Fall 2006 issue of Horizons

Drive Barry-Wehmiller Success

The company also follows what it calls a “Lean Vision.” It's based on five principles:

Chairman and CEO Robert H. Chapman, who sits on the board of a public company, attended a board meeting and saw some of the initiatives put in place by RubinBrown. Impressed by what he saw, Chapman encouraged Lawson to meet with RubinBrown associates.

• Value: How much money the customer is willing to pay for certain products, features and services. Eliminating waste and cost from the business processes allows the customer's price to be achieved at a responsible profit to the company.

Corrugating

• Value Stream: The entire flow of a product's lifecycle. You must define and understand the whole stream in order to identify non-value- added steps. • Flow: The creation of a value stream in which the product never stops in the produc- tion process, where each aspect of production and delivery is fully synchronized.

• Pull: The way to ensure that nothing is made ahead of time, building up work-in-process inventory that stops the flow. Production is “pulled” through the factory on a quick sched- ule, requiring each step in the value chain to know what is required of it each day. • Perfection: Total quality management - to continuously remove the causes of poor quality from the production processes so that the plant and its products are moving toward perfection. One example of the Lean Vision may be seen in the “Perfection” or total quality management principle. Recently, Barry-Wehmiller partnered with RubinBrown to examine how the Sarbanes-Oxley initiatives might apply to its private com- panies. The partnership began when Barry-Wehmiller

Currently, Barry-Wehmiller and RubinBrown are developing a risk assessment plan to apply as a pilot program at two company facilities. “It's important for everyone in our organization to know we apply the same consistent practices throughout our myriad of businesses,” says Lawson. “RubinBrown is helping us do that, and it's a big task.” Ultimately, Barry-Wehmiller strives to merge its Lean Vision with its Guiding Principles of Leadership. At the end of the day, that means, “Going home happy.”

“We measure success by the way we touch the lives of people.”

30 • summer 2006 issue