For over 30 years, Jo-Kell has been an electrical distributor and solutions provider serving the military, commercial marine, and industrial markets.  Jo-Kell is owned and operated by Suzy Kelly, CEO, and Marty Kelly, President. Their main office is located in Chesapeake, VA, with regional offices in Richmond, VA and Jacksonville, FL.   In addition to developing their commercial marine, military, and high-technology distribution markets, Jo-Kell also offers value-added services with systems integration design and panel shop capabilities. Additionally,  Jo-Kell provides engineering services, assembly, and repairs of all types of motor controls and control systems.

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, Jo-Kell 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 Jo-Kell 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 Jo-Kell 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 Jo-Kell business.  Jo-Kell 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 Jo-Kell’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 Jo-Kell’s business.  Various implementation teams were formed as the efforts progressed from one functional area to another.  All in all, by the time the entire project was completed more than 40% of Jo-Kell’s workforce had become involved in the Lean transformation efforts.  Approximately 120 discrete action items were identified and improvements executed by the various implementation teams.  As changes were incorporated into the Jo-Kell environment, the magnitude of their impact was quickly realized.  Jo-Kell then made the strategic decision to roll-out many of the new and improved practices in their regional offices.  This strategy clearly demonstrates the power behind the incorporation of a “Best Practices” model.  Additionally, Jo-Kell felt so strongly, about the positive impact of Lean, that they have instituted a program to have a standing Continuous Improvement Team, meeting on a regular basis, functioning to address ongoing opportunities to improve their business.