When “what gets measured gets done” collides with lean culture
Rethink conventional business practices, exploring possibilities for continuous improvement in a culture of trust; focus on strategies for effectively improving to meet customer needs; hear about creating strong relationships among employees, customers and suppliers; simplify and strengthen CI talent and metrics.
Dissect the fallacy of traditional business school teaching and time-honored business practices, revealing what is possible when a culture of trust focuses on continuously improving to meet customer needs. Explore a culture that annually completes approximately 50 improvement projects, while remaining highly profitable. Learn how Daman successfully operates without engaging in forecasting, job costing, post-mortem production meetings, physical inventory counts, month-end rushes to make the numbers, machine utilization reporting or ROI decision making. Hear a summary of continuously-evolving culture that has created deep relationships among employees, customers and suppliers. Gain information on accountability and change management, in addition to continuous improvement, inventory optimization/planning, KPIs/metrics, pull/kanban/flow, quick changeover/process innovation, trust, lean, engagement, simplicity, common sense and teams.
Daman Products designs and manufactures hydraulic valve manifolds, serving all industrial and mobile markets through a distribution network. It produces in quantities ranging from one to 1000 pieces, from aluminum, ductile iron and mild and stainless steel. Its product mix comprises repetitive and non-repetitive items; product sizes range from one to 4000 lbs. Daman employs 145 people engaged in a 24-hour manufacturing cycle. Founded in 1976, Daman initiated lean thinking in 1997. The company received the AME Great Lakes Manufacturing Excellence Award in 2009. www.daman.com
Larry Davis, president of Daman Products Company, Inc., has played a key role as the lead promoter of an innovative, continuous improvement culture evolving to achieve focused alignment on exceeding customers’ expectations. He is a strong proponent of the positive culture changes required to support elimination of waste in traditional operational methods. Davis is deeply involved in K-12 education reform in his community. He was honored as Indiana’s Small Business Person of the Year in 2005.
David Mischler, executive vice president of operations for Daman Products Company, Inc., was instrumental in the company’s lean rollout in 1997. He is a key leader in its ongoing evolution in a culture of continuous improvement. He has expertise in operations and administration; he led Daman’s integration of human resources (HR) and IT into lean strategy. Responsible for meeting customer satisfaction goals while maintaining productivity and profits, Mischler helps guide Daman’s culture of driving decision-making deeper into the company.
