Published: Mar 18, 2025
Overview
An awning company’s operations were in disarray, negatively impacting delivery times, customer satisfaction, and goals to grow the business.
Challenges
A manufacturing business lacked step-by-step processes for operations. Lacking a systematic production approach, there were bottlenecks and inefficiencies. Less than 20% of production floor was utilized.
The business struggled to get finished products out the door on time, leading to upset clients. Furthermore, they were unable to increase production in order to grow the business.
Solutions
Completely reorganized their manufacturing space to streamline the production process. Implemented a system for tracking orders and prospects to project revenue and plan for business growth.
- Re-organized manufacturing equipment for optimal efficiency.
- Utilized spaghetti diagrams to create an optimized layout for the manufacturing plant.
- Used swim lane diagrams to map out current and future state of manufacturing process.
- Implemented Heijunka boards to visually depict work orders in the production process. This stabilized incoming work, improved prospect management, and allowed the company to forecast revenue and plan for growth.
- Transitioned document management to paperless operation.
- Improved communications using SQDEC method (Safety, Quality, Delivery, Employee Empowerment, and Cost).
Results
Increased total sales by 20%; total revenue by 57% over a period of 8 months. Reduced time and costs associated with employee on-boarding and training. Went 100% paperless. Reduced production time and improved customer satisfaction
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