What’s Lean Mean? …

At InteliCoat, the benefits have been dramatic. “The Lean initiative has created a better ergonomic working situation for our operators,” reports Weiss. “We’ve seen inventory reduction of 40 percent, and at the same time, more than a 5 percent increase in on-time deliveries. We are shipping to our same-day customers with a later cut-off time. Change-over time is 75 percent lower than in November, which provides us higher gross margins (and the ability to hold less inventory). Our customers are seeing a benefit as well in terms of higher quality products at faster rates.”