Process Flow/ Visual Controls Kaizen at Ruff Wear

November 20, 2008

HiDEC Goes to the Dogs at Ruff Wear

How does a successful company that has experienced phenomenal growth in 2008 and the first part of 2009 spend its time; improving their business.

Dave Slavensky makes a change

HiDEC went to the dogs on February 24 for an all day process improvement event at Ruff Wear's warehouse facility. Dave Slavensky, COO for Structus Building Technologies, led the event along with Young Joen, director of supply chain for Ruff Wear. Representatives from Ruff Wear, CORIL, American Licorice, Bright Wood, and Structus were in attendance. The group focused on the pick and replenishment process that Ruff Wear uses to fill orders and ship merchandise. The event started with an overview of Ruff Wear's process and a primer on what the event should provide for the host company and participants. The next step took participants through the "on-the-floor" process in which current actions are scrutinized and brainstorming of new methods to accomplish the task takes place. Communication and structure is open and flexible allowing the flow of ideas to fuel good discussion and action. At the end of the day, Ruff Wear employees drafted a new pick and replenishment process for high volume and regular volume items as well as a "parking lot list" of other ideas that were generated during the day. Young Joen puts the event in perspective, "While Ruff Wear had ideas for improvements, it was good to see others have come to a similar conclusion. And better yet, we learned new ideas that we are excited to test and implement. I believe that every company should take advantage of this type of event on a regular basis."

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