ThermoFab Uses VISUAL Easy Lean to Hit 100% On-time Performance

Synergy Resources, www.synergyresources.net, an Infor channel partner, is proud to announce that ThermoFab, of Shirley, MA hit 100% on-time performance for the entire first quarter of its 2010 fiscal year. ThermoFab President Tom King says that VISUAL Easy Lean was essential to the transformation the company has undergone over the last five years.

“What we’re selling is service, quality and speed” King says. “When we started with VISUAL Easy Lean five years ago, our on-time performance was a challenge – averaging below 50%. VISUAL Easy lean makes us focus on what we’re selling – not on parts inventory. Not a single order was late in the entire first quarter.”

VISUAL Easy Lean is part of the Infor VISUAL ERP suite. VISUAL Easy Lean helps companies focus on the critical constrained resource (CCR) for managing production, rather than on traditional work-in-process (WIP) focused systems. ThermoFab’s lean journey resulted in pushing the CCR outside the plant – making boosting customer sales the constraint that was holding the business back.

ThermoFab specializes in the thermoforming of high-quality plastic enclosures for a wide range of medical, industrial and computer products. As performance of the economy plummeted, its customers responded by cutting in-stock inventory and delaying orders. ThermoFab was able to drive its business
to greater performance using the VISUAL solution, offering shorter delivery lead times while simultaneously continuing to improve on-time performance.

“We constantly focus on improving on-time performance. We used to track what was late – but now our weekly production meetings focus on what’s shipping on or ahead of schedule. We have a ‘no excuses’ policy when we commit to a customer’s order,” King states. “Our performance helps our customers to perform better.”

Achieving 100% on-time performance seemed an unobtainable dream when the company first implemented VISUAL Easy Lean. “I didn’t believe it was possible,” King says. “I thought we were doing great when we hit 95% percent on-time performance. Then we hit 99.46% for 2009.” Making improvements gets harder as you drive performance higher, King says, requiring continual focus and effort. “We have to work at it. But now we know it’s possible.”

About ThermoFab
ThermoFab specializes in the thermoforming of custom plastic enclosures for a wide range of medical, industrial, and computer products. It excels at innovative, award-winning design coupled with a deep commitment to manufacturing performance to meet and exceed its customers’ requirements and expectations. ThermoFab is headquartered in Shirley, Massachusetts. For additional information on ThermoFab and their transformation to lean manufacturing please visit www.thermofab.com.