Intelicoat Technologies Receives Workforce Training Fund Award

SOUTH HADLEY, Mass.—InteliCoat Technologies®, a manufacturer of coated paper, film, and specialty substrates for digital imaging applications, announced that it has been awarded $381,350 by the State of Massachusetts to help fund the company’s enterprise-wide LEAN implementation.

Launched in October 2007 and gaining momentum through the course of 2008, the goal of the LEAN Program is to eliminate waste company-wide in every process within the customer value chain. To date, the program has played a critical role in accelerating time-to-market for new products, increasing customer service levels, and strengthening InteliCoat’s global position in providing world-class digital imaging products to the wide-format market.

The grant will enable InteliCoat to continue to fund the changes necessary to optimize operational cost reductions, resulting in a boost in productivity improvement, which will be especially welcome with the cost of raw materials and energy rising at unprecedented rates. InteliCoat has already employed workforce training in the following LEAN methods:
• Waste Awareness and Elimination Training – 85 percent of the company’s employees spent one-half day each to understand how to identify and eliminate waste.
• “5S” Training – Simplify/Straighten/Scrub/Stabilize/Self Discipline – A key culture-changing practice that involves everyone in the waste elimination process on a day-to-day basis.

This grant will allow the following additional training:
• Operational Capability – Building basic capability and enabling small-batch production.
• Knowledge Flow – Training designed to improve flow processes, exploit operational agility and link operations more closely with customer demand.
• Operational Excellence – 1) Linking capabilities and knowledge to outside chain suppliers in order to make the supply chain leaner and more responsive. This involves material procurement, sales and marketing, design and manufacturing efforts. 2) Attacking bottlenecks throughout the processes, using Kaizen events. The goal is to make these events routine as employees become in-house-certified and trained in Kaizen techniques.
• Sustainability – Using 5S as the foundation for culture creation will allow InteliCoat to sustain not only current but also future processes that will provide the competitive edge necessary in the global market.

“We’re extremely excited about receiving the Workforce Training Fund Award and about expanding upon InteliCoat’s commitment to excellence through our LEAN Program. This is a true vote of confidence in our business plan by the State of Massachusetts,” said Joe Lupone, CEO of InteliCoat. “As a result of implementing LEAN throughout the enterprise, we’ve made significant progress in dramatically reducing operational costs and waste while increasing our service levels. We’re confident that this approach will provide our customers with greater value.”