one-off
Commentary
Leveraging Benchmarking
This award-winning shop looked to Top Shops benchmarking data
to help guide its continuous improvement efforts.
This month, we offer analysis of our 2013
Top Shops benchmarking survey (see the
article on page 8). The survey enables you
to 1) see how your business and machining
metrics stack up against others, and 2)
review the equipment and practices that
leading shops are applying.
derek korn
senior editor
dkorn@mmsonline.com
"Benchmarking should
be part of every shop's
continuous improvement
plan."
We've gotten positive feedback from a
number of shop owners and managers who
value these surveys. One such person is
Paul Hayes, who says he used Top Shops
benchmarking data to help guide positive
change at Able Tool after being promoted
to company president a couple of years
ago. In fact, the Cincinnati, Ohio shop
recently received a manufacturing award
from Cincy - The Magazine for Business
Professionals in honor of its successful
continuous improvement efforts. The strides
Able Tool has taken to improve its operation
yielded a 5.2-percent increase in gross
profits last year, and the company expects
a 10-percent increase this year.
6 MMS August 2013 mmsonline.com/topshops
During a recent visit to the nearby shop,
Mr. Hayes explained that both the company's sales and its overall shopfloor performance were stagnant at the time he
moved from general manager to president.
Employees seemed disengaged and management was so busy with day-to-day
duties that it couldn't focus on the big
picture. He knew a culture change was
needed to enable the business to prosper
and grow.
Mr. Hayes and his management team
tapped a few sources in their initial efforts
to turn things around. First, they solicited
feedback from shopfloor employees about
the process inefficiencies they encountered
each day and what tools might increase
efficiency. Second, they tapped the expertise of TechSolve, a Cincinnati-based
organization that provides consulting
and R&D; services to the manufacturing
community. Third, they reviewed Top Shops
benchmarking data to learn about the
s h o pf l o o r c o n c e pts, p ro c e s s e s a n d
equipment other shops were leveraging.
Mr. Hayes says he appreciates the Top
Shops program because the best-practices
intelligence it offers can be particularly
challenging for small shops like Able Tool
to access.
In reviewing the Top Shops data, Mr.
Hayes noted that the vast majority of