Timberland Equipment Ltd.


Growth through constraint┬áWith enormous experience, niche expertise, a knowledge-sharing culture and a surefire plan for improving throughput, Timberland Equipment is set to significantly add to the 8,000 successful projects it has already completed. The term ÔÇ£constraintÔÇØ can easily conjure up negative images. Indeed, constraint may be regarded as a reason why many companies fail to grow. However, when Timberland EquipmentÔÇÖs managers needed to find a new way to meet growing customer needs, they turned to the Theory of Constraints (TOC).With over 60 years of experience and a world-class reputation for quality engineered solutions, TimberlandÔÇÖs name had become synonymous with high-quality solutions in the material handling world of construction and mining, offshore applications, work boat and conductor handling.Formed (and still based) in Woodstock, Ontario, the company is the original arm of what has become the Timberland Group. Timberland has been designing and manufacturing winches, hoists, blocks, sheaves and derricks since 1947.The company has earned an international reputation for supplying rugged and durable equipment that meets its customerÔÇÖs lifting and pulling requirements for material and personnel. Furthermore, Timberland is the world leader in supplying equipment for FPSO (floating production, storage and offloading) spread mooring systems, FPSO turret mooring systems and FPSO riser pull-in systems.ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre generally considered industry experts in all the markets we serve,ÔÇØ states Jeff Stewart, general sales manager. ÔÇ£Over the years weÔÇÖve increased the number of repeat customers but also added new customers with new problems that need to be solved. Because our markets are segmented, weÔÇÖve experienced significant growth over the last few years, and while weÔÇÖre not recession-proof, we have entered 2009 with a record backlog of work.ÔÇØÔÇ£Almost all our work is customized engineering, and we respond to our customersÔÇÖ problems or design specifications. To reduce risk, our designs remain close to the proven concepts weÔÇÖve validated in the past. Still, there is really nothing off the shelf about what we do,ÔÇØ adds Richard Cole, business development manager.One of the main advantages Timberland has is that all its work is conducted at its 50,000-plus-square-foot facility. With a 110-strong workforce, many of whom have been with the company for more than 25 years, a strong culture for sharing solutions has developed and further enhanced the companyÔÇÖs reputation. ÔÇ£Timberland is highly respected, and very often our peopleÔÇÖs expertise is relied upon by our customersÔÇÖ engineers,ÔÇØ Cole continues. ÔÇ£The people here have a genuine interest in our customersÔÇÖ design problems, and we retain detailed project dossiers on all work and can transfer knowledge throughout the company to solve emerging problems as required. This means that problem solving becomes a form of knowledge management, and employees in one area can share information with other areas of the business. Our organizationÔÇÖs size allows us to routinely have cross-functional dialogue that helps raise the understanding and performance of every member of the Timberland team.ÔÇØAs the business has grown in recent years, Timberland has had to adapt to increasing work demands and around four years ago started to implement TOC. The company continues to use TOC to increase throughput by effectively managing the organizationÔÇÖs constraint. TOC enforces a controlled release of work through the engineering, procurement and fabrication steps so that people maintain their focus on the task at hand and eliminate bad multi-tasking. TimberlandÔÇÖs continued success can be attributed to ongoing improvement in the exploitation of its resources and to bringing people and processes up to their full capacity rather than by spending money to expand plant and facilities.ÔÇ£TOCÔÇÖs goal is to maximize the system throughputÔÇöafter all, weÔÇÖre paid on delivery,ÔÇØ states Cole.While TOC certainly overlaps some aspects of lean, there are clear differences. ÔÇ£The difference is that lean asks an organization to identify where waste occurs and to strip it out of the system. Companies often go too far and strip much-needed resources out of the business, thus throwing out the baby with the bathwater. TOC, on the other hand, asks what the limiting or constraining factor in the system is and then focuses people on improving the performance of that constraint to a level that meets and then exceeds customer demand.┬á ÔÇ£The constraint may exist either within the company or externally in the marketplace,ÔÇØ Cole continues. ÔÇ£For example, we can be limited if a market is slow and orders are not coming in. Conversely, we may have plenty of sales opportunities but be constrained by our ability to produce enough for the customer. To illustrate, we might find in our factory that a bank of work is consistently building up ahead of our welding shop. Under TOC, we would set and follow a constraint schedule for the welding center, then monitor its work flow, expedite any problem orders, and capture data about the reasons for the slowdowns. We then use this understanding to focus our limited improvement resources on the most promising problems. This process is called ÔÇÿbuffer managementÔÇÖ. We assume that TimberlandÔÇÖs performance has no limits, and we therefore regard our efforts as a process of ongoing improvements. Our management and our people understand that in Timberland, like any other organization, the improvement potential is limitless.ÔÇØIn four short years since Timberland adopted TOC, results have been impressive. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖve seen an increase close to 40 percent in productive capacity,ÔÇØ states Stewart. ÔÇ£We have been impressed and very pleased with the improvements achieved,ÔÇØ adds Cole. ÔÇ£The results were quickly seen by staff of the shop floor, and our people have bought in to TOC and are now able to better manage their workloads.ÔÇØÔÇ£In previous years, we could have dozens of projects on the shop floor,ÔÇØ Stewart continues. ÔÇ£We now choke the release of work to the shop floor to ensure that we work to our capabilities, and consequently weÔÇÖve become much more focused, meaning there are fewer problems to work on. The capacity increases show up in the dramatically reduced lead times that we now quote. At the same time, our customers appreciate the impact of TOC as we focus on our on-time delivery target of 100 percent. Customers contact us knowing that we are reliable and can deliver high-quality solutions on time.ÔÇØ ItÔÇÖs apparent that TOC will continue to allow the company to grow and develop new solutions. ÔÇ£Our success in recent years has allowed us to lay down a plan for future acquisitions and expansion, and our mandate is always to look at new markets and opportunities,ÔÇØ Stewart comments. ÔÇ£We recently launched a battery-operated puller for our conductor handling sector that helps reduce carbon emissions. We have high hopes that green initiatives will provide new opportunities.ÔÇØÔÇ£We are relied upon for our expertise in areas such as mining, where companies now dig further underground; conductor handling, where power transmission lines grow ever larger; or offshore, where they work deeper in the ocean and require new solutions. The ÔÇÿnever been done beforeÔÇÖ is becoming increasingly common,ÔÇØ adds Cole. ÔÇ£Whether in technology, quality, delivery or service levels, TimberlandÔÇÖs job is to make it so that ÔÇÿnever been done beforeÔÇÖ is what weÔÇÖre capable of doing everyday.ÔÇØ  ÔÇô Editorial research by Dan Finn┬á