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 Edwards Manufacturing Tampa, FL - Ron Holland, vice president of operations for Edwards Manufacturing recently attended Time Wise Principles of Lean Manufacturing workshop facilitated by the Florida Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP). Holland listened to all that was being said and quickly decided "we need to do this." "Putting Lean Manufacturing practices into place has been a great experience," Holland said. "We’re now in our third year and I feel like we’re just getting started. It has been a great help to us because while other processes are just a lot of talk, Lean Manufacturing is something you can touch, feel and understand." "Best of all," Holland added, "the results are measurable, impressive and our employees are involved and loving what has happened." The end result, as described by Holland, was impressive. Factory throughput time for related products was reduced by 30 percent, and production capacity was increased by 25 percent. In addition, product travel distance has been reduced by 92 percent and factory floor space requirements have been reduced by 25 percent. "Having the MEP project managers come to map out our process and really take time to understand what we do has had a positive impact on everyone here," Holland said. "Now we have our people looking at our entire manufacturing process and improving their work station activity without causing problems somewhere else." Edwards Manufacturing has been a leading provider of custom point-of-sale and food handling equipment for the food retailing industry since 1994. Headquartered in Tampa, the company employs 185 people in three divisions (two in Tampa and one in Atlanta). Initially, Florida MEP personnel worked with the company’s management team to introduce Lean Manufacturing to key employees. During the first stages, the company’s aluminum cart product line was targeted for Lean transformation. "My people immediately took to it," Holland said. "Not only did we implement the basics of Lean, but my team developed a self-contained flow work cell to eliminate motion waste. I was impressed." Holland continues to be impressed. "I can measure the physical space changes we’ve made, calculate the amount of increased product produced for less cost and note the improvement in lead times," he said. "And we have reduced our outsourcing of processed parts by more than 75 percent." 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.