We focus on the practical application of Lean and Six Sigma thinking to manufacturing, engineering, materials management, distribution, product development, services, and offices. We use kaizen blitz and DMAIC to lead teams on a journey to eliminate process variation and waste.

We create value by developing close relationships with our customers and deliver high quality solutions that appreciate over time.

Case Studies

Litehouse Foods, a bottled food products manufacturer, located in Grand Rapids. Implemented strategic inventory and re-engineered the planning, scheduling, and inventory control systems. Plant throughput is up 60% and inventory turns are improving, almost double so far this year. Activities include training, analysis, procedure and metrics development, and team based continuous improvement events (kaizen).

Glaxo Wellcome, a multi-national pharmaceutical company, mentoring Lean Sigma students in South Africa and Saudi Arabia. Frequent instructor for the materials management and culture change week of the 5 week Lean Sigma black belt program. Guiding internal consultants through their lean journey is exciting, especially when use of the Lean Sigma tools leads to rapid and sustainable changes.

Premium Allied Tool, a high precision metal stampe, located in Owensboro Kentucky. Provided Lean overview and operational analysis training. Formed three project teams in quick die change, metrology workload balancing, and wire EDM throughput. Ongoing engagement shows steady skill and cultural development particularly with team building and team based problem solving.

Raytheon Systems, a defense electronics assembler, located near Santa Barbara. Formed a team and trained them on Kanban and Heijunka. Data collection, Kanban and product family turnover rate calculations lead to a conference room simulation that clearly illustrated the problems with the current push procedures. Implementation began within the first week.

Tones Brothers, a $250 mm dried packaged food processor, located in Des Moines. Inventory reduction was identified as a strategic initiative. Achieving reductions beyond disposal of excess and obsolete required changes in planning and scheduling methods. Inventory went from $70m to less than $25m while sales were climbing. Lean Supply Chain and Kanban training lead to discovery of significant wasted inventory. Sustainable improvements are in millions of dollars.

Raytheon - Consortium, providing materials management, pull system, Kanban, and heijunka training for the Raytheon Six Sigma Experts program. This program consists of six weeks of lecture and workshop exercises spread over a six-month period. Broke new ground on the application of lean thinking to knowledge worker and administration processes.

Delphi Harrison, automotive heating and cooling systems manufacturer, needed tighter linkage with key suppliers. The planning process was causing erratic supplier schedules that resulted in excess inventory and at the same time some parts shortages. Analysis of part demand characteristics, package quantity, and replenishment frequency leads to a replenishment method selection. The main replenishment methods available were reorder point scheduling, pull, and rated based sequencing. The Stable Supplier Scheduling methodology was implemented in the Rio Bravo and Tuscaloosa plants.

Lesco, a fertilizer producer, located in West Virginia. This plant was experiencing capacity shortages and excess labor costs. Operational analysis and discrete event simulation modeling uncovered the understaffed constraint operation. By staffing the constraint continuously planned capital expansion costs were avoided.

AlliedSignal - Lean Alliance, primary author of the "Materials" week of the four weeks Six Sigma Lean Enterprise training program. The class consists of lecture and workshop exercises on the topics of lean materials systems, customer and supplier linkage, shop floor control, mixed model heijunka, Kanban and MRP integration, business systems issues, control mechanisms, supplier management, and supply chain development.

AlliedSignal, a manufacturer of jet engines, located in Phoenix AZ. Coordinated the design of an automated supplier replenishment pull system for one of the production cells. The system utilized the legacy (MACPAC) inventory and demand forecast systems that dynamically recalculated Kanban requirements for raw materials. Suppliers were given blanket purchase orders. The trigger to deliver raw materials came from the weekly replenishment Kanban report. Lean manufacturing implementation-training materials, guidelines, forms, and templates were also provided.