Arizona MEP Helps Clarkdale Company Turn Things Around

Business Wire, July 8, 2004

CLARKDALE, Ariz. -- When Bent River Machine president and owner Norela Harrington realized that consistently running late on orders was damaging her business, she turned to the Arizona Manufacturing Extension Partnership (Arizona MEP) for assistance.

The MEP did value-stream mapping on the company's order process and discovered it could take an average of 28 days for an order to be entered into the system, planned, programmed and delivered to the production floor for fabrication.

"The MEP was able to graphically illustrate our current process and help us develop a new one that reduced the average order processing time to seven days," Harrington said.

Harrington admits she had reservations when she called the MEP. "This is a mom and pop-size business," she said. "I was a little unsure the MEP processes could help, but my goal was to transition the way we do things so our employees have ownership of what they do. That way, everything doesn't have to come back on my husband and myself.

"I can tell you, I'm happy with what the MEP project managers have done, and we continue to work with them on a weekly basis," she said.

"Bent River is typical of many manufacturers of that size," said Edgar Allen, project manager for the Arizona MEP. "The people involved in the company are so busy manufacturing a product day after day they hardly have time to look at the processes and procedures they use.

"In Bent River's case, we were able to reduce the job approval process from three days to 15 minutes," Allen said. "We also eliminated a difficult and complex set of scheduling tasks that reduced the front-office process time from 28 days to seven days."

Harrington agrees things move along much more quickly and smoothly since the MEP team conducted workshops and facilitated a hands-on brainstorming and 'try-storming' session to eliminate all possible waste in the process.

"There was a ton of value in what they did," she said. "The value-stream mapping had a big impact and turned out to be a real catalyst for change."

The process resulted in a 'to-do' list of 10 items. "We have already accomplished five or six of the things on the list," Harrington said, "and have every intention of doing everything on that list before we are through."

Bent River Machine was formed in 1978, and a major expansion to its 10,000-square-foot facility was completed in 1997. The company has 23 full-time employees and serves domestic and international clientele. One part of the company designs and builds customized automation machines, while the second part of the business machines parts for the automation group and also for outside customers.

"We are a full-service machine shop," Harrington said. "We do parts-to-print manufacturing, but we also design and build automation machines, some of which have more than 300 parts."

Harrington said her company has grown mostly by word of mouth. "At one point, one large corporation was responsible for about 84 percent of our business," she said. "Unfortunately, the different divisions of that business have been shut down or sold off over the last two years. I felt we were in real trouble."

Fortunately for Harrington, many employees who worked for her previous customer went on to other companies and have returned to do business with Bent River. "We made a conscious decision to diversify so we were less concentrated in the semi-conductor business," Harrington said. "It made for a tough ride for the past three years, but we're now seeing the end of that tunnel."

Harrington was quick to point out the positive relationship her company has with the Arizona MEP as one of the reasons for their success.

"I particularly appreciate the ability of the Arizona MEP's project managers to relate to all the various members of our plant team and encourage their ideas," Harrington said. "Their coaching is still reverberating through our company," she added. "They are true catalysts for improvement and change."

The Arizona MEP is an affiliate of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) under the U.S. Department of Commerce. The national MEP is a network of manufacturing extension centers that provide business and technical assistance to smaller manufacturers in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Through MEP, manufacturers have access to more than 2000 manufacturing and business "coaches" whose job is to help firms make changes that lead to greater productivity, increased profits, and enhanced global competitiveness. For more information on the Arizona MEP program call 480-874-9100.