Meadville, PA - June 2007

What if you found out that there was a possibility that you could save hundreds of thousands of dollars and return it to your bottom line? Interested? According to the Six Sigma Academy, Black Belts help direct strategic initiatives and core team activities to save companies approximately $230,000 per project and can complete 4 to 6 projects per year using Six Sigma and Lean methodologies.

Tech Molded Plastics, LP of Meadville, PA is further embracing these methodologies by sending nine people for training over the next six months to study lean and six sigma practices.

The training is being provided through a partnership of Pennsylvania's Workforce Investment Board (WIB) with Penn State on the Pennsylvania Plastics Initiative and Penn State University. Funded with $4.2 million over three years from the U.S. Department of Labor and Pennsylvania's government, the initiative is creating a statewide network of plastics companies, workforce and economic development organizations, and education institutions. The goal of the Plastics Coalition is to help make the plastics industry in Pennsylvania, which employs over 60,000 workers, more competitive.

The Lean Team
Lean manufacturing is a business strategy that is focused on the elimination of waste while improving value added activities such as lead time, productivity, quality, profitability and space utilization.

Tech Tool & Mold, Inc. and Tech Molded Plastics, LP first embraced Lean Manufacturing back in 2003.

“While Tech has served as an example of lean and has provided guidance and leadership to other companies wishing to undertake lean, we believe that there is always room for improvement. Survival in today’s competitive and global economy means change. Companies must identify and implement strategies to reduce costs, increase profits and reinvest in the employees, equipment, technologies and the community. Without continual improvement and cost reductions throughout all aspects of the company, survival is not an option,” stated Dave Walters, Quality Assurance Manager and Certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt.

Three individuals from various company divisions will attend over 24 hours each of training on reducing waste. The three participants have been challenged to gain advanced knowledge of lean processes, principles and procedures and then return to the workplace and apply the knowledge in specific projects that improve the efficiency of the areas in which they work, as well as help to apply similar techniques in other areas of the company .

Six Sigma
Six Sigma is a method to systematically improve processes by eliminating defects and a measure of quality that strives for near perfection. The statistical representation of Six Sigma describes quantitatively how a process is performing. To achieve Six Sigma quality levels, a process must not produce more than 3.4 defects per million opportunities. A Six Sigma defect is defined as anything that is not intended as a normal/planned part of the expected yield of the process or is outside of customer specifications.

Six individuals from Tech will complete Six Sigma Green Belt training working in two separate four week sessions. Each student will train for a total of 60 hours, devoting fifteen hours a week for four weeks to training.

The teams receiving training have been charged to choose and complete a cost reduction project within the organization focused on using the Six Sigma and lean practices. Projects have been selected and are underway. Check back frequently for updates on the team’s progress.