SAN RAMON, CA - July 8, 2008 - It's inspiring to hear about companies growing in these challenging economic times. Wilkinson Manufacturing, a Northern California precision machine shop that provides services to the building and semiconductor industries, found itself in this enviable position. But with growth, comes growing pains.

With current production levels pushing operations to their limits and more growth anticipated, Wilkinson Manufacturing planned to move to a significantly larger facility. The new facility would have more than 50% more space to handle future growth and provide the company with an opportunity to portray a more professional image to their expanding base of customers. The challenge for the management team was how to create an effective layout to optimize production flows in the new facility.

The stakes were high. An inadequate layout can be highly detrimental to productivity and consequently profitability. Symptoms include great travel distances in the flow of materials, bottlenecks in resources, excessive handling of materials, deficient information circulation and low utilization.

The Wilkinson Manufacturing management team engaged Manex to assist in reaching their objectives for this new facility and to avoid the pitfalls of a poor design. Using a phased, systematic approach, Manex worked with the Wilkinson team to optimize flow and work cell layout for the new facility. The entire manufacturing team was trained in 5S techniques to improve and sustain workplace organization. A practical implementation of the techniques was completed in key workstations and departments, including Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize and Sustain. Continuous, efficient flow patterns of materials, personnel and information were implemented using consistent and repeatable processes.

Initial results show significant improvements in productivity. Throughput improved by 30%; labor costs reduced by 20%; and collaboration and communication have been enhanced throughout the organization. Manex continues to work with Wilkinson Manufacturing to assist in the move and implement an optimized layout for the new facility.

"The Manex team worked together with us to develop a system for the move, using many 5-S principles. Thanks to Manex's help, we've been able to become more productive by instilling a new discipline to optimize our layout and processes. It was a great effort, and we expect it to pay off for many years to come." - Doug Greene, President, Wilkinson Manufacturing

About Manex
Founded in 1995, The Corporation for Manufacturing Excellence (Manex) (www.manexconsulting.com) provides a broad array of proven advisory and implementation solutions exclusively to manufacturers, distributors and their supply chains, enabling them to increase growth, productivity, quality and profitability. Manex delivers high-impact solutions in four key areas: strategy, people, process and performance. Meaningful, rapid impact and ROI are achieved through a modular-yet-holistic approach encompassing corporate strategy and planning, marketing strategy, training and development, lean manufacturing, supply chain and logistics, Six Sigma, ISO and performance management systems.