Company Profile: Indian Country, Inc. is the largest employer in Delaware County with very little employee turnover. They produce a variety of items including: slatwall and displays for retail operations, kitchen and bathroom cabinets, and ready-to-assemble furniture. Lamination, custom assembly and packaging, and fabrication services remain at the core of Indian Country’s business. Through their Delaware County Bluestone division, they quarry, fabricate, and sell high-quality native bluestone and fieldstone throughout North America.

Situation: Indian Country was suffering from gross inefficiencies brought about by trying to operate out of multiple facilities. This was causing higher pricing to their customers, lower profits to Indian Country, and an inability to consistently meet delivery requirements. Indian Country is the largest employer in Delaware County with very little employee turnover.

Project: A Layoff Aversion Grant was secured in the early summer of 2002 and the contract for funding flow through Delaware County was signed in July, 2002. Indian Country wasted no time immersing themselves in Lean Manufacturing holding three ‘Lean 101’ classes of 20, 22, and 24 employees respectively on July 16th, July 30th an August 13th provided by the Alliance for Manufacturing & Technology (AM&T). This gave the vast majority of their employees a first hand view of ‘Lean’ and how Indian Country hoped to improve efficiencies, reduce waste and implement continuous improvement in the future. In September Indian Country actually ‘Leaned’ their assembly line with the assistance of AM&T. They realized immediate efficiency results of 30% for this production assembly process. It was in October that the employee Lean Steering Team was formed. This group included the Vice-President of Manufacturing, Director of Human Resources, Manager of Quality Control, the Production Supervisor and a Manufacturing Engineer. The next 1 1/2 months was spent ‘Value Stream Mapping’ the relevant production processes used by Indian Country. It was Indian Country's desire to train as large a cross-section of Indian Country employees as possible and they feel they were successful in their attempt. It is probably easiest and quickest if a list of the training sessions conducted by AM&T instructors, the number of attendees and a very brief explanation of the contents be given here. December 3, 2002: 11 employees; Team Training/Problem Solving Skills December 10 and 17, 2002: 16 employees; Set-up reduction; Micro analyzing work centers to reduce non-production time. January 14, 2003: 14 employees; Visual Workplace and Workplace Organization (5S’s); A place for everything and everything in its place. January 21, 2003: 16 employees; Total Productive Maintenance; Methods to Proactively maintain machines and equipment at their peak productivity. March 20, 2003: 9 employees; Cellular Manufacturing; Balance manufacturing operations to reduce lead times, minimize work in progress, and optimize floor space usage. Following the completion of the training modules listed above, Indian Country President and CEO, Gerard Kamp, made a company-wide announcement on April 23, 2003 that Indian Country was "totally committed to implementing the Lean Manufacturing processes in order to improve customer satisfaction by guaranteeing On Time Delivery of our product". The Lean Steering Committee was empowered to carry out this mandate and to make the business decisions necessary to accomplish the above goals. Three sub-committee project teams are currently working to a sophisticated schedule developed by the Steering Committee to perform the day to day operations of the company.

Impacts: An example of the positive results already attained in the short time period since implementation (April, 2003) of Lean Manufacturing is Indian Country’s On Time Delivery record. Prior to the ‘Lean’ implementation, Indian Country’s On Time Delivery was 35%. Since implementation the On Time Delivery rate is 96%. Indian Country's production floor employees have been trained by AM&T in ‘Lean’ and empowered by Indian Country management to analyze their work center and make the physical changes necessary to reduce set-up time and other inefficiencies. Indian Country is following the schedule to “5-S” one machining work center per week and to pay employees overtime in order to accomplish this in the quickest possible manner. In the short time since implementation, Indian Country has realized a 25% production efficiency increase on work centers which have been “5-S’d” and expect to improve on that as more work centers become ‘Lean’.

Testimonial: "We have worked closely with AM&T during this process. The work performed was done very professionally and with a high level of knowledge. We have always received tremendous support and stellar guidance from the staff at AM&T. I would highly recommend AM&T to other employers seeking to improve their “bottom-line” through the use of Lean Manufacturing."

-- Dennis Disbrow, Director of Human Resource

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