Vermeer Corp. is celebrating the 15th anniversary of its lean journey in 2012, a remarkable milestone given one of the words President and CEO Mary Andringa uses to describe the continuous-improvement methodology.
"Fragile" is the word.
"It really is. It's a fragile process and a lot of companies talk about lean, they talk about continuous improvement, and they really don't do it very well," says Andringa. "It's not on automatic pilot. It is not something that you turn on and then it's just forever."
You might conclude, then, that introducing lean may not be worth the effort it evidently requires -- until you hear another word Andringa uses to describe lean: necessary.
"I am very passionate about the necessity to use the continuous-improvement process in every part of our business," says Andringa, who well over a decade ago as chief operating officer championed the introduction of lean at Vermeer. "The process works."
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| Vermeer Corp. President and CEO Mary Andringa |
It's a lesson the former teacher never wearies of sharing. "I'm sort of tireless on it," Andringa acknowledges.
Her own company is a prime illustration of lean's potential. Vermeer, an international, family-owned business started by Andringa's father in 1948, produces agricultural, construction and other industrial equipment and employs a workforce of more than 2,000. This year the manufacturing company will produce revenues about 40% higher than it did in 2000, estimates the CEO, noting that 2000 was a high-water mark for the manufacturer.
The company will deliver those increased revenues with 10% fewer people than it had in 2000 -- and despite two economic downturns.
"That's pretty significant," Andringa says. It's also a turnaround from the company's pre-lean days in the mid-1990s, when Vermeer's answer to needed capacity was simply more people, more floor space, more machining centers. It raised manufacturing costs and steadily ate away at margins.
"It was not going to be a sustainable future," Andringa says. "It was our burning platform."
