LEAN OPERATIONS

Once we clearly understand our customer’s needs, we can design a manufacturing process, which produces a high quality part, in a timely manner that meets or exceeds our customer’s expectations.

Eliminating waste in the manufacturing of our customer’s products is accomplished by; value-stream-mapping the manufacturing process, identifying waste and eliminating it, followed by periodic reassessments. Specific kaizen events are also used to improve our processes. This allows us to continuously improve all of our processes as customer requirements and technologies change.

Futura Industries was selected as 2006 Manufacturer of the Year due to their robust systems and processes in the areas of:

· Customer Satisfaction
· Employee Involvement & Satisfaction
· Manufacturing Execution
· Cost and Profitability Controls

Execution in these areas has led Futura Industries to realize significantly superior returns on capital employed than their peers in North America. Their excellent performance contributes to the viability of Utah’s manufacturing base.

Contributing to these are the significant improvements they have made in the implementation of lean business and manufacturing techniques throughout the company. The changes in plant structure, behavior and physical layout have yielded significant improvements to product lead times and on-time delivery to their customers. A combination of improvements in 5S, standardized work for team leaders, autonomous maintenance, work flow, Single Minute Exchange of Die training, and workcenter kaizen’s were among contributors to their success.

Futura’s success is also attributable to institutionalized standardized work processes put in place as a key solution that provides repeatable process and results in superior customer service. A robust customer satisfaction data collection process and a lean-driven demand management philosophy has resulted in on-time delivery performance greatly superior to other extruders in North America. One of Futura Industries primary competencies is the identification, hiring and development of what they call R2, Reliable & Responsive, people that are at the heart of the culture at Futura Industries.