Building operational excellence for the future

Highlights

This tour will give you an in-depth look at how the Cambridge team manages real-time problem solving, upholds the highest quality standards, optimizes their processes and leads through standardized practices to maintain a productive, high-performing workplace.

Overview

Welcome to a tour that highlights its commitment to operational excellence, quality assurance and continuous improvement. This tour will walk you through key management practices and systems that are designed to ensure smooth, efficient and high-quality operations across the organization. Here are the focal points:

1. Daily management for real-time problem-solving: The team will start by showcasing their approach to daily management, where real-time problem-solving is a core focus. This system empowers their team members to quickly identify issues and root causes and deploy effective solutions on the spot. With regular stand-up meetings, visual management boards and daily huddles, they address challenges immediately, preventing delays and bottlenecks and minimizing disruptions to the workflow. This approach fosters a proactive culture of continuous improvement and accountability.

2. Quality Management System (QMS) implementation: Next, they'll dive into its robust Quality Management System (QMS), which ensures that every product meets the highest standards of quality, safety and performance. Through meticulous planning, monitoring and control processes, they’ve implemented industry-leading quality measures to prevent defects and ensure consistency across all production stages. Its QMS includes comprehensive audits, inspections and data analysis that guarantee its products meet or exceed customer expectations every time.

3. Value streams: A key part of their strategy is optimizing their value streams — mapping out each step of the production process to ensure every action adds value. During the tour, the team will show you how they have identified and streamlined their value streams, eliminating non-value-added steps and focusing on creating the most efficient, high-quality product flow possible. This process ensures that they minimize waste, improve lead times and deliver more value to their customers while maintaining operational excellence.

4. Leader Standard Work: Lastly, they will demonstrate their Leader Standard Work (LSW) system, which provides clear roles and responsibilities for leaders at every level of the organization. LSW ensures that leaders are consistently engaged in driving performance, supporting teams and identifying opportunities for improvement. By following standardized leadership practices, their managers can ensure alignment, foster accountability and maintain a focus on continuous improvement across all operations.

For 60 years, Cambridge has enriched the lives of its people, customers and suppliers through the design and manufacture of premium ventilation-driven space heating, interlocked process ventilation and multiple cooling technology platforms. These include evaporative cooling and recirculation products for manufacturing, warehouse and industrial facilities.

By deploying a network of 800+ sales representatives in local markets, Cambridge helps leaders in manufacturing and warehousing create healthy work environments for their hard-working people. Through more than 75,000 system installations and four billion square feet of buildings served, millions have experienced improved indoor air quality and better thermal comfort.

Deeply rooted in a continuous improvement (lean) culture, Cambridge is able to create superior products based on quality, effectiveness and the overall customer experience. This mindset is shared openly and freely with like-minded leaders looking to find ways to engage their employees. Cambridge is headquartered in Chesterfield, Missouri with its expansion facility located in Wentzville, Missouri. www.cambridgeair.com