U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Manufacturing Innovation Blog

Powered by the Manufacturing Extension Partnership

Century-Old Factory Gets an Upgrade with 6S

By: Pennsylvania Manufacturing Extension Partnership

Share

Century-Old Factory Gets an Upgrade with 6S

Photo Credit: iStock.com/bankrx

Penn-Troy Manufacturing, Inc., is a third-generation, family-owned business housed in a century-old complex in Troy, Pennsylvania. With 45 employees, the company is focused on supplying assemblies and machined components to the water supply and locomotive industries.

Penn-Troy needed assistance with workplace organization. In the company's one-hundred-year-old factory, product flow starts as component parts on the third floor, where up to 30 machines perform machining and fabrication operations. The company finishes and assembles Work-In-Process (WIP) and secondary components on the second floor, and packs and ships completed orders on the first floor. Penn-Troy divides sales between the Troy Valve and BICERA Strain Relief product families, and averages between 8 to 12 orders per day.

NEPIRC has been a huge help for us. Our plant is in a building that was erected in 1870. It was NEPIRC that helped us to organize our process and our shops to the point that we became much more efficient, resulting in a better bottom line and better customer service.  —Mark Powers, President

The Penn-Troy team recognized an opportunity for better safety, productivity and quality improvements through the implementation of a Lean Management System. They called on the Northeastern Pennsylvania Industrial Resource Center (NEPIRC), part of the Pennsylvania Manufacturing Extension Partnership and the MEP National NetworkTM, for assistance.

NEPIRC proposed a four-phase process for the development and deployment of a 6S System at Penn-Troy. 6S stands for Safety, Sort, Set-In-Order, Shine, Standardize and Sustain. NEPIRC provided 6S training to all members of the Penn-Troy team, modeling the 6S System in the company's BICERA Assembly Area and replicating lessons learned to all other areas of the Troy Plant. NEPIRC worked with Penn-Troy to integrate the 6S System into the company's Quality Management System, and the company is reaping the benefits of its improved workplace organization. The new system is saving money, increasing sales, and helping Penn-Troy to create and retain jobs.

Results

  • Increased/retained sales of $1,410,000
  • Cost savings: $49,000
  • 6 jobs created
  • 10 jobs retained

Could your company benefit from assistance with lean? Connect with your local MEP Center for more information.

 

MEP National Network Logo
The Pennsylvania Manufacturing Extension Partnership (PAMEP) is the official representative of the MEP National Network in Pennsylvania. The MEP National Network is a unique public-private partnership that helps small and medium-sized manufacturers generate business results and thrive in today’s technology-driven economy. The MEP National Network comprises the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST MEP), the 51 MEP Centers located in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
Continuous Improvement and MEP National Network

About the author

Pennsylvania Manufacturing Extension Partnership

The IRC Network consists of seven nonprofit Industrial Resource Centers located strategically throughout the Commonwealth and affiliated with the national Manufacturing Extension Program (MEP) as part of the PA MEP. Established to help manufacturers respond to changing markets, new technology and the competitive pressures of today's global economy, these Centers offer small and medium-sized businesses a wide range of services. From business growth, innovation, process improvement and training, there's little Pennsylvania's IRCs can't do to support manufacturers needs for growth.

Related posts

Comments

Add new comment

CAPTCHA
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Please be respectful when posting comments. We will post all comments without editing as long as they are appropriate for a public, family friendly website, are on topic and do not contain profanity, personal attacks, misleading or false information/accusations or promote specific commercial products, services or organizations. Comments that violate our comment policy or include links to non-government organizations/web pages will not be posted.