Founder’s Choice Cabinetry Utilizes Lean Enterprise Techniques and Framework To Achieve Award-Winning Reductions in Environmental Wastes, Emission, and Costs.
Company Profile
Founder’s Choice Cabinetry is a family-owned company that has been locally operated since 2005. Their goal has been to provide honest, high-quality, affordable cabinetry directly to homeowners and industry professionals alike from the company's creation.
Founder’s Choice continually strives to bridge the gap between excellent manufacturing standards and affordability. The company is known to regularly review their processes to ensure they are supplying their customers with a product that is not only affordable but will last for years to come. They have operate out of 4 locations in Western Washington.
Solution
In partnership with the Washington Department of Ecology, Impact Washington developed a multi-day engagement with that set-out to generate a report of cost and pollutant reduction for the company and establish the groundwork for their personnel to develop and use Value Stream Mapping for continuous improvements.
The engagement kicked off by introducing the Founder's Choice team to Lean Enterprise's principles and the techniques and framework for the organization's continuous improvement culture. The team also conducted a Value Stream Mapping assessment for improved quality and efficiency. In the Value Stream Mapping (VSM) process, the team observed the existing production process and mapped, emphasizing the painting and finishing operations. The current State VSM illustrated all the activities (both value-added and non-value-added) required to transform raw materials into finished goods. Founder's Choice VSM future state creation facilitated the changes needed to reduce or eliminate the identified waste. During the Value Stream Map process, participants received education to develop, plan, and execute the new strategy. Target areas for improvement were identified, and Rapid Improvement (Kaizen) Workshops offered guidance to address their current state's finishing operations, identify waste and recommend process improvements and best practices for future work.
By employing a lean and green approach, Founder's Choice adopted a comprehensive manufacturing strategy instead of looking at waste, wastewater, or energy. This approach enabled the development of improvement opportunities that would deliver reduced waste, air emissions, and energy use and improve shop safety.
Results
Besides improving recycling and reuse, other actions such as efficient lighting, improved air compressor operation, training, and equipment changes also delivered results. These changes led to significant projected results in material use and waste reduction while improving product quality.
Overall, the program showed:
- Projected operational cost savings of $112,000
- A 20% reduction in VOC air emissions
- Hazardous waste reduction of 7,000 lbs,
- Significant benefits in energy efficiency to the facility
- Winner of 2020 MVP2 Multimedia Project Award. The 2020 Most Valuable Pollution Prevention (MVP2) awards are presented by the National Pollution Prevention Roundtable (NPPR) and celebrate innovators' successes in pollution prevention and sustainability.
"We are thrilled to be recognized for all of the hard work we have been doing; the MVP2 Award reflects the importance we attach to sustainability and 'green production.' It serves as a confirmation of our efficacy commitment in our production operations and throughout our entire facility. We can’t thank Impact Washington and the Washington State Department of Ecology enough for their support and guidance as we worked through reducing the use of toxic chemicals, prevent pollution, increase energy efficiency, and waste management best practices.” Brandon Sizemore Founder's Choice Managing Director