Project Abstracts
Manufacturing indirect costs had grown faster than sales. The Value Stream project was used to identify all indirect costs, quantify them to supporting operations and make adjustments to staffing. Identified 10 major indirect manufacturing tasks and time studied to identify the real time required for each task Calculated labor required per day to complete each indirect task Evaluated ... >
Conducted a Value Stream Rapid Improvement Event to identify areas of waste and launch Lean improvement projects. Analyzed entire value stream in the manufacturing plant: Receiving, Processing, Packaging, Warehouse Operations, Shipping Gathered data on OEE, Labor, Changeover time, Maintenance costs, Inventory and Material Yield Conducted 68 time studies Converted all costs to cost-per-case to evaluate equivalent units Used Pareto Analysis ... >
Conducted a complete Field-to-Table analysis of Save-A-Lot's grocery value stream to identify areas of waste to launch Lean improvement projects. Analyzed Procurement, Inbound and Outbound Transportation, Distribution Center Operations, Store Ordering, Store Receiving, Customer checkout Identified 30 areas for improvement with 4 having multi-million dollar savings opportunities: SKU Proliferation: Company executives thought they had 1500 active SKUs but ... >
Save-A-Lot created a supply chain and operations transformation that they labeled, “Farm to Table.” It was to streamline all processes used to plan, source, produce, store and deliver groceries from the most upstream part of their supply chain to their customers. Mapped their supply chain including food producers, distribution centers and stores with considerations of ... >
Midwest power utility initiated a supply chain transformation initiative. Part of that initiative was the parts network redesign to reduce inventory and transportation costs while staging parts closer to operating centers that serve as hubs for Ameren Operations. Mapped the 3 tier supply network including 2 distribution centers (DCs), major parts supply hubs and operating centers, ... >
Healthcare logistics company needed to support the overall business strategy by developing a supply chain strategy that would improve performance and create alignment in different supply chain functions Used SWOT and Porters 5 Forces models to understand the current state of the supply chain Created a mission statement, “To drive value while connecting members to healthcare solutions” Aligned ... >
A franchise cleaning business was being carved out of large chemical manufacturing business. Historically, they had used the supply chain of the parent company. They needed support in the short term to stand-up a supply chain to maintain product flow to their franchisees. We analyze various options for the medium-term supply chain design. Short term solution ... >
Schaeffer is a family-owned business that expanded from $10 million to $180 million in sales in the last 20 years. Growth has been accelerating recently and Schaeffer is expected to reach $400 million in sales in the next 5 years. However, systems are still based on being a small company, requiring a lot of communication ... >
Rio Grande, a Berkshire Hathaway company, experienced accelerated growth that outpaced the capabilities of its supply chain, warehouse operations and manufacturing capacity. In addition, the company initiated a Customer Experience / Journey strategy to focus on specific segments to support growth. On time delivery, fill rate, and labor productivity in operations had all suffered poor ... >
Terrasource manufactures mining equipment and parts. A significant portion of their sales are for replacement and repair parts. They were losing sales because of not having the finished goods or raw materials to meet customer leadtime requirements. Developed a model for classifying all finished goods inventory items based on multiple criteria to align sales, finance and ... >
Horizon designs, manages the manufacturing, and distributes high-end radio-controlled planes, cars, locomotives and boats. Their sales increased dramatically during the 2020 pandemic while experiencing significant supply chain disruption. In addition, they plan to triple sales in the next 5 years. Developed demand planning and production planning functions to prepare for S&OP Implemented Lean Process Improvement in various ... >
Layout for new warehouse site that will combine three existing warehouses into one Warehouse served customer pick-up, delivery to customers and customers shopping in retail branch connected to the warehouse Analyzed demand to predict new SKU inventory levels of the 3-to-1 combined warehouse Calculated space requirements for each SKU based on: 1) Maximum inventory levels, 2) Size, ... >
New layout for existing warehouse, implemented during the Client’s busy season Analyzed the current state of: 1) receiving to putaway, 2) pick/pack/ship, and 3) information flows from customer order to ship Discovered: 1) No identifiable “center of gravity” around shipping dock doors, 2) Racks are aligned wrong, 3) SKU locations do not match velocity, and 4) Value-add ... >
New layout to separate finished goods storage from production and to increase throughput and labor productivity for organization that employs Adults with Developmental Disabilities Used Spaghetti Mapping, Time & Motion Studies and Process Flow Mapping to analyze the current state of: 1) Raw material staging, 2) Scheduling, 3) Packaging, and 4) Palletizing and prepare for outbound ... >
