Construction Products Manufacturer Enhances Performance by Applying Lean Thinking and Continuous Improvement Practices

Company Profile

Founded in 1978, Sound Building Supply is a leading manufacturer and distributor of metal flashing, roofing, and construction products used in various residential and commercial projects. They service the Pacific Northwest, including both Alaska and Hawaii. In March of 2018, Richard Thome bought the family-run Renton, Washington-based business. Today, with over 250 years of experience in their sales and operational teams, they continue working to better assist customers in exceeding expectations with quality products and customer service.

Situation

South Sound Building Supply has experienced steady growth since its inception. Richard Thome saw opportunities to align outcomes to the company vision and understand (and measure) those outcomes across the team, the business, their products and services, and their customers and clients. The focus had been on outputs. While outputs provide perspective about the busyness of the company, it also blinds the team to the importance of measuring efficiency and productivity. Richard sought outside guidance in helping him gauge the productivity of Sound Building Supply for more modern manufacturing practices, better operational decision-making, and future investment decisions to move the business forward and be sustainable for years to come.

Solution

Impact Washington, part of the MEP National Network, worked with Sound Building Supply on a series of projects to help the company to improve processes and reduce production costs. Impact Washington first used Core Value software to assess the overall business, providing prioritized action items to help the company stabilize operationally and financially. Following the Core Value assessment, Impact Washington worked with the company on a value stream mapping project to identify waste and opportunities within their processes. This process highlighted that the old manufacturing practices dragged the company—it lacked efficiency on the shop floor, was held back by an old inventory system, and had no continuous improvement programs.

Upon completing the value stream mapping project, Impact Washington further assisted by conducting two Principals of Lean with Live Simulation sessions. These sessions helped all employees identify and focus on value creation in their manufacturing process by identifying, reducing, and eliminating the waste that doesn't contribute to value. In addition to implementing traditional lean-related improvements, Impact Washington helped the team hold Kaizen events orientated at increasing efficiency on the shop floor. Impact Washington recommended implementing a Training Within Industry (TWI) program. The company reduced the time to proficiency on the shop floor by implementing this structure. It provided a countermeasure to help supervisors solve the problems that might arise when implementing their new continuous improvement strategy.

As the go-to trusted advisor, Impact Washington aligned Sound Building Supply with a local IT solutions provider that installed a real-time monitoring system to track and optimize inventory levels with minimal staff effort.  

Results

The Business Evaluation provided Sound Building Supply an unbiased view of all the areas impacting their bottom line and influencing company efficiency and productivity, not just those they were focused on immediately. Furthermore, the Assessment provided a much-needed roadmap for Sound Building Supply to begin its lean journey. The additional implementation programs allow the entire organization to embrace a continuous improvement culture and improve communication and engagement, taking the company to a new level of efficiency and innovative thinking at every stage.

The company is now on a steady growth trajectory and has increased revenue and capacity without adding any overtime to reach its desired sales levels. Impact Washington continues to have ongoing projects with Sound Building Supply however most recent impacts report include:

• Increased sales by $5,000,000
• Created 22 new jobs
• Experience a $500,000 in cost savings
• Increased investment by $732,000