Issue link: http://www.insightdigital.biz/i/389272
18 | I NSIGH T • O c t o b e r 2 0 14 w w w . i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m FACE TIME Changing culture is not for the faint of heart. We have a number of people who've been in the industry for a long period of time. In times of stress they tend to fall back to what they've learned over a number of years. of tools times the number of materials. Going back to 2008-09, we were almost four times the magnitude of complexity. When the recession hit in 2009 we had a challenge ahead of us: We were either going to be a lot like all the other molders and reduce our materials, or we would have to find a way to manage the complexity. We happened to discover QRM as an alternative. QRM is a companywide strategy that focuses on the elimination of white space, white space being time. We've used it to take a standard order from 21 days down to seven. at creates what we refer to as velocity — total sales over current assets. Our CFO, Joyce Warnacut (who retired in April but is still doing contract work for us) became our largest advocate for QRM. A lot of smaller companies like ours went out of business, but we were able to actually leverage some of the tenets of QRM to help us reduce our inventory — so we were able to eat off our own fat in 2009- 10. And that's what helped us survive. If you look at your organization and how long it takes to process an incoming order, how long does it take before that order actually gets to the shop floor? What's happening in between? Most of that is wait time. e actual time when activities are taking place in any business are relatively small compared to the overall time it takes to get an order through. First we needed to try and change the culture within the organization. One of the tenets of QRM is to have cross-functional teams. We eliminated all the job titles on the floor, I bought 50 copies of Rajan Suri's book, "It's About Time," and we did a six-week book study, each week studying a different chapter and testing things. Changing culture is not for the faint of heart. We have a number of people who've been in the industry for a long period of time. In times of stress they tend to fall back to what they've learned over a number of years. We staff for peak and we want to have spare capacity, both of which fly in the face of standard manufacturing. Most manufacturers want machines running 100 percent of the time; we don't want to have them running more than 70 to 80 percent. We want to be able to handle that next drop-in, and not have to worry about gearing up. I want to make sure we create an organization that's sustainable in our Lakewood area. Now we have 80 people working there and there is a big impact on our little community. JO H N S O N B A N K . C O M B A N K I N G W E A L T H I N S U R A N C E a history of entrepreneurship. a lifetime of anticipation. and a future that is wide-open for the making. at johnson bank, we understand the magnitude of taking ownership of a family enterprise. there's a lot at stake. privately held and wisconsin based for generations, we're building upon a strong heritage, too. we know full well that "good enough" is never good enough – especially when your name is on the building. Tim and Kevin Metcalfe, Co-Owners, Metcalfe's Market you inherit many things in a family- owned business. big expectations, for starters. MEMBER FDIC