Flexovit USA
For company headquarters to remain in Western New York, leaders at Flexovit USA recognized that keeping costs down was the key. After maxing out the possibilities of automation, owner Jay Iliohan knew that more reductions were needed, so he brought in Lean manufacturing to make good on the commitment. Not only have money savings resulted, but the sales and marketing division’s application of the waste-eliminating approach will increase the company’s abrasive product revenues in 2013. Lean has touched every department and is becoming ingrained in Angola site operations. By folding Lean into Flexovit’s mission statement, management has no intentions of allowing the continuous improvement concept and its tools to fade.
- Established Lean leaders through two sessions of TCIE’s Certified Lean Professional program, educating 28 employees of varying levels from throughout the plant, from office to production personnel
- Engaged the expertise and unbiased opinion of a TCIE Lean Executive-on-Loan to overcome barricades and continue momentum
- Formed a Lean Steering Committee of sales, marketing, accounting and human resources executive team members to manage future improvement projects
- By implementing new distributor contract pricing concurrent to list price increases, rather than the usual few weeks’ delay, Flexovit is expected to experience double-digit profit growth in 2013
- Improved a “price increase” process to meet customer deadlines by shortening the time to implement increases and sharpening communications to customers
- Cut the product development cycle from more than two months to five days, empowering the sales team to seek more opportunities
- Increased accuracy of customer contact database
- Triggered a to-do list of improvements in the sales and marketing department, with projects administered regularly
Project ROI
How do we measure the impact of projects? It’s a mix of tangible, quantifiable savings with the more elusive “soft savings” – such as cost avoidance and improved customer satisfaction.