Lean Product Development   Boosts Manufacturers'  Profitable Growth   

Three years ago, Delkor Systems, Inc., a leading U.S. manufacturer of packaging machinery, attempted to increase the speed at which the machinery was getting to market by developing a new packaging line.

Since then, the Circle Pines-based company has produced 20 new designs of machines. This rapid product development improved what Rick Denison, director of operations, calls "interference" in engineering. "We optimized the process so incomplete projects weren't getting to engineering. We implemented a gate keeper to actually allow engineering to complete more projects."

Delkor President Dale Andersen will be one of three manufacturing executives who will show first-hand how lean product development leads to improved profitability at  Enterprise Minnesota's Sept. 6 Business Event. "Lean Product Development - Getting Highly Manufacturable Products to Market." The event will be held at Connexus Energy in Ramsey.

Andersen says lean product development enabled his company to focus on every aspect of lean manufacturing. "It's affected how we engineer, how we fabricate and how we deliver. For us to be able to design this many new packaging machines in three years required a very efficient effort in engineering." The new packaging machines resulted in a doubling of new machinery sales and 60 new employees hired in the past two years.

Water Heater Innovations of Eagan, another presenter
on Sept. 6, used rapid prototyping, which fabricates a scale model of a physical part, to create new parts when it rebranded and standardized its product line.

"We shaved an enormous amount of time through the process of reconfiguring our products into production," said Jeff Scholten, general manager. Sales staff and clients saw the new products in the redesigned packaging quickly, minimizing the time to market and increasing sales opportunities.

Optimizing processes is what lean product development does. Lean principles are applied to product development, a cross functional activity that uncovers product knowledge hidden within the end-to-end production flow, typically in the hand-over points between units.

A company's profitable growth depends on its ability to reduce lead times, develop better products at lower costs, and increase results from its workforce.

Enterprise Minnesota's Lean Product Development consulting service helps manufacturers use tools to accomplish that. Its quick start process helps companies create a customized product development plan. Other tools include the new product development tool box, which reduces waste and increases customer value, and lean design tools, effective for improving the design process.

To learn more, register for the Sept. 6 Business Event.

Exporting in 2012: The Practices of Profitable Companies

Wednesday, Aug. 22, 2012
8-11 am
Mortenson Construction
700 Meadow Lane North, Minneapolis
Cost: $79 Early Bird (before Aug. 14); $119 Regular

Register Online

What to Expect: 

Exporting has great potential to grow a company's profitability. Find out what manufacturers are doing to create a proactive business strategy to sell internationally and how they are connecting with international business experts who help navigate the export process.

Speakers:

•    Roger Hurd, Business Growth Consultant, 
     Enterprise Minnesota
•    Joel Wittenbraker, President,
     Mactech, Red Wing   
•    Ross Anderson, Global Director of Operations, 
     Midwest Rubber, Plymouth   
•    Moses Koyabe, Vice President of Business
     Development, Ideal Aerosmith,
     East Grand Forks    

Register Online Today!

Have news or events for e-trends?  Contact Sue Roe at sue.roe@enterpriseminnesota.org