American Kennel Club Utilizes Lean and Six Sigma
Public Workshops Drive Improvement
John Andrus, manager of the print center and outbound mail services at the American Kennel Club (AKC), churns out about 1 million pieces of personalized mail per year. The complaint rate from those mailings made him look for opportunities to improve.
The complaint rate has been reduced by 50 percent, and Andrus credits much of his success to participation in public courses sponsored by NC State University’s Industrial Extension Service (IES).
By preparing and mapping a flow of processes in a streamlined, efficient manner, he could more effectively use time and space without sacrificing accuracy. He also applied Six Sigma principles to help maintain a virtually defect-free process in his department.