Golden Artist Colors

Golden Artist Colors

” The training and support that was provided to Golden Artist Colors by AM&T was perfect. During the very first site visit I gained the confidence that they really cared about providing us with a proposal that was going to meet our needs. The project manager/trainer provided us with the tools, resources and understanding of Lean with a model that keeps focus on sustaining our efforts and the continued development of our program. Three years into our program we continue to learn and engage our employee owners along the way and continue to reduce costs and increase throughput. We have been provided with the building blocks to have a sustainable Continuous Improvement program and value the relationship that we have established with AM&T. Thank you to Carol Miller and the AM&T team for being so dedicated and mindful to our company and our needs.”

– Matt Asma, Training and Development Specialist

RESULTS

The Lean and Continuous Improvement support and training received from AM&T enabled Golden Artist Colors to remain competitive in a very cost and quality conscious marketplace. The project has been very successful in producing benefits for the company, the community and to the economy of the Southern Tier of New York State.

The company benefits include:

  • Reduced cost per piece in the targeted cell by over 50%, and over 75% in another area.
  • Increased jobs by 33 over the first 12 months following the project, and 14 internal promotions (three of which were trainers in the Paint Making department).
  • Made an investment of $40,000 in new equipment.
  • Engaged employees at all levels

COMPANY

Golden Artist Colors, or simply GOLDEN, is an Employee Owned American manufacturing company that manufactures paints for the Art Materials market. GOLDEN was founded in 1980 and is based in New Berlin, New York.  The company produces a line of acrylic colors that includes some recreations of historic pigments; manufactures the Williamsburg line of artists’ oil paints; QoR watercolors; and decorative and architectural paints and mediums. Golden Artist Colors, Inc. became an employee owned company in 2002, and currently employs 234 people.

SITUATION

Golden Artist Colors, Inc. embarked on a project to improve production efficiencies and effectiveness, and requested AM&T provide training in Lean and Continuous Improvement to support the effort. They obtained a Workforce Development Institute (WDI) Grant to offset a portion of their costs.

SOLUTION

Golden Artist Colors and AM&T looked at their operations and determined what kind of Lean and Continuous Improvement training would best benefit them. As a result, the following training was provided:

  • Lean Thinking and Tools Overview to provide an overview of Lean Thinking concepts, with a focus on Standard Work, 5S, and Visual Workplace for all operations employees
  • (2) Five-day Kaizen events in Paint Making and Filling to teach participants how to work as a team to design and implement improvements using Standard Work, 5S, and Visual Systems.
  • Kaizen Event Training which provided them how to facilitate a Kaizen event, including; Planning & Preparation Activities and Conducting the event and follow-up activities. They learned basic facilitation tools and team dynamics to promote high performance teams.
  • 8-Step Problem Solving Training: provided problem solving training to help them learn how to effectively solve and prevent problems that can help save the organization time, money, and resources.
  • Created a sustainable Continuous Improvement program.

Workforce Development Institute (WDI) helped fund this project. Our grant partners are critical to our clients’ success. Without their support, many clients would struggle to find the resources to fund important projects that help them transform their businesses and achieve their growth objectives.