Viant

The Orchard Park, NY, site of global medical device manufacturer Viant once had a pack-it-in approach to making operational improvements. Teams of employees assembled for five days, got to work making changes, and abandoned half-baked projects when the week was over. But a corporate-wide effort to apply the Lean methodology of reducing waste – as a standard practice – triggered Buffalo facility leaders to reset their strategy. Training and guidance from UB TCIE is helping to instill a culture of continuous improvement where initiatives don’t have an assigned end date and all are encouraged to challenge the status quo. A select group of employees has received in-depth training to become the leaders of loosening capacity restraints. Their energy and accomplishments, coupled with the incentive that successfully completing TCIE’s Certified Lean Professional (CLP) program is required for promotion, have created a wait list of employees who are eager to learn tools to support the company’s production goals.