New plant layout for test / assembly / paint operations to improve safety and product tracking Plant receives compressed gas cylinders from customers to test, performs re-assembly as needed and paints before returning to customers Used Spaghetti Mapping, Time & Motion Studies and Process Flow Mapping to analyze the current state of: 1) Inbound from customers, 2) ... >
Client planned an addition onto their production and warehouse facility to support more finished goods storage and facilitate increased material flow in assembly operations. This project layout included (i) raw materials and purchased components, (ii) work-in-process, and (iii) finished goods Process flow mapped information flow supporting production and customer ordering, identifying 22 of 73 information flow ... >
Re-layout of uniform stockroom, including inventory storage locations and uniform customization/assembly operations to relieve congestion and allow for growth Process flow mapped stock room process, identifying 26 of 95 steps to be eliminated Used Spaghetti Mapping, Time & Motion Studies and Process Flow Mapping to analyze the current state of: 1) receiving to putaway, 2) pull for ... >
New (green-field) facility consolidating separate manufacturing and distribution center sites into one facility Value Stream Mapped manufacturing operations to identify non-value added steps and internal best practices Used Spaghetti Mapping, Time & Motion Studies and Process Flow Mapping to analyze the current state of: 1) receiving to putaway, 2) pick/pack/ship, and 3) information flows from manufacturing plans, ... >
Telecommunications/electronics specialty manufacturer with highly complex, multi-departmental processes for handling Non-Conforming Material, needed more effective processes that ensured governmental and regulatory compliance Created high-level process overview to graphically show the core value-added steps in the process Overlayed the departmental/functional owners associated with each core step Identified the Key Performance Measures for the four high-level process owners and created ... >
Manufacturer of highly specialized and diverse technology products that were assimilated via acquisition, needed performance improvement, focus and alignment under a single operations management team Implemented Key Performance Scorecard for Operations VP, including Key Performance Measures for each Product Family Implemented Key Performance Scorecard for the Operations VP’s direct reports, creating an aligned organization With the Scorecard framework ... >
Rapidly growing, health care related transportation service company with highly complex organization structure and poorly defined / overlapping roles, needed to improve their processes and performance Implemented Key Performance Scorecards from C-Level down through Departmental VPs to establish and quantify the company’s core focus and objectives Rolled out Key Performance Scorecards to Functional Managers and deeper into ... >
Critical metal component manufacturer was not meeting customer demand and had excess work-in-process inventory. Assessed that bottleneck operations were not being fully utilized and were often “starved” of work while non-bottleneck operations were overloaded Scheduling was releasing new work-orders without consideration of current workload Confirmed constraint operations’ capacity Implemented Theory of Constraints – Drum/Buffer/Rope pull and scheduling system to ... >
Ice cream cake manufacturer consolidated two plants into one new facility, with a completely new workforce. Throughput was half of required capacity, causing one of the old plants to stay open in order to meet demand. Assessed the current state of operations and material flow at the new plant Identified: 1) Production cells were sometimes over-staffed and ... >
Service organization struggled with capacity and meeting customer deadlines. As the business grew their profitability and on-time delivery suffered. Time studied operations to understand costs required to support various service lines and customers. Aggregated time study data, other cost information and revenue data to create a full profitability model Using the profitability model, identified highest (and lowest) ... >
Production and logistics company needed to standardize labor across 5 plants to develop time standards that are used in an incentive-based pay system Organized time studies across all 5 plants based on product families using a time-study matrix Engaged management and direct labor to conduct all time studies and document results, creating transparency across the company Used time ... >
Implemented Kanban-Flow Cell for machining / assembly / paint operation to increase throughput and improve labor productivity Conducted Time & Motion Studies to understand labor standards and non-value-added steps Created balanced flow process using Takt-Time Grouping to flow all machining operations to a work-in-process Kanban Created one-piece flow process to flow all assembly and test operations to finished ... >
Facilitated the organizational transformation to split the purchasing department into two functional teams: demand planners and production planners while developing and implementing a Demand, Supply and Operations Planning process Leveraged lean process improvement tools to split the legacy procurement processes into efficient and separate demand planning processes and production planning processes Eliminated the manual “group think” forecasting ... >
Augmented existing ERP system with inventory-optimization-as-a-service (Optimal Velocity) to update reorder points and reorder quantities every month Educated purchasing and inventory team on forecasting, planning and inventory management models and methods Facilitated twice-a-year Multi-Criteria Inventory Classification (MCIC) to update A+, A, B, C and F SKU rankings Update reorder points and reorder quantities based on optimization model that ... >
