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Wilson Tool Offers One-Day Lean Seminars

Saturday, May 01, 2010

Now four years into its own successful lean initiative, Wilson Tool Intl., White Bear Lake, MN, has developed a one-day seminar at which its lean-manufacturing experts will offer practical advice for applying lean thinking in CNC punch press, press brake and stamping operations. Seminar topics include planning Kaizen events, setting up lean cells, managing corporate culture and developing 5S programs. Attendees also can tour of Wilson Tool’s facility and witness the company’s lean initiatives at work.

Employees of the Energy Planning Associates Envirobrite Division, Sanford, FL, recently attended the seminar to learn how it might apply lean principles to sheetmetal-fabrication operations. The firm manufactures energy-efficient commercial lighting products.

“The most valuable thing we took away from the lean seminar was the use of visual aids and the example of the visual workplace that has been set up at Wilson Tool’s manufacturing facility,” says Dominick Cerce, Envirobrite engineering manager.”

Cerce and others also learned how Wilson Tool has improved the flow of parts through its process by reorganizing its manufacturing facilities into workcells, a change that has shortened lead times.

Since attending the lean seminar, Envirobrite has hired its own lean instructor to set up internal training courses.

Wilson Tool: 800/328-9646; www.wilsontool.com

Related Enterprise Zones: Tool & Die