For MRO buyers, their distributor partners are often a good source for training on how to better manage inventory, apply product and technology and streamline the transaction process. Case in point: Consumers Interstate, a distributor of industrial supplies in Norwich, Conn., which holds one-day sessions on how to apply Lean manufacturing techniques to the procurement process.

Consumers Interstate invited representatives of local companies with Lean operations to speak at its recent Lean Procurement event. After the presentation, attendees divided into groups to share their experiences with Lean in a roundtable forum aimed at helping buyers develop an action plan that will help resolve issues that may arise in their companies' operations related to Lean activities.

Removing waste—and cost—from internal processes and being more efficient, especially in area of customer service, were two big themes of the event, which was hosted by Kenn Fischburg, president of Consumers Interstate. For its part, the distributor has removed much of the waste from its internal processes which improves efficiency for customers: Consumers Interstate now receives more than 80% of its orders via the Internet.

Keeping competition from low-cost countries like China at bay is one reason International Packaging Corp. (Interpak) in Pawtucket, R.I., has adopted Lean manufacturing practices, says CFO John Kilcoyne. Interpak makes boxes to order for jewelry manufacturers, the only such company to still do so in the U.S. "We've been in the business for 50 years, and are here to stay," says Kilcoyne, who leads continuous improvement activities at the 700-employee company.

Interpak's competitive edge: on-time delivery. If the company can create samples quickly to meet customer requirements, Kilcoyne says, then it can readily turn the samples into sales. To do that, it needed to remove waste and inefficiency from its internal processes that bog down that capability.

After participating in extensive training on Lean manufacturing and holding kaizen events with employees, Interpak improved its on-time delivery performance from 83% in 2005 to 95% in 2006. Today, on-time delivery is 99%, thanks to activities such as reducing order entry times from days to hours, encouraging sales and production teams to work more closely together and improving time available to produce orders.

Howard Letendre, director of finishing technology at FLEXcon in Spencer, Mass., also spoke at the Consumers Interstate event on his company's experience with Lean manufacturing techniques, which have resulted in such improvements as driving down costs of replacement tools from $1,200 to $125 per month by installing a shadow board between machines, and reducing late shipments by 90% from 1,100 late orders per month to less than 100 by value-stream mapping the scheduling process and developing a visual scheduling board.

Rounding out the agenda at Consumer Interstate's Lean Procurement event, Ivan Owen, new business director, spoke to attendees of the distributor's patented Lean Procurement system, through which it works with MRO buyers to rethink and redesign the procurement process for industrial supplies to help make it more efficient and cost effective.

The company also held optional tours of its distribution facility.

One purchasing professional from a company in Connecticut attending, and a customer of Consumers Interstate, says he "was energized" by the event. "I think the speakers did a terrific job at presenting Lean and how it works in an organization. I also think that the break-out groups were fantastic, and that we could have spent more time on that. I am going to suggest to the Lean champions at my company that they might want to attend the next event."

Results of a survey of attendees after the Lean Procurement event show company management that attendees would like to see a how-to session added to the agenda, says Owen. Consumer Interstate's next Lean Procurement event scheduled for Sept. 19 in Norwich will include a tutorial that walks those new to Lean through the process. The agenda also has two 30-minute case studies as well as the networking roundtables. For information, contact Owen at (800) 223-7475, ext. 222.


Links to related stories: 

Lean takes off at Cessna

Industrial distributor applies lean to MRO purchasing process