Success Stories

Lean Training and Implementation Pays Off in Big Results

Woodside Industries

Woodside Industries, a family-owned company located in Cavalier, ND, is a quality oriented supplier of custom and standard box cabinets, desks, and commercial casework to fit out contractors and dealers projects in the central United States and Canada.

Vision: “The commitment and values of the Woodside Industries Company will allow us to provide our customers with the best experience in receiving quality products to supply their markets in a timely fashion to the satisfaction of the contractor and end user.”

Previously, Woodside Industries had implemented LEAN Process improvement through Impact Dakota. It was determined that they needed to look into additional training because the LEAN practices had been reduced over time from their original introduction to the improvements through attrition and new hires of personnel.  The processes in production had evolved to be less efficient and had introduced an increase in waste, rework and scrap. The increase in Work-In-Process in many areas had led to increases in cost and reduced production capacity. 

Woodside had attended the Introduction to LEAN Webinar in the Fall of 2021 to get further information. In following up from that session, they had expressed interest in additional on-site training. A tour of the facility, assessment of current practices, along with meetings with key people; lead to identification of a road map which could help with the goal of continuously improving production and operations and creating a culture of continuous improvements based on LEAN principles that would continue after the training.

Based on the recommendations from the tour and meetings, The Project Scope of Work identified Impact Dakota's customization of training materials and delivering LEAN training to 15 employees to help them further their abilities to improve production and operations utilizing LEAN tools and systems.

Investments:  

Training 2 days @ 8hrs/day, Impact Dakota = $4800.00

2 Days training time for 15 employees at Burden Rate of $65/hr = $7800

Total Investments in Training = $12,600

 

Cost Savings:

12 minutes per day estimated X Burden Rate of $65/Hr X days/year(351 working days avg)= $4563

 

Increased Productivity:

Output up 10% from last year at this time and noted $1.5 million increase in throughput in 7 months, with some notable additions to staff, but no major changes in equipment.  This was noted as being attributed to the provided training in the areas of Awareness of Effective Product Flow, Reductions in Scrap, Rework and Waste and improvements in process flow and efficiency.


Space Savings were noted but not quantified.

"We were able to increase productivity with some increase in people and similar equipment by 10% in just 7 months from January 2022 to August 1st 2022." 
—Jerry Symington, President


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