News Articles

'Lean' manufacturing tested at local company
By Karen McConkey
The Free Press
July 12, 2005

The first day Southern Vinyl line assistant Darrell Thomas participated in a Lean Enterprise event, he was a bit skeptical.

Streamlining his job at the vinyl manufacturing company sounded a little ominous. Thomas soon got over his skepticism.

"Once I saw this idea begin to work, I thought it was a real good one," he said.

Lean Enterprise isn't a new concept. It was conceived by global automobile manufacturer Toyota in the 1970s and made its way westward during the past two decades. The idea behind lean manufacturing is to measure efficiency and reduce waste of time on the production lines of large manufacturers.

News Photo With 26 employees, Southern Vinyl in Kinston was scarcely a logical candidate for testing the principles of waste. But test they did, co-owner Dean Ervin said.

"It changed the way our production line operates," Ervin said. "It has definitely increased the quality of our products. And for me, it gives me 99.5 percent guarantee that every product we ship out will have every single component it's supposed to have. That is a tremendous sales tool."

Southern Vinyl received a $37,500 grant from Eastern Carolina Workforce Development to conduct "events" that train employees in lean manufacturing methods. The first event ended successfully just last month and Ervin said everyone benefited.

The company makes PVC porch rail kits and PVC fencing. Each requires a separate manufacturing process.

Kris Nicholls is one of Southern Vinyl's first line supervisors in the porch rail to train in lean manufacturing.

"I'd heard of this before," Nicholls said. "At first, it was a little tough because our whole line was changing. But about half way through the week, it really showed us that something good was coming out of it."

The "something good" means that Nicholls and Thomas, along with production manager Aaron Myers, make fewer steps, expend less wasteful time and energy, and yet increase their production each day.

"This concept taught us that we need to be a little more open-minded about our process," Myers said. "We also need a willingness to change, a willingness to be open to doing our jobs a little differently."

Since participating in the event, the three employees are pleased with the outcome.

"I know it's had nothing but a positive effect on the quality of our work," Myers said.

Oddly enough, when the training begins, company owners are asked not to participate.

"The whole idea is that this needs to be based on what employees see as a better way of doing things," he said.

Myers said employee input was vital to the company's production process.

"We want our employees as participants," he said. "They need to know that what they think does make a difference."

The company celebrated its eighth year in Kinston just last week. It opened its doors in 1997 with two employees and went from zero dollars in sales to more than $2 million annually in just 18 months.

"Our growth has just been phenomenal," he said.

The company plans to use the remaining grant money to conduct a lean event in its customer service office, and then move over to its fencing manufacturing line.

"We're really pleased to have the opportunity to do this," Ervin said. "I think we've all benefited from it, from the front office to the end product to our customers."