Helped Volpi use their existing forecasting software (Demand Solutions) and MRP (Great Plaines) to create robust sales and operations planning process Used Multi-Criteria Inventory Classification (MCIC) to create A+, A, B, C and F SKU rankings and upload to MRP system Researched Demand Solutions capabilities and settings to optimize forecast configuration for different types of finished goods ... >
A freight brokerage built through acquisition has numerous non-standard manual processes that complicated the already complex highly transactional business. The growth of the business volume and transition to a new IT system was the catalyst for the organization to focus on streamlining their business processes. Due to the cross functional nature of the business, we ... >
Industrial valve manufacturer wanted to shorten new product development (NPD) time, improve new product quality and increase new product sales. The NPD process begins with input from Sales and Marketing and ends with commercialization by Sales and Marketing departments. Created a NPD streamlining team that included Research, Product Engineering, Manufacturing Engineering, Sales and Marketing Used Strategy Map ... >
Agricultural Focused Commercial Bank was seeking process improvement support and Lean Six Sigma training for personnel. Value Stream Mapped and Process Flow Mapped, Commercial Loan Processes resulting in streamlining and time saving recommendations Provided high level awareness Lean Six Sigma training for broad swath of personnel Provided customized Lean Six Sigma training to Continuous Improvement (CI) Team to ... >
Rapidly growing, health care related transportation service company needed to improve their processes and simplify performance metrics Used a combination of Value Stream Mapping and high-level Process Flow Mapping to identify process work-arounds, document organizational complexity and execution inefficiency. Implemented Key Performance Scorecards from C-Level down through Departmental VPs and then to Functional Managers in order to ... >
Telecommunications/electronics specialty manufacturer needed Business Process Improvement support for a number of processes to improve efficiency and ensure governmental and regulatory compliance Non-Conforming Material (NCM) process was overly complex, had multiple functional owners, inaccurate data and slow disposition. Analyzed and segmented NCM data, Process Flow Mapped the current state process, identified issues and developed recommendations including ... >
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“Mitch Millstein and his team helped guide our shop fabrication division in the re-layout of our custom pipe and steel fabrication facility when we moved into a new building. It is not only the results but how he helped. We were involved in every step. I personally did time studies and was able to see the non-value added steps required to manufacture in our old layout. When we created our new layout, everyone was involved, from the executive team to our direct labor force. With Mitch’s help we increased our throughput by a 3x multiple, while providing more competitive prices to our clients as a result of the efficiency improvements.This has enabled us to not only make more money but also to expand our commercial reach and serve more, and larger customers. I would recommend Supply Velocity to any company that wants to make improvement in supply chain and operations.”
“Supply Velocity created visibility within our Assurance Services Group… visibility of performance, Client-service, employee satisfaction and processing time. Using the Supply Velocity System, Audit Report Cycle time is down over 50%. We are using his strategies to create greater Client loyalty.”
“In a time of volatile supply chain disruption, Supply Velocity is helping us develop Demand and Supply Planning processes to proactively tackle these new challenges. They are genuine partners, working with our team, facilitating and teaching.”
“The role of the Erie Insurance Marketing Department has been evolving over the past several years – from a support role to a more critical role of driving growth in our organization. Because of our increased workload and desire to prioritize the most critical projects, we hired Supply Velocity to teach us the skills of Lean Six Sigma.Participants included the Promotions, Market Research and Agency Licensing sections of the Marketing Department.
We learned valuable tools to help us to prioritize based on the voice of the customer.
I firmly believe these skills made a difference in how we work every day. We are moving new projects forward, eliminating or changing ineffective processes, and we are a much stronger department. We continue to use the tools to help us with our highly-complex and time-consuming projects. Supply Velocity helped us to accomplish our goals.”
“In 2015 we began working with Dr. Mitch Millstein to optimize our inventory locations supporting e-commerce and in-store inventory needs. From this work we developed a new omni-channel warehousing and inventory plan that entirely redefined our approach to warehousing, inventory management, store distribution and fulfillment. As a result of the analyses by Dr. Millstein we have begun the move to an improved omni-channel design by reassigning MSAs to new warehouses, greater leveraging of in-store inventories to satisfy e-commerce demands, and exploring acquisitions of new warehousing space in strategic locations. We have already seen an improvement of $300,000 from both more efficient shipping strategies due to better inventory management.”
