. Created a NPD streamlining team that included Research, Product Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Sales and Marketing Used Strategy Map ... >

Agricultural Focused Commercial Bank was seeking process improvement support and Lean Six Sigma training for personnel. Value Stream Mapped and Process Flow Mapped, Commercial Loan Processes resulting in streamlining and time saving recommendations Provided high level awareness Lean Six Sigma training for broad swath of personnel Provided customized Lean Six Sigma training to Continuous Improvement (CI) Team to ... >

Rapidly growing, health care related transportation service company needed to improve their processes and simplify performance metrics Used a combination of Value Stream Mapping and high-level Process Flow Mapping to identify process work-arounds, document organizational complexity and execution inefficiency. Implemented Key Performance Scorecards from C-Level down through Departmental VPs and then to Functional Managers in order to ... >

Telecommunications/electronics specialty manufacturer needed Business Process Improvement support for a number of processes to improve efficiency and ensure governmental and regulatory compliance Non-Conforming Material (NCM) process was overly complex, had multiple functional owners, inaccurate data and slow disposition. Analyzed and segmented NCM data, Process Flow Mapped the current state process, identified issues and developed recommendations including ... >