We created a raving fan. Hawthorne noticed the drastic improvement in delivery and said, ‘You are literally our best supplier.’
Sean Ebert
Group President, Madison Indoor Air Quality (MIAQ)
Boost On-Time Delivery Fast
Therma-Stor manufactures residential, agriculture, and industrial dehumidifiers, as well as restoration equipment for dehumidification, air scrubbing, and evaporative drying.
10% To 100%
On-time delivery of “A” products went from 10% to 100%.
For more information on this story, contact
Sean Ebert, Group President, Madison Indoor Air Quality (MIAQ): [email protected]
Goal
On-time delivery for Therma-Stor’s largest customer, Hawthorne, was the worst in its company history. Hawthorne hit them with a massive order in July 2020, equivalent to almost an entire year’s orders. Then, two months later, they received a second huge order. Lead times ballooned, peaking at 90 days for Therma-Stor’s top two SKUs. After on-time delivery plummeted to 10%, the company gave itself 90 days to increase on-time delivery to 100% and decrease lead times to less than 30 days.
Process
Since Therma-Stor was not meeting delivery expectations for its largest customer, the entire company turned its attention to improving on-time delivery of “A”/80s products to Hawthorne. They made it the one and only thing they were going to strive to make perfect.
Therma-Stor used a combination of 80/20 and Lean Six Sigma tools to accomplish its goals. First, they conducted product and customer line simplification (PLS and CLS) to remove the noise. Then they used Lean Six Sigma’s “Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control” (DMAIC), 5 Whys, fishbone diagrams, and value stream mapping (VSM) to create an action plan. It was all-hands-on-deck, and everyone involved in the fulfillment pipeline helped get it done. Therma-Stor made the effort visible on the shop floor to ensure everyone understood what they had to do and exactly why they were doing it.
Results
Thanks to a narrow focus and top-down support, Therma-Stor took its on-time delivery for “A” products from 10% to 100% in three months. They also cut lead time from 90 to 30 days.
Key Learnings
- Make what you are trying to accomplish really visible, especially on the shop floor.
- Make a BIG DEAL about it with your customer. It will win them over in the end.
- Celebrate early and often. We encourage others to acknowledge weekly, monthly, and quarterly milestones over the course of a One to Perfect project. It will drive momentum of the project.