Mike Thelen, Lean Facilitator, Hub City, Inc. division of Regal-Beloit Corp. In 2006, Hub City, Incorporated, a subsidiary of Regal-Beloit Corporation, began a partnership with Lean Consulting Associates (LCA). Through active, hands-on involvement with Mike Murney of LCA, Hub City has successfully started down the Lean path. In our first focus area, we have: 1. Reduced lead time from 4-6 weeks on any area product to less than 3 days on 80% of the product and less than 15 days on 10% of the product, both exceeding customer's expectations for responsiveness. 2. Reduced WIP 35% 3. Reduced Finished Goods by 95% 4. Improved on-time delivery from 74.6% to 96% or higher for ten consecutive months 5. Increased sales by 28.7% (in a mature market) 6. Increased orders shipped by 43.9% 7. Increased units shipped by 17.3% Our customers have commented: "Just the fact that you now let us know before you're late, rather than when we call 3 days after the missed shipment, that gives us time to work with our customers." - Mike Jacobson, West Central Bearing More importantly, we have been able to take what we have experienced and apply it to other areas of our organization, with activities led and completed by empowered direct labor employees. While Mr. Murney has been instrumental in our learning and development, his training methods have succeeded in LCA's corporate strategy of planned obsolescence. You will find Mike Murney and Lean Consulting Associates to be invaluable mentors, building a relationship with you beyond consultant and customer. It has been a pleasure working with Lean Consulting Associates. I have learned more in two years of working with Mike Murney than in the previous five working in Lean and three before that working in TQM/Cellular Manufacturing. Floyd Parks, Partner (retired), PriceWaterhouseCoopers Bob is one of the few that has personal knowledge of "Lean" coming from the company that revolutionized its industry with it -- Toyota. Additionally, he has personal experience in the application of the concepts of lean in a services environment. If you are looking for someone who truly knows how its done end-to-end all they way to the front line worker, then Bob is someone that can deliver that knowledge. Joe Kazadi, former CEO, Ateliers Thome-Genot I wish to express my gratitude and appreciation for the for the coaching my organization and I received from Bob Bennett and the Lean Consulting Associates team while I was CEO of Ateliers Thome-Genot in France. The support Bob and the team provided helped us succeed in turning a 150 year old forging company into a Lean based modern and effective organization. In less than a year, we improved on-time delivery by 208%, reduced defects by 49% and increased output of our production assets by 23%. This resulted in an increase in sales of over 10% and brought with it additional business including first ever long-term contracts with major customers. The Toyota and Toyota supplier experience on Bob’s team was key in helping us win the new business from demanding Japanese suppliers to Toyota and OEMs. I do believe, however, that the success we experienced is most attributable to the passion and talent Bob and the team brought to our organization, their ability to work side-by-side with our people as well as their approach because it was done with the utmost integrity and respect for all of our people. It was certainly a joy working with Bob and his team. I have maintained my relationship with Bob and I continue to use him on occasions as a sounding board for many of my business strategies. Joe Kazadi Technical Director Alcan Primary Metals Europe Voreppe, France Jim Hall, Director, Continuous Improvement The BAE Systems Products Group is made up of a variety of small business operations with little to zero exposure to Lean manufacturing prior to engaging Lean Consulting Associates. Our Lean journey has just completed our first year with significant improvements thanks to the support and guidance of Lean Consulting Associates. Here are a few examples: Business Unit #1 Business Unit #2 Business unit #3 (1 out of 5 lines 80% complete) What distinguishes LCA is the focus on helping you achieve your business goals by working at the “Gemba” and learning by the hands-on use of the lean tools. Every minute they spend at you facility adds value that will continue to grow after they leave. It is obvious that their goal is to make you self-sufficient, not to make you dependent on them to achieve improvements. All of the LCA Associates we worked with had many years of living “The Toyota Way”. They all understand that just applying the Lean tools will not achieve sustainable results. They have the experience and skills to work with any leadership team to create and sustain a Lean culture. Jim Hall Director, Continuous Improvement BAE Systems Products Group Testimonial for Bob Bennett: Hi Bob, Our company was recently purchased by Kinderhook Industries, a private equity firm in New York. Kinderhook has been keeping me busy in looking at new business opportunities. They are using our company as a platform to seek add-on acquisitions and I believe the excellent manufacturing system which you helped us install has been instrumental placing us in this position. The implementation of JIT concepts allowed our company to ramp up a major product line launch that tripled the size our business in two years. This was accomplished during the same time that we reduced our floor space by 20% and sold a warehouse to raise cash to fund our business growth. I believe our JIT implementation allows us to be much more cost effective, achieve a shorter lead time, and bring new products to the market faster than our competitors. The effect of this is that we are able to supply our customers from a domestic factory when many of our competitors have gone off-shore chasing lower labor costs. They may have achieved lower labor costs, but at the expense of higher inventory cost, transportation costs and lower flexibility. The change in our manufacturing system affected the way our people work, in a positive way. By focusing on reducing waste we aim to increase efficiency not by making people work harder, but by making the work easier. An added benefit is that we find that it is easier to attract and retain employees to a lean manufacturing environment. Bob, you were the key to making this happen for us and I am in your debt. We have used other productivity consultants before, but your approach was different in a number of ways. First, after making an inspection of the factory you were able to clearly articulate a vision of how lean manufacturing principals would help us. Second, you provided relevant visual aids to communicate the vision to management and workers. Third, you followed through with us all the way to the shop floor to make sure that we implemented a process to achieve the vision. I hope you can stop by in the near future and discuss with us other ways that we can improve. Best regards, Pat Perrin CEO and President Perrin Manufacturing Testimonial for Ken Pilone 
Dear Ken,It has been a singular pleasure to work with you in the context of Lean Thinking. You have a compelling and disarming style of presentation that engenders the most constructive engagement with participants. It is clear that you practice what you teach. These qualities, combined with your industry experience and keen analytical skills, ensure a meaningful experience for your clients. The CERT managers have given me unanimously positive feedback. I look forward to continuing to work with you and Constantin as we begin to implement the outputs of this invaluable week in the life of the company. I look forward to our continuing relationship and to welcoming you back to the UAE very soon. With sincere appreciation Dr. Bob Richards President CERT (Centre of Excellence for Applied Research & Training) is the commercial arm of the Higher Colleges of Technology in the United Arab Emirates |
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“I wish to express my gratitude and appreciation for the coaching my organization and I received from Bob Bennett and the Lean Consulting Associates team while I was CEO of Ateliers Thomé-Génot in France.” - Joe Kazadi
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