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Firm’s revenues quadruple with UB’s help
From left: Ahmed Lahrache, chief operating officer; Kenneth Snyder, president; and Mylinda Plauman, project manager, pose with the GE Supplier Excellence Award in Compliance given to Hebeler Corporation this year.
In 1998, Hebeler Corporation, a custom metal fabricator, had the unpleasant distinction of having made it onto the “10 worst vendors” list of one of its clients, GE Energy.
This year, however, the company with manufacturing plants in Tonawanda and Canada received the GE Supplier Excellence Award in Compliance. The dramatic turnaround had a lot to do with UB and its Center for Industrial Effectiveness (TCIE), according to Kenneth Snyder, president of Hebeler.
“If UB hadn’t been there, I don’t know how we would have done it,” says Snyder.
The company tapped into UB and TCIE through a lean manufacturing program, which focused on eliminating waste in procedures throughout the company. When purchasing the company in 2001, Snyder and John Coleman, his partner and CEO, were so impressed by the results that they built their core business around TCIE’s Six Sigma Black Belt Student Certification Program.
Those programs, Snyder explains, were responsible for creating the culture that resulted in Hebeler quadrupling its annual revenues, from $20 million in 1998 to $80 million today.
“Companies should really investigate how to utilize the whole UB talent pool,” Snyder says. “One entry into UB is through TCIE.”
Through the Six Sigma program at TCIE, companies in Western New York gain the expertise of an upper-class undergraduate or graduate student in the UB School of Engineering and Applied Sciences who then applies Six Sigma problem-solving methodologies to an issue the company has identified.
Throughout the program, the student is mentored by a professional Master Black Belt, a master of data-driven methodology, who has successfully completed hundreds of projects and who consults with both the employer and the UB student to ensure the project’s success.
“Not many universities offer this kind of program,” says TCIE Executive Director Timothy Leyh. “The company improves its processes by utilizing data, while the student gains real-world Six Sigma experience.”
Upon successful completion of service, an exam and project, students are awarded a Black Belt Certification through UB’s Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering.
“Students have an advantage when they can say to a potential company that they have this training,” Leyh says. “Employers today not only need [people with] four-year degrees and master’s degrees, but they also need critical thinkers—people who come into the workplace and immediately provide value and have impact.”
So far, two students who completed Six Sigma projects for Hebeler have been hired by the company upon graduation. Of the company’s executive management group, nearly all have either completed Black Belt training through TCIE, or graduated from UB. The same can be said of a significant portion of the company’s administrative group. Hebeler has sent—and continues to send—other employees through the center’s regular Six Sigma trainings.
“We find ways to integrate the UB graduates into our process,” says Ahmed Lahrache, chief operating officer of Hebeler. “They have a balance of skills.”
One Six Sigma graduate, now a project manager at Hebeler, is Mylinda Plauman. Her Six Sigma project involved improving Hebeler’s inbound freight; by the end of the project, she had sharply reduced the number of carriers, resulting in an estimated annual savings of $150,000. The savings are even higher now, as deliveries have increased.
Hebeler’s Lahrache explains that this process would have eventually been examined, but not to the degree that the UB program affords.
Plauman has completed her Master Black Belt training through TCIE. Certification will enable her to train more Hebeler employees in Green Belt or Black Belt certifications.
“We have a whole ‘lean initiative’ going on,” she says, referring to the philosophy that allows companies to employ a variety of tools and techniques designed to eliminate waste. “Now we can equip everyone with the tools and knowledge.”
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