Olympic Steel – Mt Sterling, KY Team: Bobby King, Ben Vice, Ronald Roberts, Roland Kemp, Dustin Moore, Raymond Sutton, Josh Jamison

Putting in more work in the present will result in greater efficiencies in the future.

A lack of space in Mount Sterling’s kitting area created inefficiencies in kitting and challenges meeting customer specifications. The Mount Sterling team comprised of Bobby King, Sr. Production Supervisor; Ben Vice, Shop Helper; Ronald Roberts, Shop Helper; Roland Kemp, Production Lead; Dustin Moore, Shop Helper; Raymond Sutton, Shop Helper; and Josh Jamison, Production lead identified the issues and swapped the kitting and custom tool areas, creating an additional 96 inventory locations for the kitting group. This monumental task involved relocating hundreds of rack locations and inventory, organizing and identifying what was on the shelf and cleaning the floor. The kitting process is now more efficient, because employees aren’t searching for parts or purchasing items they already had but couldn’t quickly locate when needed. The changes also created additional floor space for both programs, making the warehouse safer and more efficient.

Lesson Learned:

Taking the extra time to evaluate the function and flow of an area may require more work in the present but will result in greater efficiencies in the future.