Home | About Florida MEP | Upcoming Events | Success Stories | Partners & Resources | News | Board of Directors Contact Us | Enterprise Transformation | Performance Based Training | Supply Chain Management | Innovation Eastern Aero Marine Miami, FL - Eastern Aero Marine of Miami recently called on the assistance of the Florida Manufacturing Extension Partnership (Florida MEP) to improve inventory control, reduce lead times for product manufacturing and enhance customer satisfaction. The request met with complete success, according to Paul H. Streb, director of manufacturing operations for Eastern Aero Marine, a 50 year-old company that manufactures life vests and life rafts for the worldwide aircraft and marine industry. The Florida MEP project managers facilitated a Time Wise Value Stream Management System (TWMS) mapping session which resulted in a 71 percent reduction in inventory, a reduction in lead times and greatly improved customer services. Streb said MEP’s VSMS involved interviewing the purchasing, materials and manufacturing managers, along with himself. The map provided important material and information flow that laid the groundwork for the recommendations that were implemented. At the same time, Eastern Aero was introduced to the Time Wise Principles of Lean Manufacturing. "We spent more than two years implementing Lean practices," Streb said, "and have easily reduced our inventory by $1.5 million. That’s real savings when you consider what it costs to keep excess inventory on the shelf." But Streb did much more than that. He ensured his managers, chief engineer and purchasing manager were all up to date on Lean Manufacturing. "I want the thought process to be uniform and parallel," he said. "That way, we don’t have to stop and explain what’s going on all the time." Streb said quality is a huge issue for the 145 employees of Eastern Aero Marine. "When you make life vests and rafts there is no room for error," he said. "Obviously high quality has always been important to us or we would not have been in business for 50 years, but the trick was to reduce our costs and improve our profit margin without compromising our quality." "The VSMS allowed us to do just that," Streb added. "It also allowed us to reduce lead time, improve our shipping time and added to our overall customer satisfaction." In fact, according to Streb, in addition to the reduction in inventory, Point of Use Storage eliminated the need for a mezzanine warehouse, saved at least two days of material movement, removed redundant approvals and shortened lead times by 10 days - all resulting in tremendous savings for the company. The Florida MEP is an affiliate of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) under the U.S. Department of Commerce. The national MEP is a network of manufacturing extension centers that provide business and technical assistance to smaller manufacturers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Through MEP, manufacturers have access to more than 2000 manufacturing and business "coaches" whose job is to help firms make changes that lead to greater productivity, increased profits, and enhanced global competitiveness. For more information on the Florida MEP program call 1-800-MEP-4MFG.