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Awards Assessment Leads to Increased Sales and Jobs
With the help of: FloridaMakes
About
Amerikooler Inc., established in 1986 and located in Hialeah, Florida, is a manufacturer of walk-in coolers for use in the food service industry and retail businesses.
The Challenge
Amerikooler has been seeing year-over-year growth, leading to increased market share for their products. The company faces challenges with the rising cost of raw materials and some supply chain disruption. The management team at Amerikooler reached out to the South Florida Manufacturers Association (SFMA), part of the FloridaMakes Network and the MEP National Network™, to help identify areas of opportunity for improvement.
We have been working with the SFMA organization for the last three years and participating in the Manufacturer of the Year award process. Our team here at Amerikooler has truly enjoyed working with Micah and the different auditors that have participated in our reviews, and we have embraced the challenge that comes along with the review process and presenting our processes and metric for the different categories of the audit. Most important however is what we as a team learn every time that we go through the process, it forces us to look at and scrutinize our processes to improve them and modify them. Equally important is the feedback provided by the auditors. This year we took advantage of the provided feedback and changed several processes that helped us in several areas of the business. We are looking forward again to next year and once again going through the process, we are sure that we will improve again! Also, continue with the different training to enhance our workforce skill set.
Thanks very much for all of the help.
MEP's Role
Amerikooler is a member of the South Florida Manufacturers’ Association and was nominated to participate in the SFMA’s Manufacturer of the Year Awards process. The company received a written feedback assessment that detailed areas of opportunity, which included recommendations on improvements to their operations that would result in cost savings and increased revenues.
First, the FloridaMakes Business Advisor recommended Amerikooler purchase new processing equipment. Amerikooler’s investment improved the company’s operational efficiency, retaining sales that would have otherwise been at risk due to extended lead times created by supply chain issues and allowing the company to increase sales.The gained efficiencies led to cost savings, which offset some of the increases in raw materials and improved the company’s profit margin.