Allmand Brothers Inc.

Talking talent┬áOperations director Joe Lawrence explains to Gay Sutton how Allmand Brothers is harnessing the skills and energy of its people to achieve continuous improvement from the shop floor through to design and sales. For 70 years, the family-run manufacturing company Allmand Brothers has cared for its staff, its community, its suppliers and the customers who purchase its range of portable light towers, jobsite heaters and other industrial equipment.  Now, as the company embarks on the third consecutive generation of Allmand management, its operations in Holdrege, Nebraska, reflect the strong Christian ethics and values of its owners.Allmand has a strong policy of nurturing talent and promoting from within. Many of the management team began at the shop-floor level and worked their way up through the company. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖre always looking for possible up-and-coming leaders, those that display the right attitudes and the right thinking. WeÔÇÖll then take them and train them,ÔÇØ explains director of operations Joe Lawrence. ÔÇ£In fact, I started off as a welder here; I worked my way up to supervisor, production manager and then director of operations.ÔÇØThree years ago, the company embarked on a program of process improvement that has revolutionized its manufacturing operations and changed the way the company operates. Not only are the effects seen on the shop floor with vastly improved processes, but by engaging the workforce, the ethos of improvement is reaching out into the supply chain, into product design and through to the sales teams. The process that kicked off this chain of events began in 2006 with the introduction of the world-class manufacturing concept. Every employee in the company was put through an intensive program of training that focused on lean theory: team building, waste elimination, recognizing value-added activities and removing any that did not add value, and so on. ÔÇ£That started a big change for us: getting employees involved in process improvement, making changes in their own work area and playing a part in decision making,ÔÇØ Lawrence says.┬á One of the first major initiatives lasted perhaps five months and looked at how to make the production lines more efficient. ÔÇ£We use a nine-step process improvement model that helps guide the team through the steps of process improvement. This has been particularly important on large projects,ÔÇØ Lawrence says. As a result of the nine-step process, several changes were made. Inventory was moved out of the traditional warehouse and placed into point-of-use stocking alongside the lines, where it is now visible and instantly accessible to the workforce. ÔÇ£We also standardized the flow of products going down each line so there were not as many variables.ÔÇØ In another initiative, the flow of material through the fabrication shop was improved by rearranging equipment into standard flow lines. This has reduced the amount of time wasted in handling and moving materials. But according to Lawrence, each improvement is part of an ongoing process. ÔÇ£Once you improve one area of the line, then everything upstream will eventually need attention. ItÔÇÖs a constant cycle that you keep working on.ÔÇØThe benefits so far include a large reduction in cycle time and much faster order turnaround. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖve also noticed that our customers donÔÇÖt call in as early to make their orders,ÔÇØ says Lawrence. ÔÇ£They used to call us and say they need delivery in eight weeks; now they call us and say they want it in two weeks. That puts pressure on us to continue improving the way we do things.ÔÇØA huge amount of floor space has been liberated throughout the factory over the past three years. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖve taken 5S [a five-step process, part of lean theory, for creating and maintaining a clean, orderly and waste-free workplace] and weÔÇÖve gone wild with thatÔÇöand had great fun with it. It has turned up an unbelievable amount of floor space.ÔÇØ This in turn creates opportunities for expansion.For internal inventory management, the company has implemented many kanban systemsÔÇöa visual-based system that, when a tote or container becomes empty or its contents falls to a certain level, triggers the manufacture of new supplies. ÔÇ£The majority of the parts that we make internally are now managed by this pull system. People donÔÇÖt have to manage the process any more and can spend their time looking at process improvement,ÔÇØ Lawrence explains. ÔÇ£WeÔÇÖve also worked with our suppliers setting up trigger-release kanbans,ÔÇØ says Lawrence. ÔÇ£Previously, we ordered supplies many months in advance based on forecasts. When the forecasts went awry, it threw our inventory off. Now we send weekly orders, which is far more accurate and gives us much faster inventory turns.ÔÇØ The card-based kanban and trigger-release systems are so efficient and reliable that the company has chosen not to use MRP (materials resource planning) as part of its business management software. However, sales and operations planning (S&OP) plays a vital part in managing every aspect of the business and informing suppliers of longer-term forecasts.Over the last year, Allmand has taken big strides in improving this process. The S&OP team that meets monthly has been expanded to include not only the sales team but also representatives of the manufacturing, materials planning and engineering teamsÔÇöa very dissimilar group of people, all of whom have vital input into the companyÔÇÖs ongoing plans. From group discussions a plan is drawn up, which goes through a rigorous approval process that culminates in sign-off at executive level.This increasing ability to collaborate between elements of the company has been of great benefit in design, where it has developed into a formal product design release process that draws together appropriate groups of people at the time theyÔÇÖre needed. ÔÇ£For example,ÔÇØ Lawrence says, ÔÇ£we get production people involved in the design up front, so that when the product hits the shop floor, we know there wonÔÇÖt be as many difficulties with manufacturing it.ÔÇØ The first new products to go through this process have been a great success. ÔÇ£It was phenomenal how quickly and smoothly they transitioned into production.ÔÇØ With all these changes sweeping through the company, a few things have remained the same. Customer service has always been of paramount importance to Allmand Brothers. ÔÇ£How we treat our customers before and after sales is what has made this company a very large success,ÔÇØ Lawrence says. Happy customers engender brand loyalty, and that is of even greater value during difficult times. ÔÇô Editorial research by Kristina Perley┬á