Empire Machinery & Supply Corporation was founded in 1914 and is located in Norfolk, VA.  Empire started out on the waterfront in downtown Norfolk by supplying products to the local industries, lumber and paper mills as well as the shipbuilding and ship repair businesses.  Empire currently is an Industrial & MRO general line industrial supply house with over twenty thousand items in stock and over three million dollars of inventory representing more than two thousand quality manufacturers.  Their broad selection of products allows them to serve many types of businesses and industries with products from A to Z.  They have over twenty representatives in their inside sales and customer service departments and thirteen outside sales consultants specifically trained to show their customers the value that Empire Machinery provides through documented cost savings plans.  They also have several specialty departments for specific customer needs in Abrasives, Cutting Tools, Hydraulics, and Pneumatics.

Situation:

Since 2003 the Virginia Applied Technology & Professional Development Center (VATPDC) has managed the integration of a Lean Supply Chain Management (LSCM) project in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia.  This program involves working with a select group of suppliers, identified by Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding as being strategic to their on-going success, implementing Lean concepts.  Being one of these key suppliers, Empire Machinery was selected to participate in the LSCM program. 

Initially, this Lean Implementation Project involved an assessment conducted by VATPDC to determine the knowledge and level of application of Lean practices currently realized within the Empire Machinery organization. This assessment helped to identify improvement opportunities to implement Lean practices so as to close the gap between current and desired performance levels.  Next a Lean implementation team and a Lean Champion were identified, from within the Empire Machinery organization, to participate in the change efforts.  This group was exposed to training, conducted by VATPDC, consisting of Lean Principles and Value Stream Mapping (VSM).  At this point a gap analysis was completed generating a list of action items to guide the transformation team through the change efforts.  Initially this transformation effort focused on the Order Fulfillment segment of the Empire Machinery business.  Empire Machinery quickly realized the potential benefits to be realized by embracing the Lean concepts and methodology and the decision was made to move forward to expand the scope of their transformation efforts to include all aspects of Empire Machinery’s organization.  This expanded focus was directed toward the achievement of a “Certified Lean Enterprise” status.  This program was created by VATPDC and the level of achievement is accredited by the College of Engineering at ODU.

Resulting from this expanded scope the efforts now focused on improvements across all aspects of Empire Machinery’s business.  The activities of the implementation team expanded as the efforts progressed from one functional area to another.    Numerous discrete action items were identified and improvements executed by the Lean implementation team.  As changes were incorporated into the Empire Machinery environment, the magnitude of their impact was quickly realized.  The scope of these changes centered around; order picking strategy, order sequencing, picker/packer cross-training, 5S activities, quality manual and focus updated, visual workplace aids, packaging label modifications, updated customer sales strategy, customer tracking strategy updated,  test report & certification procedure modification, “will call” alignment for materials, computer generated labels with shop pick orders, warehouse work flow modification, quality manual/policy facility wide roll-out, visual management board for the warehouse operations, and monthly operations dashboard display for Lean based business metrics.

With VATPDC’s  oversight and direction, Empire Machinery has not only successfully implemented Lean strategy concepts, as defined by the LSCM strategic program, but went  well beyond with the completion of phase two of the program to become a Certified Lean Enterprise.  After thirteen months of dedicated work, in September 2005 ODU - Frank Batten College of Engineering & Technology / VATPDC, in a formal ceremony, presented Empire Machinery with a plaque in recognition of their achievement in becoming a Certified Lean Enterprise. Empire Machinery was the first company in the Hampton Roads region to receive this recognition…..and quite possibly the first company to receive the award nationwide!  Just one year later, in September 2006 Empire Machinery was recognized as the Hampton Roads Small Business of the Year by the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce and the Small Business Development Center of Hampton Roads!

One of the key factors Empire Machinery contributed to their receiving the Small Business of the Year award was their efforts in Lean.  “One of the ways our company has been able to meet client needs is through introspection. In January 2005 we entered into a program with VATPDC / ODU to achieve the status of a Lean Certified Enterprise. Through this program our workers learned how to remove non-value-added activities from our operations. Now all 108 of our employees are cross-trained, learning all aspects of the business from the inventory in the warehouse to inside sales.  An emphasis on the need for consistency in operating procedures, doing the same process-the same way-every time has become the operating standard.”