Published May 2004

Nonprofit group helps manufacturers to go ‘lean’

Snohomish County Business Journal/JOHN WOLCOTT Thomas Machine & Foundry in Marysville turned its production processes around and increased productivity and profits by working with Washington Manufacturing Services to organize, streamline and restructure its production of precision-made castings.

By John Wolcott
SCBJ Editor

One of Snohomish County’s major employment sectors, the manufacturing industry, is in trouble.

First, it was hit by Boeing’s dramatically declining work force as the United States’ airline industry suffered the impact of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks nearly three years ago. More recently, manufacturing has been weakened by offshore outsourcing of production work to other countries.

Yet some firms have prospered and continue to grow; many can trace their successes to the help they received from Washington Manufacturing Services of Mukilteo.

“Today our manufacturers aren’t competing just down the road. They’re competing with China, Mexico and other countries, as well as with other states. We provide small to medium-sized businesses with a systematic approach — called ‘lean manufacturing’ — that helps them to compete,” said Robin Horrell, WMS marketing director.

The impact WMS has had on the manufacturing industry in Snohomish County — and across Washington state — can’t be overestimated. Its client list includes scores of companies in more than a dozen industries, from food and forest products to fabricated metals, electronic equipment, industrial machinery and transportation.

Success stories come from such companies as Magna Design, Seattle Snohomish Mill, Intermec, Lang Manufacturing, ELDEC, Sterling Technologies and Boeing — just a few of the 70 companies with 5,582 employees that WMS has worked with in Snohomish County from 1997 through 2003.

“Often, small manufacturers are so involved in their operation that they don’t have the time to find the resources or techniques they need to improve,” said Tracy Goetz, a project manager with WMS. “We can provide ways to reduce costs or increase production. We know from experience what works and what doesn’t.”

Between 1997, when the nonprofit WMS was formed to help manufacturers compete locally and globally, and 2002, the Mukilteo organization worked with 488 Washington companies with 42,773 employees, completing 806 products that saved its clients more than $20 million in production costs and increased their sales by $186 million.

One of the most dramatic local success stories Horrell likes to tell is what WMS was able to do for Thomas Machine & Foundry in Marysville. The company makes castings as components for pieces of larger equipment.

“We talked to their materials management people and purchasing manager, as well as to line people to see how the manufacturing process was done. Then we worked together to eliminate production problems,” Goetz said. “A year ago they produced thousands of parts each week to satisfy three to four customers. Now they provide smaller shipments more often, so customers don’t have to maintain large inventories, and satisfy 50 customers a week.”

Rick Thomas, one of several second- and third-generation family members who work at the foundry, said the firm’s aluminum castings are used for such things as fly-wheel covers and gear housings.

“Today we’re getting more work out with fewer people. Before we worked with WMS we weren’t getting all the work out on time even with more people,” he said.

Chuck Thomas agreed, noting that “now that more smaller shipments are going out, we have more satisfied customers and our monthly dollar sales are higher than ever before. ... We’re continuing to explore, fine tune and improve what we’ve learned from Washington Manufacturing Services.”

WMS has developed a skilled team of experts and resource people who work with a variety of industries. Together they have developed an approach known as “lean manufacturing,” which includes such things as focusing on whether a firm is over-producing parts, creating excess inventories, creating waste with product defects, losing production time through unbalanced workloads or misusing “people skills” through lack of training or poor hiring practices.

Lean manufacturing also means eliminating wasted motions and restructuring production lines and processes.

When WMS staff come into a manufacturing company they also look at cross-training workers, rotating teams with highly specified jobs, developing a philosophy of continuous improvement in work and products, and creating a quality standard, not simply a quality “inspection” process.

“Companies here are learning that not all businesses are satisfied with outsourcing work overseas, and they’re beginning to come back,” Horrell said. “If there’s an engineering mistake made in foreign manufacturing, it can take weeks to correct it and get the shipment delivered to the U.S. Many local manufacturers can be much more nimble in responding. If a strike disrupts international shipping it can be a disaster for many businesses here.”

More information about WMS is available through its Web site, www.wamfg.org, or by calling 425-438-1146.

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