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Suppliers Share Their View of the
Project
“Communication and training streamlined the
successful redesign of buyer-supplier ties with
ASP,” commented Mike Ellis, president of Coast
Electronics, which provides pneumatic valving for
ASP’s products. “ASP and KTG staff
members came to our facility and made insightful
suggestions that helped us make a change from pushing
the product through to a pull system. They provided
help with just-in-time, kanban, and other changes
that helped us not only in working with ASP but also
with other customers. We appreciated the supplier
assessment feedback. It helped identify areas for
improvement that will make us a better
supplier.”
“We are a registered ISO 9002
company,” Ellis stated. “They sent in
another team to see if the changes would be a good
fit with our operations. We gained ideas about doing
things more efficiently. Most glaring was the detail
of ASP’s quality portion of its workmanship
quality standards. Now, in our quality manual we have
interwoven their workmanship manual.”
ASP sponsored a lean business simulation workshop
for suppliers on pull systems. Supplier
representatives used a practical simulation designed
by KTG to learn the advantages of that approach over
traditional push systems. They made
“sticklebricks” using the normal
manufacturing and inventory-control processes. After
four hours without success, they switched to a pull
system and were able to move the same quantity
through in less than 30 seconds.
“This approach is absolutely
phenomenal,” according to Ellis.
“We’ve been able to reduce the manpower
on products we distribute from three to one, and we
are making other improvements in order cycle time and
other areas.”
Similar comments were made by Mano Bakh, president
of Cal Quality Electronics, which supplies
electromechanical, electronic, and box-build
products. “Whenever you can reduce time for
manufacturing, you are a winner. We have created
something called fast-track manufacturing, which
allows us to decrease the days for manufacturing to
hours.”
“Costs are less as the elements of
manufacturing become smaller and smaller,” said
Bakh. “Our relationship with ASP has been
hands-on. They have a vision for applying lean
manufacturing and Six Sigma, and we are part of this
process. It’s about having a good product at
the right time and right place.”
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