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This is Fred Ball for Zions Bank, speaking on business.
When I think of a factory, most of the time I have this vision in my mind of dirty floors, old dinosaur machines, oil spills and sweaty workers. Well, I recently toured the factory of Parker Hannifin Corporation in Salt Lake, and I am happy to report that my factory expectations have dramatically changed for the better. This wasn't a sweatshop, it was a happy shop! The factory was clean as a whistle and supervisors were giving high fives to their smiling workers. I found myself asking — who is behind all this?
Then, I proceeded to learn about Whitley Consulting, Inc., a firm that trains manufacturing company workers how to clean up and shape up their own equipment. In other words, Whitley Consulting develops custom-designed programs that empower employees to troubleshoot their own machines, without immediate help from maintenance.
You see, the minute manufacturing equipment fails, products aren't delivered on time, thousands of dollars are lost on the hour and customers are extremely unhappy. As a result, mile-long lists of problem orders pile up for maintenance, which usually aren't solved the same day. Owner Eric Whitley tells me his company reverses this problem.
One of Whitley Consulting's techniques is called "TPM Experience Workshop" or a "Total Productive Maintenance" training process. Eric personally visits each company and conducts a four-day workshop that trains maintenance and machine operators to be self-reliant by fixing the small, nit-picky problems when they occur and before they occur. This training reduces the amount of breakdowns the production machinery experiences, thus increasing production, quality and safety. The TPM process is so effective that machine operators beg their supervisors to train them.
Even after one year, Whitley Consulting has helped to "tighten" Parker Hannifin's nuts and bolts, and increased efficiency two-fold. The same thing is happening with Eric's other clients as well.
For Zions Bank, I'm Fred Ball. I'm speaking on business.
