MMT Chats: 5 in 5 with Metro Mold & Design

For this MMT Chat: 5 in 5—that’s 5 best practices in five minutes on ways to improve efficiencies—I chat with Ben Lampron, Vice President of Metro Mold & Design of Rogers, Minnesota.

Here are his five quick answers in a nutshell (watch the quick 5-minute video for his full answers):

1. How do you create and maintain an employee-centered culture?

Lampron: It starts with looking at things through the employee's eyes. Employees want to be trained, they want to be challenged. They have a fast-paced work environment in a place where their metrics are their responsibilities and are clearly communicated and measured. We give people opportunities for different jobs;  cross-train across the business, and every step along the way, we communicate expectations.

2. What are your top three best technology, investments, and why?

Lampron: Automate, automate, automate. Everything we've done that moves the needle in terms of profitability and performance has been automation.

3. What is your latest process improvement?

Lampron: For all of our key manufacturing processes, we've gone to dedicated work cells. This means if we're making a specific part for a customer, everything that you need for that part is there—from material handling, prep and setup to manufacturing and shipping. This approach keeps everything clear and eliminates the noise.

4. How do you measure success?

Lampron: Customer satisfaction and labor efficiency.

5. How do you remain competitive?

Lampron:  We don't try to be everything to everybody.  We're very clear about what we do here—low complexity, high volume, continuous manufacturing. This approach allows us to be disciplined about what we do well, so our chances of success or winning business go up exponentially.

For the full quick chat, watch above, and for more MMT Chats, click here

This episode is brought to you by ISCAR with New Ideas for Machining Intelligently.