Response from Heckman Shankle, Jean 02 Dec 2005 22:29 UTC
I received a very nice response from Sally, the Customer Service Manager at Heckman. I appreciated her response and thought I would share it with you. Jean ############################ Miss Jean Shankle Periodical Librarian jshankle@pcci.edu Pensacola Christian College Library Box 18000 Pensacola, FL 32523 ************************************************************************ ****** Jean, Thank you for taking the time to send this information to us. We did some major reorganization in our plant over the summer and while we hoped it would not interfere with production, it did. During the summer, we were making changes, such as combining the monograph production area into the periodicals line, we mixed together two sets of staff who did things differently from each other. It took some time to get everyone on the same page. This resulted in some inconsistency in how directions were follows and how materials were processed. Our next major move was when we made some dramatic changes in the front end of the production line. This meant moving people, equipment, and changing procedures all while trying to continue to produce at our normal levels. One of the things we did not anticipate was that we would get behind like we did. We had a lot of new business starting, and we had a very busy summer, so we got behind and had a hard time catching up. We had to make some necessary adjustments to our distribution routes, and as a result, things are back to normal. These changes were important for several reasons. One of the reasons for making the changes we made this summer was to improve quality. A principle of Lean Manufacturing is that quality review is built into the system. As a result, errors are caught early. This makes everyone responsible for quality review. However, when Lean is not implemented completely you have situations where everyone is responsible for quality, meaning no one is accountable. This summer and fall, while people got used to their new assignments and duties, sometimes the quality control was not what it should be. The good news is that our new front ends system really helps with quality. It is now much easier for us to know where a mistake occurred and why. This helps us solve quality problems more quickly and re-train the appropriate people. Now that the major changes have been made in the production line, we will be focusing our efforts on reviewing and documenting best practices for each processing station. This will increase quality and efficiency, and will eliminate inconsistencies. We have made a lot of necessary changes at Heckman this summer and fall, and it has caused some unanticipated problems, but these improvements will result in better quality and service and will help us control our costs. Thank you for sharing your concerns with us, we very much appreciate the feedback. Sincerely, Sally Rhudy Customer Service Manager Heckman Incorporated Phone # 1-800-334-3628 ext. 105 Fax # 1-260-982-1130 Email: sally_rhudy@heckmanbindery.com