“We used Supply Velocity to rethink our sales process. By analyzing the entire process we found wasted time in our Sales, Admin and Operations departments. Streamlining this process created extra time for each Sales Rep, allowing them to spend more time with Customers and increase the value we add. Gross profit margins are up 40%!We are now using Supply Velocity to help us rethink our entire Strategic Plan.”
“We used Supply Velocity on our Warehouse optimization project. One of the key characteristics of Supply Velocity is that they listened to our requirements and provided a clear path for our Warehouse processes using lean tools and our future sales growth as objectives.”
“Supply Velocity has helped Clean succeed in a number of ways. First, they provided the education that kicked off our Lean Process Improvement journey. They also facilitated a number of large supply chain and process improvement projects including: 1) building quality into our direct-labor productivity incentive program, 2) designing the layout of our garment warehouse, and 3) streamlining our route service process.We have integrated the methods that Supply Velocity taught us into our management and strategic planning. In the process our quality measurement has improved 22% from 2013 to 2015, we have reduced required annual labor by 2200 hours from the garment facility layout project and we’ve seen 50% decrease in error rate. Obviously the numbers speak for themselves, but just as important, Supply Velocity has been fun to work and have become true partners. They have “taught us how to fish” so our internal teams are able to implement change on their own, with the skills we learned from Supply Velocity. This relationship has been invaluable.”
“Many thanks to all three Supply Velocity presenters. I think you guys took a very difficult time for learning and capitalized on everyone’s time and training needs. I truly hope this helps your business as this was a considerable undertaking on the part of Supply Velocity. Outstanding!!”
“C&R was struggling with labor productivity. The construction crews were often missing materials that they needed to do their work. This caused significant idle time. Supply Velocity, Inc. and C&R used value stream mapping and visual management tools to make dramatic improvements in operations. Most importantly, two years later C&R is sustaining and improving on the implementation. C&R’s return on investment was 11:1. C&R had a record year last year in both sales and profits and would not have been able to pull it off without the changes Supply Velocity, Inc. helped us make.”
“We are pleased that Essex selected Supply Velocity, Inc. as our Lean Implementation Partner. At one facility, we have saved over $350,000 in work-in-process inventory, reduced throughput time from 2 weeks to minutes and increased inventory turns 3 to 8 times per year. All these results are in just 6 months. Our return of investment is very high.”
“Our experience with Supply Velocity was one of the best values we have ever had from a consulting project. Cyril Narishkin brought a structured lean methodology, invaluable experience and engaging facilitation skills to help us streamline a very complex and disjointed sales order process. Just as importantly, our team now has the knowledge and process competencies to address other business improvement opportunities going forward.”
“We engaged with Supply Velocity to help us embed process improvement at all levels of the business. Our team learned from Mitch to let the data drive decisions, to use Lean tools to help us see our processes critically and objectively, and to create a control plan to manage all of the tasks that were the outcome of the data study.The project turned out to be very significant to the company and most importantly, our customers. We reduced our customer wait times by 40%, and cut in half the labor cost to fulfill customer orders.
Some results are not able to be measured. However, as a result of this project, we have started to build a Lean mindset and culture, which is part of our strategic mission to save our customers money. Supply Velocity has been a valued partner in this mission.”
“Myerson engaged Supply Velocity, specifically Ray Davis to visit our plant in Trinidad to conduct a two day assessment of our production procedures and provide us feedback on areas for improvement and where applicable, areas for future analysis.Put simply, we got everything we paid for and in addition to more in depth analysis, we got specific tasks that were immediately actionable. Our local management team found Ray to be engaging, highly credible and insightful based on his wide experience. In other words the cultural differences and lack of specific industry knowledge weren’t impediments to things we could implement immediately and on our own. In a nutshell it was money well spent and will pay itself back many times over.”
