NJMEP Training Leads to Leaner New Jersey Headwear
New Jersey Headwear Corporation of Newark, New Jersey was founded in
1992 by President Mitch Cahn as a manufacturer of union label apparel,
including hats and shirts, to be promoted to unions, political
campaigns, government agencies and socially responsible organizations.
The company’s products, which also include a recently established line
of custom bags and embroidery, are available only through a national
network of union wear distributors.
Mr. Cahn, whose company has 100 employees and annual sales of $6.0
million, first encountered NJMEP when he attended a public Principles
of Lean Workshop at NJIT in December 2005. An NJMEP field agent
subsequently prepared a QuickView Assessment and a Lean Opportunity
Assessment. These undertakings led to a number of relevant observations
and raised pertinent questions and concerns, including excessive idle
time during embroidery setup; a deficiency in communicating company
goals and expectations to most employees; a flawed production and
inspection process, leading to non-conforming products and
non-value-added work; an absence of visual signs of any TPM programs;
and a lack of accountability for product quality non-conformance.
Following these assessments, NJMEP offered recommendations that
addressed the aforementioned areas of concern, identified specific
improvement opportunities and estimated the positive impact on business
should these improvements be implemented. New Jersey Headwear
management discussed these recommendations with NJMEP and decided to
proceed with a Lean Transformation Project. The field agent contacted
third party resource Dave Hollinger for ongoing assistance.
New Jersey Headwear’s project encompassed ten workshops, including
Principles of Lean; Team Building; Value Stream Mapping; 5S;
Cellular/Flow Manufacturing; Pull/Kanban; Setup Reduction; and Project
Mapping/Implementation. 48 employees participated, including the
president, chief financial officer, marketing and sales manager,
various supervisors, union stewards, and clerical and production
workers. The duration of the project was one year.
Upon completion, New Jersey Headwear had grown into a more profitable
and competitive business. Quantifiable results included a $750,000
increase in sales; cost savings of $1.2 million; capital investment of
$150,000; 20 retained employees and 25 new employees; and a reduction
of two thirds in the manufacturing interval.
New Jersey Headwear has since contracted with NJMEP for an additional
five days of Lean Consulting, and has applied for a New Jersey
Department of Labor grant for Lean training, to be applied to a
recently acquired manufacturing operation and training in English as a
second language.
“This training program has significantly transformed our business into
a more profitable and competitive business,” noted company president
Cahn. “We freed up floor space, which will now allow us to expand our
production operation.
“Lean enabled us to migrate to self-directed work teams,” he continued,
“which have reduced demands on management’s time, allowing a greater
focus on other areas like sales and finance. As a result of this
improvement to our business, we were able to absorb increases in hourly
wage rates, and are now in a position to acquire another product family.
“We are looking forward to growing our business by ‘Leaning out’ an
acquired manufacturing operation. NJMEP has been excellent to work
with,” Cahn concluded.
New Jersey Manufacturing Extension Program Case Studies Home