Merillat
 “Our
employees are the reason that Merillat’s Atkins door and panel
plants won the Shingo Prize and are being recognized among the nation’s
best and brightest for their lean manufacturing processes.”
Rick Lovorn
Director
of Manufacturing
Masco Builder Cabinet Group
Today it’s a group
from a nearby company. Tomorrow, professors from Purdue University.
Next week, the world’s largest lean manufacturing conference
gets to hear the story.
Since March 2003, when
the 500 employees at the Merillat Industries plant at Atkins, Virginia,
found out they had been awarded the Shingo Prize for Excellence
in Manufacturing, requests to tour the facility have multiplied.
Merillat Corporation is a subsidiary of Masco Corporation.
“That’s okay,”
says Masco Builder Cabinet Group's Director of Manufacturing Rick
Lovorn. “It is very gratifying to show others how each and
every employee at this Merillat plant participated in the process
to win the prestigious award and help eliminate waste and achieve
on-time delivery of 99.7 percent.”
 With
more than five years in the making, Lovorn credits the “outstanding
work ethic of these employees and their buy-in to what it takes
to make process changes” to be recognized with the award that
has been dubbed by Business Week as the Nobel Prize of
Manufacturing.
Winning in the large business
category, Merillat was the only Virginia company to be recognized
in the 2003 awards.
The aCorridor Merillat
facilities – two plants in Atkins (340,000 sq. ft.) –
produce 23,000 cabinet doors and fronts in four different hardwood
species, nine different colors and 40 different product lines for
delivery to Merillat assembly plants. Since adopting lean manufacturing
in 1998, these employees have:
- Reduced plant cycle time from five days to 17 hours
- Reduced work in process 80%
- Increased quality 66%
- Reduced lost-work days by 98%
- Pioneered the use of lean manufacturing principles in the woodworking
industry
The Shingo Prize for Excellence
in Manufacturing has authorized state-level awards beginning in
2004, and the Virginia Manufacturers Association is the first organization
authorized to offer a state-level Shingo Prize. Franchise agreements
are anticipated with at least three more states in 2004.
The intent
is to foster continuous improvement and global competitiveness in
U.S. manufacturing.
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