Timken’s Asheboro Plant Tackles a Lean Transformation
A sluggish economy provided the opportunity for The Timken Company in Asheboro to move faster to tackle the complicated task of integrating lean thinking into every aspect of the business.
“When the economy recovers, the efficiencies we’ve gained will make our plant even more competitive,” said Regis Eger, manager of operations.
In the cells where lean was implemented, within the first few months the Asheboro plant improved existing capacity by 25 percent, reduced manufacturing lead-time by 83 percent and reported inventory savings of almost $900,000 – a conservative figure, since Eger said only about 15 percent of the plant’s processes have been “leaned.”