Contact: Phyllis Levine at 845.896.6934 X3001 or by Email
HVTDC Helps Lamothermic Casting Enjoy
More Profits
from Less Breakage
HVTDC announced that Lamothermic Precision Investment Casting Corp., in Brewster, New York, has reaped numerous achievements from bringing HVTDC’s Business Development, Lean 101, and Value Stream Mapping services into their business operations. A state-of-the-art casting foundry, Lamothermic initially sought assistance from HVTDC for evaluating how their company was benefiting from their sales efforts. Ralph Brown, HVTDC’s Director of Business Development and Sales states, “They asked us to evaluate how they approached sales and that one inquiry led the company toward notable changes.” Lamothermic’s General Manager Michael Steele agrees, “We went on to experience the most dramatic impact in that we involved everyone in the company in evaluating how we produce our products and almost everyone feels more comfortable coming up with ideas for making the production process better.”
HVTDC (www.hvtdc.org) is the not-for-profit business and technology resource center that works directly with small and mid-sized manufacturers, technology-based companies, inventors, entrepreneurs and other businesses throughout the Hudson Valley to help them adopt new technologies and business practices to grow their business to be competitive. Through a series of workshops, HVTDC’s Brown was able to show the Lamothermic staff how to measure sales and evaluate successes. “He started,” comments Steele, “by teaching us to look at our company’s structure and how to look at our success; evaluate why we lost quotes and bids; and where we are getting the most return on our investments from advertising and marketing.”
Steele cited that from these evaluation steps, Lamothermic eliminated 5 to 10% of the revenue that provided little or no profit, perhaps even generated a loss. “We increased our revenue through more diligent monitoring of our sales representatives and visiting our key accounts with our reps which we attribute to approximately a 10-15% revenue increase.”
At Lamothermic’s request, HVTDC then conducted four “Lean 101” seminars led by Project Engineers Phil Van Oss and Arnold Most who explains, “Our objective was to instill a sense of working lean and eliminating waste.” Steele states the company asked for assistance in preventing the consistent, daily breakage of the ceramic molds the foundry produces. “We needed help to determine where the breakage was happening, and how we could prevent this ongoing problem.” HVTDC’s Most explains, “Our role is to help a company look at its entire production process, think about each step, and ask questions such as how to fix the problem. Lean Principles’ Value Stream Mapping process examines how products flow from one production step to another and where the biggest problems exist. Lamothermic’s team looked at where the fragile mold is created and where a lot of breakage and defects took place while the mold is being produced.”
Steele recalls, “Our staff moved quickly to change the positioning of production tables and the amount of steps being taken between different operations. By repositioning tables and cleaning up the area we were better able to evaluate the process. We then reduced a lot of unnecessary movement and the number of steps involved in the process, and the work that was occurring in that area is now much more visible. The Lean techniques, and the rework/scrap reduction efforts, have reduced the company’s previous scrap rate by 20-25%, which has reduced labor/overtime by 15%, and material usage by 10%.”
The Value Stream Mapping process proved very successful for Lamothermic’s employees to make changes in preventing breakage without a lot of expenditure. The biggest difference noted was that it reduced the time employees were spending moving molds from different points of production. Steele reports that the biggest factor has been that, “Value Stream Mapping opened up people’s minds as to how to make successful changes in how we are operating. Our staff brought the Value Stream Mapping concept to other areas of the plant and helped increase both productivity and thereby profitability. We plan on implementing the lean methods across the entire plant because our staff is already utilizing the lean concepts without being coached.”
HVTDC is one of ten regional technology development centers funded cooperatively through the NYS Office of Science, Technology and Academic Research (NYSTAR) and the National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST). For information on how the Hudson Valley Technology Development Center can help a business improve productivity, please contact Phyllis Levine at 845-896-6934 x 3001, or via email at plevine@hvtdc.org,