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Bringing in an Outside View
With the help of: Enterprise Minnesota
About
The Challenge
Pride Solutions experienced significant revenue growth in just a few short years. This business success caused production bottlenecks and storage challenges, so the leadership team decided that they needed more square footage to keep growing.
Through a new buildout on their existing property, Pride wanted to increase throughput and inventory capacity, but didn’t want to simply add on to their existing production lines. They saw it as a unique opportunity to review how material was handled, processed, and warehoused to create an efficient space that could continue to grow with them.
With the number of departments and areas that were touched, we had many individuals involved in this project. When it first started, I was a little concerned, but since going through the facility layout and implementing it on the shop floor, it was entirely invaluable. It was phenomenal. What we got from Enterprise Minnesota and Greg was head and shoulders above what we could have done on our own.
One of the biggest advantages of working with Greg was that he came in with a non-biased outside view and asked the questions that needed to be asked. He challenged us in new ways to help us get better.
MEP's Role
Pride Solutions connected with Enterprise Minnesota, part of the MEP National Network™, to gain third-party expertise in how to take advantage of new facility space and adjust production lines for what the company needed now. Continuous Improvement Expert Greg Hunsaker was brought in to help the Pride Solutions team create a facility layout map and move plan that would yield efficiency and process improvements. Greg worked with Pride Solutions employees to review product lines, material flows, and key processes. Interviews with production teams and floor layout modeling exercises helped Pride Solutions think differently about operations and production steps.
When they took occupancy of the expanded space in January 2023, the Pride team was able to act quickly on the plan and reorganize their space immediately. About 50% of Pride’s revenue is in agriculture and everything was in place for their peak season. The new layout allows work to be completed in fewer steps. With better material flows and inventory controls in place, they’ve been able to forecast more efficiently. By stepping back and examining how they produce goods, then building their production processes to match, Pride Solutions has been able to ship more product with fewer overtime hours and shorter lead times.