Redlands Laz-E-Boy Plant to Show off changes

From the Press Enterprise:

Similar to the system developed over the past five decades by Japanese automaker Toyota, it replaces the traditional assembly line process with one where several individual teams or "cells" build products from start to finish.

Company officials have not specified exact numbers, but the conversion at the Redlands plant and four other U.S. facilities took about two years and several million dollars.

"The process here used to be very departmentalized," said Redlands plant General Manager Jovie Dabu. "You would have a group of upholsterers in one place, the sewing people in another section, the framing people in another area, and everyone would just work in the same place all day.

"Now we work in teams," he said. "In each team, there's at least one person who already knows each of those different areas, but everyone is now cross-trained."

La-Z-Boy West employs about 400 people and has been a fixture in Redlands since 1966. Workers at the 189,000-square-foot plant produce reclining chairs and sofas that are shipped to retailers across the western United States and several Asian countries.

Operators say the system streamlines quality control, matches production more closely to daily demand, cuts down on waste and minimizes the amount of unfinished product that needs to be stored before completion.

Because of its efficiencies, Dabu said, the system is expected to help the facility maintain steady employment, as it has for several years, rather than having to resort to drastic workforce reductions during tough periods like the current economy.

Terry Begnoche, industry relations manager with the Michigan-based Society of Manufacturing Engineers, said the concept has proved effective across several business sectors as well as the military -- in the building of aircraft, for example.

He said it has also been credited with helping some companies avert closures and mass layoffs.

My Take: Manufactures are in a tough position when demand declines a.k.a recession. They want to produce less stuff; otherwise all this product would sit around in warehouses and who knows if it will be wanted once the economy picks up again.

Since it is unknown when the bad times will end, what the demand will be when things pick up again and what the job market is likely to do, manufacturers engage in "worker slowdown", they cut the number of hours people work rather than lay people off, they perform maintenance and upkeep tasks (painting, training etc.) to keep their existing workers busy.

Once the economy rebounds and production picks up again then the factory will be running at full force and all the gains made during the recession will be realized.

So believe it or not, now is the time to think about how you want to grow the business and how to expand in the slow times to take advantage of the fast times.

Unless you outsource most of your production process, the worst thing that can be done is to reduce plant size and layoff workers. You will be running around trying to get workers and trying to re-tool or expand your facility on the rebound, which is costly because this is the only time in the business cycle than maintenance actually make serious money.