Project Description
Our challenge
The independent company was acquired by a larger firm in a similar industry. The parent company moved most of the production to an overseas facility in Malaysia. The firm’s main product is under competitive pricing pressure and the firm has had significant difficulty with customer satisfaction, regularly missing deliveries and continuing to push out lead times. At the time of engagement, lead-time was at 18 weeks.
Solution
Engaged workforce to learn challenges with the process, supply chain, and administrative procedures. Worked with the team to create new work cells and new processes, eliminating waste and surfacing new ideas daily. Worked with the supply chain to improve delivery lead-times, delivery consistency, and material quality. Designed and built new automated calibration station bringing together many stakeholders from manufacturing, engineering, sales, and suppliers of parts to the calibration station.
Result
Through the course of the project:
+2 months 50% of production transferred from Malaysia to US
+3 months Lead time was reduced to 6 weeks from 18 weeks
+4 months 90% of production transferred from Malaysia to US
+5 months Lead time cut to 2 weeks
+6 months Lead-time cut to 72 hours, 95% of production transferred from Malaysia to US
+12 months The firm increased sales by 530% Gross margins improved by 21% Productivity improved by 300% Inventory turns have improved from 2 to 10
Lasting Improvements
• Customer satisfaction is at its all time high
• They are consistently delivering product within their 72 hour lead time with 100% of production in the US