“In the spring of 2003, the St. Louis Area Chapter of the American Red Cross engaged Supply Velocity, Inc. to perform a study and make recommendations to streamline office processes, maximize cash flow in purchasing and warehousing and restructure and enhance our maintenance department. Supply Velocity, Inc.’s process was methodical, flexible, staff-oriented, inclusive and, above all, trackable.In the last six months, our Chapter has realized expense savings of over $380,000 annually, and significant improvement in intra-company service levels has been attained. Supply Velocity, Inc. will return to the Chapter periodically throughout the next 18 months to audit our newly implemented processes. We have been pleased with our results and Supply Velocity, Inc.’s professionalism.”
“For several years we have worked with Supply Velocity to support us with their expertise on Lean Operations and Supply Chain Management. Supply Velocity has helped us implement Lean, improve our inventory systems, and educate our people. They are professionals who are always available to help us as needed.”
“Supply Velocity has provided the technical expertise and political capital to move our project forward. They have just the right amount of push and the right amount of support. Supply Velocity has helped us make real changes to improve efficiencies in logistics without jeopardizing our performance. We’re happy and our customers are happy.”
“In thirty years of hiring consultants, Supply Velocity, Inc. was the first to tell me what they were going to do, set a price they stuck to and substantially exceed my expectations. I have recommended them to friends and acquaintances. They were true partners in assisting with the turnaround of an acquisition we had been struggling with for two years.Their math-based technology, solid down-to-earth facilitation skills, and positive, patient and enthusiastic attitude combined to make our implementation of Lean a very rewarding experience.
We increased our production by 50% in the first month of implementation and continue to see improvements. Improvements have not only been realized in productivity, but also in quality and morale. We have increased profitability by $2M on flat sales of $10M.
Based on Supply Velocity, Inc.’s integrity and our results, I will continue to refer them to others and utilize them in the future as we expand our company through acquisitions.”
“Anheuser-Busch Precision Printing had been implementing Lean Operations on our own for the past two years. We needed to move faster and partnered with Supply Velocity, Inc. Through Supply Velocity, Inc.’s mathematical workflow balancing and visual management tools, dramatic improvements were achieved. The entire converting operation was rearranged based on Lean principles. The result is a 20.6% productivity improvement, enabling us to operate with 23 fewer people in production.”
“Your process encourages this group to work together, better communicate and have fun doing it.”
“Supply Velocity gave us the tools to analyze our business and processes based on the facts and numbers versus our perceptions. Our common quote was “Let the numbers lead us”. The key for our organization was how quickly we moved from classroom to actual project initiation. We were able to jump in, start using the tools and see a difference right away.
The get-into-action approach was good for our culture.”
“Supply Velocity is driving instrumental change in our inventory management processes. This is critical for us to be competitive in a supply chain environment with numerous disruptions. They are making change happen, which can be challenging in a 182 year old organization.”
“We are using Supply Velocity’s Lean Six Sigma methods to analyze a variety of processes including rationalizing SKUs (stock-keeping-units). By using math to evaluate SKUs we took some of the emotion out of our decisions. We expect significant increases in sales and productivity from reducing poor performing SKUs.”
“Closure Medical recently completed a major reorganization in order to enhance our ability to rapidly create innovative medical devices. We hired Supply Velocity to help us map out the process and service flows of the new organization that would maximize our product development process (PDP). In four weeks, Supply Velocity helped us envision a new PDP structure, develop measures and accountability for each step, and gain consensus within the organization. Supply Velocity’s focus on speed and accountability helped us complete a critical project in a timely fashion.”
“Supply Velocity’s Lean Six Sigma System has given us new tools to help improve our sales performance. We have learned new ways to analyze our business which makes problem solving more accurate and has made us better leaders.”
“Isolating a problem, finding short, and long term solutions with measurable results is what was promised and results is what was delivered by Supply Velocity. Upon launch of the Lean Six Sigma Selling System, we knew more about our customers, our products, and were able to create a solid plan to increase sales of our most profitable products. Within months of implementation, our booked sales jumped 60% and our most valued customers were getting direct, active, and calculable attention.”
“I am thrilled to provide this testimonial for Supply Velocity and their outstanding work in implementing Lean Warehouses and processes at Crescent Parts & Equipment through the COVID pandemic. With their data-first focus and Mitch’s exceptional coaching and experience, they transformed our business into a more supply chain-oriented organization, enabling us to grow while prioritizing employee safety and creating a better work environment. Supply Velocity’s expertise in Lean methodologies and their comprehensive evaluation of our customers have been instrumental in optimizing our operations and increasing customer satisfaction. We highly recommend Supply Velocity to any company seeking to implement Lean processes and enhance their supply chain efficiency.”