Renaissance Woodworking | Decatur, Alabama
Company Information:
Renaissance Woodworking Company, Inc. is a producer of customized wood products and was established in Decatur in 1995. Renaissance provides products such as timber framings, flooring, doors, cabinets and even molding all to the specifications of their customer.
Situation:
Renaissance, because of their customized products, had never considered utilizing lean manufacturing in its operations. But after a brief presentation from ATN-UAH, Renaissance was convinced lean was definitely the next step for improving its operations.
Center Assistance:
ATN-UAH provided training in the Principles of Lean Manufacturing to over 20 employees at Renaissance. Those employees, through lecture and hands on simulation, were introduced to standardized work, workplace organization, visual controls, set-up reduction, batch size reduction, point of use storage, quality at the source, workforce practices and pull systems. Each of these techniques helps improve key metrics dramatically.
Results:
Renaissance has initiated a complete implementation of the concepts they learned through the ATN-UAH training. Renaissance has also received an Incumbent Worker Grant from Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs (ADECA) for further training in 2003 and intends to work with the ATN-UAH. Renaissance is planning to send employees to the Lean Manufacturing Certificate Series in May to further their Lean knowledge, as well as holding on-site kaizen events assisted by ATN-UAH in the summer and fall.
Client Comments:
“Originally we thought that because our company was so customized we would not be able to utilize lean manufacturing in our operations. Now, because of the excellent service of ATN-UAH we are building a better workplace for all our employees.” – Dean Barriault, Co-Owner/Operations, Renaissance Woodworking Company, Inc.