| Client
Profile:
Advanced Drainage Systems Lean Implementation
Advanced Drainage Systems, Inc. (ADS) Byram plant is part of a forty-two plant operation servicing both North and Central America, Mexico and Caribbean markets. The company is a leading provider of engineered extruded plastic pipe to construction sectors and retail outlets. ADS has long been recognized as an innovative and market driven company, providing superior products and customer service across a full range of applications in agriculture, mining, forestry, recreation, and civil engineered construction projects.
Situation:
The regional manufacturing manager for ADS, Mr. Greg Purtle, contacted MEP.ms for assistance to provide lean manufacturing training and Kaizen implementation as prototype activities for application across product lines and in manufacturing operations region-wide. The primary issue was related to high levels of finished goods inventory, limited capacity, and increased costs created by long tooling changeover times (8-16 hours).
Solution:
The work of MEP.ms Center at the University of Southern Mississippi included implementing Lean 101 training for plant management and hourly employees and conducting a Quick Change production floor Kaizen workshop. The MEP.ms Center at University of Southern Mississippi team, led by Project Manager Steve Miller and Ty Posey played a key role in the education of employees in Lean concepts and, more importantly, the real time application on the shop floor with one of ADS’s changeover teams.
Results:
The success of this project by MEP.ms Center at University of Southern Mississippi is evident in the reduction of changeover time by more than 50% during the Kaizen event. Even more telling is in employee response to the effort as relayed by the plant manager less than a month following the event, “We are amazed and extremely pleased with the results from this project, we received much more than we expected.” In fact, during the holidays the guys on the floor took it upon themselves to continue to apply what they learned and reduced changeover time by another 90 minutes… they are convinced that they can consistently reduce changeovers to under two hours! This means almost $7M in annualized revenue and cost savings, and is a direct result of this project. According to our regional manager, we will be using MEP.ms services to implement this approach in all of our plants. The lean approach is going to revolutionize our company!”
Testimonial:
“We are amazed and extremely pleased with the results from this project, we received much more than we expected.”
Glen Carroll, Plant Manager
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