No Looking Back

Dymotek likes to refer to the economic downturn as ancient history. And with the implementation of Lean methodologies, new technology and a diversified customer base, they're investing in the future and not looking back.

For over 20 years, Dymotek has provided innovative thermoplastic and silicone injection molding solutions to the commercial building, automotive, medical, plumbing and food and beverage sectors in 21 countries.

Within the 30,000 square foot state-of-the-art engineering, molding and distribution facility in Ellington, Connecticut, Dymotek's 52 employees work three shifts, seven days a week to keep up with current customer demand.

Highlighting the company's commitment to purchasing and utilizing the latest technology to provide superior results for their customers is their two-shot silicone molding technology. Dymotek is one of
only a handful of companies in the US to utilize two-shot silicone molding, which maintains the characteristics of the silicone rubber and thermoplastic resins when producing multi-material products.
With Dymotek for over 14 years, Norm Forest, Executive Vice President and General Manager, has certainly experienced the ups and downs of the Connecticut manufacturing industry, "everyone knows what machine downtime is - but for manufacturers to survive and grow, there's certainly no 'company downtime' - you've got to always have one eye on the needs of your customers and one on new technology."

Working through everything from losing business, acquiring new work, the implementation of new technology and launching four new production areas, Norm and the rest of the leadership team have kept Dymotek moving forward in their mission of not only becoming a preferred partner to their customers, but a valuable extension of their customer's business, "It's so important to develop an understanding of our clients' business so that we can proactively identify and leverage new, emerging and unique technologies, to continuously provide value."

In 2008, before most of the industry experienced the economic downturn, nearly 50% of Dymotek's business, composed largely of very specialized automotive component production, was transferred away. Without cemented, long-term contracts, the business was lost to off-shore outsourcing or the utilization of in-house suppliers. Unfortunately, like many others, Dymotek lost additional business as the recession took hold. When reflecting on the downturn, Norm likes to refer to it as ancient history, "We were very fortunate to have a long term strategy in place that guided us through the darker days."

The pain of 2008 and 2009 was lessened in 2010 as Dymotek regained a portion of the automotive business which had been lost and gained considerable new business, mostly in the devices relating to
disposable fluid and air valves, and pumps in the food and beverage dispensing sector. With the changing business mix, the company's warehouse became unorganized; storage was random, unidentified and haphazard. As the team at Dymotek prepared to address their battle with warehouse
inefficiencies, they turned to CONNSTEP to design a new warehouse layout with the intention of supporting the flow of product to and from manufacturing while detailing inventory, storage, usage
and logistics.

But during the initial meeting with George Snyder and Bill Kirchherr of CONNSTEP, and following a discussion on company initiatives, goals and issues, Norm and the leadership team put the warehouse
layout project on hold, "We identified pain points in two of our [Dymotek's] largest production cells
- the Mini Vent and the Lavatory Guard product lines, so with CONNSTEP's guidance, we decided to embark on Lean training and value stream mapping to improve production capacity."

However, due to the changing business mix and economic downturn, Dymotek was not in a cash flow position to fund the training independently. George Snyder recommended the company take advantage of the opportunities available with the Northeast Utilities PRIME program as Dymotek's needs aligned with the program's methodology. The Kaizen team assembled at Dymotek involved all parties - it was an ideal mix of talent as manufacturing and assembly representatives were joined by operators and management members providing the valuable input needed to facilitate successful events.

In May of 2009, the Lavatory Guard product cell experienced process times well above takt time, operator travel in excess of three miles per shift, required multiple operators and the product did
not fl ow through the pack out process. Bill Kirchherr worked with the Dymotek team to develop standardized operator processes and implement 5S, Kanban systems and cellular layout.

By balancing the flow and a new cell layout, operator travel was reduced by more than two miles and the elimination of three packing steps lead to a 28% increase of opportunity time for the operator. With the changes implemented and sustained, one operator can run the line with 100% uptime. The removal of labor from production has helped Dymotek maintain a consistent price point for the Lavatory Guard product line.

In August of that same year, the Mini Vent product line was scheduled for its own initiative. The Mini Vent line has 34 part number combinations which lead to excessive operator travel for boxes and component retrieval, unknown replenishment times and a changeover time of one hour and 40 minutes. Similar to the previous project, standardized operator processes were developed with the implementation of 5S, Kanban systems and cellular layout. Upon project completion, specific
standardized layout practices were developed for each part number, work instructions were clearly
defined and a pre-kit staging process was developed.

These changes lead to reduced operator travel of one mile per shift and a reduction in changeover time to 22 minutes, down from one hour and 40 minutes. Through implementing Lean methodologies on the Lavatory Guard and Mini-Vent lines, Dymotek was able to fill the generated capacity. The new implementations also allowed for ten new jobs to be added, 12 jobs retained, $100,000 in cost savings realized and $4,000,000 in sales retained.

Similar to most companies that embark on their Lean journey, Norm and Dymotek leadership experienced resistance to change at the beginning of the process, "The initial fear with Lean is that people will be laid off. People connect the word 'efficiency' with the lack of need and job security."
However, once everyone experienced positive results and understood the business plan of growth and reinvestment beyond the kaizen events, resistance faded and team members now take an active role in providing suggestions for future kaizen events.

The Continuous Improvement Team at Dymotek has implemented a bi-weekly schedule of Lean team meetings where problems, issues and areas of improvement are discussed for inclusion in the kaizen event schedule. With the success of two kaizen events in the books, the warehouse project moved to the forefront. The layout design took a logical approach with consideration of Dymotek's core competencies. Dymotek originally feared that they didn't have enough warehouse space to accommodate the changing business mix and were hesitant to invest capital expenditures for additional shelving and space.

The first initiative of the plan was to rearrange the warehouse and establish a logical flow of raw materials and finished goods so that the closest storage space to the manufacturing floor now houses the fastest moving products and raw materials, with the slowest moving products relocated to the rear and upper reaches of the space.

After establishing flow in support of manufacturing, kanban signals were developed and entered into Dymotek's ERP system. The system is fully integrated and bi-directional allowing customers to check on the status of current products, quantity on hand and work in process. Having a handle on customer needs allows Dymotek to produce to minimum inventory levels, reducing the cost of on-hand inventory.
Lean initiatives are at the heart of the ongoing business strategy at Dymotek. "The Lean buzzword is one thing, but when you have a win across the plant where everyone can see it, it really brings the
value to the forefront, everyone notices it and it drives continuous improvement."

The successful Lean initiatives at Dymotek have kept the company's mission in focus. Savings and efficiencies gained in resources and expenses throughout the production process have allowed the company to re-invest in itself. By purchasing and implementing new technology, and continuously upgrading the skills of staff members, Dymotek stays at the crest of delivering cutting edge advantages and molding solutions to a growing customer base. "While our initial benefits from Lean have made a very positive impact for the company, we know that continuous improvement means continuous… thanks to the NU Prime Program and CONNSTEP, we've received expert facilitation and guidance, allowing us to build a good foundation with Lean practices."