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Weight Loss Product Manufacturer Gains a Healthier Approach to Problem Solving
With the help of: Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP) at Georgia Tech
About
Twenty-five years ago, Jim Mathews owned weight loss clinics and was buying product from his suppliers. Realizing he could make high quality products himself, he began producing the goods out of his house and today owns Nutritional Resources, a 100,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution facility in Augusta, GA that provides both company branded and private-label weight loss products to doctors and clinics worldwide.
The Challenge
Jim Flynn, COO of Nutritional Resources, was looking to focus on two key areas for 2019-– reducing energy spend and creating a culture that supported problem solving and empowering all team members. Up until this point, the company had put processes in place around communication to make improvements in these areas, but Flynn quickly realized they needed a more formal process that would bridge the gap between the support teams, leadership, and the shop floor.
We are looking forward to continuing to bring GaMEP back into our plant to review where we are and provide us with tips to keep improving.
MEP's Role
Around the same time the team started working with Mike Stonecipher, project manager at GaMEP, on ways to improve their communication. Stonecipher discovered the team had some of the fundamentals, including communication boards, but the company had too many metrics, not enough structure around these interactions, and needed to improve their accountability.
Stonecipher began teaching Flynn and the rest of the team about Managing for Daily Improvement (MDI), a structured management walk-through that occurs every morning, at the same time. During this time [8:00 a.m. at Nutritional Resources], the management team walks to each critical area of the plant, talks with the production team, and focuses on problem solving first thing in the morning. Flynn continued, “We have gone from chaotic to a structured, organized process and the MDI walk-throughs have not only opened up our lines of communication but have been a real morale booster for everyone at the organization. The team is communicating more effectively and in doing so, we are now able to get them the resources to support their needs and fix the issues.”