UEMC, Inc. is a woman owned, government contractor in San Antonio Texas. For 50 years, they have produced a host of products for commercial and military customers. Their 103,000 sq. ft facility employees 235 that specialize in contract sewing, fabric spreading, dye cutting, screen printing, and military packaging.
As the COO, Kimberly Jordan is tasked with ensuring the facility is operating efficiently and turning out the highest quality product. In the Fall of 2007, Business was good. In fact, several customers had requested large orders which were pushing the facility’s capacity. Everyone was working hard to deliver on time, but it was going to be close.
Jordan had heard buzz about Lean at networking events. When a business leader suggested it as a means to continuous improvement and increasing capacity, she acted fast. TMAC was recommended as the source for Lean expertise. After exploring their services, the Lean Certification Series was a perfect fit for gaining knowledge while also maintaining a busy work week.
The Lean Certification Series meets one day a week over 5 weeks Each week participants learn new actionable tactics and tools for implementing Lean. The first class focuses on cellular flow. It includes a Lego simulation to demonstrate the effectiveness of the principles. “I was sold after the Lego’s,” says Ms. Jordan. “I returned to our facility and immediately set up a test team.”
There was some hesitation to test ideas at a time when the facility was under strain to fill the heavy customer orders, but Jordan insisted on a one week test. As taught in the class, she arranged her sewing machines into cells. Prior to this experiment a similar team would produce 225 pieces a day. After the rearrangement and application of Lean principles, the team produced 600 a day. Theory proved.
With the team’s indisputable success, the principles were rolled out to the entire facility. Each week, as the Lean Certification Series continued, Jordan would bring back new improvements and implement them right away: visual management, inventory reductions, pull/kanban and more. The results are indicative of what a Lean Leader can accomplish. As a result of her direct effort UEMC experienced:
“I’ve been doing this for 26 years,” Says Kimberley Jordan, “TMAC’s training made a huge difference in our business from day one.” Gains and impact continue to accumulate as the dollar impact is just now being estimated. But there was one immediate benefit: the orders that were straining capacity were filled on time to the satisfaction of the customer. A happy customer made a dedicated COO happy with Lean.