Company Overview
Since 1947, The Marwin Company, located in West Columbia, South Carolina, has manufactured code compliant stairways and has continued to innovate and manufacture energy saving products for the residential housing industry. The company employs approximately three hundred people. Marwin was a fourth-generation family-owned business with annual revenues in the range of $50-$75M. The company was purchased by a private equity firm in 2020.
Situation
The Marwin Company was looking to improve the management and flow of raw materials, finished goods, inventory management, and shipping processes. They wished for a complete warehouse redesign and supply chain improvement. In addition, the company desired a functioning continuous improvement system for Marwin production processes, including Theory of Constraints, Lean Evaluation, and Value Stream Mapping.
Solution
SCMEP’s expert resources provided onsite consulting redesigning the warehouse and inventory of Marwin Company’s Lexington plant. The following areas and recommendations were addressed: FG storage, fork trucks, FG stocking levels, truck scheduling, inventory accuracy, shipping preparation, FG transaction process, and production FG storage. Following the redesign, SCMEP developed a functioning continuous improvement system for Marwin’s production processes. This in turn supported a daily culture of production that adheres to daily standard work for production employees, support employees, and Marwin leadership. Included were elements that made the flow of material and communication visual through Value Stream Management, where processes are in place to ensure daily problem solving and continuous improvement of prioritized constraints, and that the current state of all processes are visually evident. Visual evidence came from 5S, process boards, alert systems, and other tools designed to make it clear and improve the voice of the business, customer, stakeholder, and process. This infrastructure made Plan Do Study Act a normal part of culture, ensuring all employees were working together to improve the business and measurably move toward the ultimate goals and objectives of Marwin.
Results
Increased jobs – 40
Retained jobs – 40
Increased sales – $15,000,000
Retained sales – $15,000,000
Cost savings – $500,000
New investment (plant equipment) – $400,000
New investment (information systems or software) – $100,000
New investment (workforce practices) – $50,000
New investment (new products/processes) – $300,000
“SCMEP has always been very supportive of our business and development requirements. We need their support and look forward to more of it going forward!”
David Conrad, VP of Operations