Situation

Edison Price Lighting’s current facility is 58,000 square feet on two floors. While this was sufficient, the company had a growth strategy, which involved creating an attractive space to act as a selling point, where they could deeply engage customers with the manufacturing process and design team. To create this manufacturing/showcase space, the company would need to expand their usable space for future growth; and more fully utilize the ground floor so that all production could be done on a single floor.

Solution

ITAC worked with Edison Price to reach these goals:

• Using a cross-functional team from Edison Price, ITAC customized a 2-day workshop aimed at increasing productivity and reducing the needed space in 2 work cells (work areas that are used to assemble a single product). This allowed them to give customer access to the manufacturing floor.
• Trained a cross section of the company in Lean principles through a 1-day Lean 101 training course.
• Took a team of cross-functional individuals on a 2-day workshop tour of their process resulting in a Value Stream Map that helped the company identify areas of opportunities, and the true workflow of a fixture. One of these opportunities led to a “Design Review” workshop for the design team. This Lean Product Development (LPD) overview helped the company strengthen their design process of custom fixtures.

Results

Driven by growth concerns, Edison Price utilized Lean principles to achieve their objective. Working with ITAC, Edison Price was able to consolidate all manufacturing onto one floor and build on their LPD process. Their space now serves as a showcase for current and potential customers, both here and abroad. Edison Price reported a total economic impact of $6MM, 4 new jobs and 28 retained jobs as a result of their work with ITAC.