Tailor-Made Training

Through Internet research, the Rockler team learned about the Job Skills Partnership grant and decided to contact Hennepin Technical and apply. In the fall of 2005, Hennepin Technical received $100,000; Rockler matched it and then some. The project got underway in January 2006 and lasted for 18 months.

Before any training could begin, Joe Mulford, dean of customized training at Hennepin Technical, Kelly, and other staff members had to identify Rockler’s current warehouse capabilities and areas where processes could be improved. They created an assessment questionnaire “to get a feel for the employees’ willingness to accept change, and their general knowledge level of lean concepts and philosophy,” Kelly says. Some employees had received previous training with the consulting company, but school staff learned that Rockler employees wanted a fresh start with lean.

In addition, to make lasting improvements to the warehouse processes, many non-warehouse employees would have to be trained in lean principles and learn how their jobs affect the warehousing operations. The understanding would influence the quality of the company’s customer service. For instance, when promotional items are advertised on line or in retail locations, a spike in demand requires a sudden high volume of products to move through the warehouse. Since the promotions are spearheaded by purchasing and marketing managers, training them to understand warehouse capabilities helps the process go smoothly.

The training began with a workshop that introduced lean concepts. The lean program was developed in Japan by carmaker Toyota in the 1980s, and is centered on the principle that all waste can be eliminated from business processes, especially in manufacturing. The trainees in the basic course included managers, directors, technicians, accountants, buyers, catalog editors, distributors, operators, designers, programmers, and sales staff based in Medina, Minneapolis, Maplewood, Minnetonka, and Burnsville. Kelly and several adjunct Hennepin Technical teachers then delivered an intermediate workshop for small groups of warehouse employees.

In one session, packing employees learned how clutter at their workstations that obscured a needed tool or paperwork could slow them down. Hennepin Technical staff introduced the “5S” technique:

• Sort, standardize, and set in order—find a “home” for each needed object and get rid of everything else

• Shine—make the workspace clean and appealing to work in

• Sustain—continue to improve by “auditing” workstations about every three months

The goal is to simplify operations and speed up the preparation of outgoing shipments.

In other workshops, senior executives were trained to identify activities that could benefit from lean strategies, and then learned how to develop a plan for putting them into action. Two other advanced courses were offered to managers. During the last nine months of the project, Kelly would meet with Plehal every other week, and “eventually, we worked ourselves out of a job,” he says.

As a result of the training, Rockler has cut out redundant processes and streamlined everything from picking and packing orders on the warehouse floor, to changing how key employees manage the warehouse. The return on investment for Rockler has been significant—the company is on track to double in size from 2005 to 2012.