Applying a Lean Manufacturing Philosophy to a new customer's manufacturing challenges, EJ Ajax reduced production time from a month to a single day. Orders placed by 11:00 a.m. are manufactured, packaged and shipped by 5:00 p.m. While quantity of production has grown to meet the customer's increasing market share, quality has remained at 99.9%.
"Before the productivity improvements by EJ Ajax, the cycle time was longer than the time between the customer's order and the required delivery date," says the president of the client company. "That meant we had to keep expensive inventory on hand. Now, EJ Ajax doesn't start to produce the product until they get the order. All non-value-added lead time and inventory have been completely eliminated."
By partnering with EJ Ajax, the customer has been able to manage significant growth without having to worry about whether it can respond to customer demand. "It has helped us to manage business issues like capacity, storage, and human resources," says the customer. "From a financial standpoint, overall costs are less because we don't have the extra time and effort required to produce in phases. Our cash flow is not tied up in storing finished goods. Ajax ships direct to our customers before we are invoiced for the product. That's a huge business advantage."
For this process redesign, EJ Ajax was awarded the 2008 SKD Automotive Group Productivity Award. To see our other awards vist our Awards and Recognitions page.
