Loparex in Eden Begins Lean Slowly Before Hitting Jackpot

Loparex is a leading global manufacturer of siliconized release liners and of speciality papers for numerous end-use areas. Loparex supplies release liners for a variety of pressure sensitive adhesive applications such as tapes, labels, decals, large format graphics and medical devices. That small piece of slick paper removed from the back of a self-sticking bandage probably was made by Loparex.

The Eden facility produces 100 million square feet of siliconized paper per month. It takes 90 full-time employees working continuously 7 days a week, 24 hours a day to make this much speciality paper.

The Loparex site in Eden has partnered with IES since 2005, beginning with the Six Sigma training of two Black Belts. In 2006, the Eden site turned to its IES extension specialist, Ken Hoover, when it was ready to start on its lean journey.

The lean journey began at Loparex’s corporate headquarters in Chicago when IES lean specialists led by Annah Poteat provided the lean basics taught in Lean Overview and Lean 100 to the executive staff. This was followed by Lean Leader training, in which leaders from the Loparex facilities throughout North America participated and took what they had learned back to their facilities.

Kevin Thompson, Loparex’s production team leader and the Eden lean coordinator, went to all the training sessions. When he returned from Chicago, the biggest challenge was getting buy-in from employees.

"People don't like change," he said. There were also the cynics who thought lean was the "flavor of the month." Persistence and success were needed to change their minds.

Slow Start

It was a slow start. Tim Ritter, Eden plant engineer, said value stream mapping helped them select where to begin. They tried to do the easiest projects first, the "low hanging fruit." Thompson refers regularly to that map, checking off projects as they are completed.

Hourly employees were brought into the process from the beginning. "They saw their good ideas tried out and began acting on those ideas," Ritter said. Whenever a person generated an idea, that person automatically became a member of the team to make it work.

Lean requires every worker to become involved in eliminating unnecessary activities, which in turn streamlines the processes. "Knowledge increased (among staff) in regards to business decisions," said Jeff Armstrong, Director of Quality for Loparex LLC. "There's better communication between management and process workers and better plant-to-plant sharing of knowledge."

Substantial Savings

Since beginning with lean, the Eden site has benefited from substantial savings due to decreased waste, improved quality, improvement in production efficiencies and reduction in wasted time. These savings are a result of value stream mapping the processes, implementing 5S projects around the manufacturing equipment and the maintenance stores area, improving flow to and from the warehouse, improving changeover time, developing kanbans for packaging supplies and improving efficiency in the packaging area.

One change initiated by value stream mapping was the moving of the Quality Control Lab. Now, instead of walking across the plant floor to the lab, line workers are only a few steps from the lab for testing. This has increased face to face time, which has led to improved quality. "Communication has improved," Thompson said.

In 2007, Loparex decided to consolidate operations in North America, which resulted in the Eden facility receiving an additional production line. This additional line meant Eden would be adding 37 jobs, while preparing to handle an additional $20 million in sales. Through their lean knowledge and tools, the Eden facility was able to visualize the needed process and product flow. As a result, new mezzanines were built to keep supplies off of the floor, entire walls disappeared and offices were relocated.

Local Lean Network

So notable was the success of the Loparex plant in Eden that other Rockingham County companies were invited recently to come see how lean works. IES specialist Hoover hopes it's only the first of what will become a lean network. Companies as diverse as a brick maker and a carpet manufacturer can learn from Loparex and from each other while on the never-ending lean journey, he said.