Bri-Mar

Source: Manufacturing Digital

Date :2/18/2008 4:12:13 AM

Exec learns how a culture of encouraging people to impact their own work areas has helped Pennsylvanian manufacturer Bri-Mar succeed

Written by Ian Armitage & Produced by Kristin Hurley

Bri-Mar Manufacturing, founded in 1995 in Chambersburg, PA has grown to be one of the largest US manufacturers of hydraulic dump trailers. It is located on a 19 acre site with more than 100,000 square feet of manufacturing space and over 70 employees. The company has a diversified product line and is extremely well run, but its main strength lies in its people. Bri-Mar is proud to employ the highest quality personnel, placing emphasis on strong work ethics, high moral values, and provides strong employee benefits.

Presently, Bri-Mar manufactures around 6000 units each year, which are uniquely sold through a dealer network of 175 active dealers.

Lean with a difference

In order to compete in what is a very aggressive sector, Bri-Mar, like Toyota, and numerous other manufacturers around the US, has implemented a lean manufacturing program. This focus has helped it perform extremely well over the past couple years. “What we do best is manufacture hydraulic dump trailers; and we do all we can to achieve that goal,” says Micah Goldstein, Bri-Mar’s President and CEO who uses lean as a way of ensuring the company operates in the most efficient manner.

Despite temptation, Bri-Mar does not use lean as an excuse to increase efficiency by downsizing; after all, says Goldstein: “…how can you get support for such initiatives if people are going to loose jobs at the end of it?” As a result, Bri-Mar will typically only downsize when an employee willingly leaves the company, whether that is for a new job, retirement or other reason. “Only when an individual has left the company will we determine whether or not that vacant position needs filling,” explains Goldstein. “It is easy to cut head count dramatically through lean initiatives as a way of reducing expenditure. We don’t need to do that because we have made tremendous cost savings in other parts of the organization by showing faith in our staff and their ability to do a great job. This approach has worked for us and we now have an extremely dedicated and highly skilled workforce, running an efficient manufacturing operation,” explains Goldstein.

Through its employees, Bri-Mar looks hard for waste and when it finds it, the company gets rid of it. “We allow our people the opportunity to impact their individual work areas, as well as the overall performance of the company, so why not show faith in them,” he adds.

Continual improvement

As a result of its attempts to operate in the best possible way, Bri-Mar has dramatically reduced costs. For instance, costly overtime payments have been dramatically slashed, helping the company save something in the region of $100,000 this year alone (although the exact figures are yet to be published). “We have been very successful at reducing overtime,” agrees Goldstein.

Kaizen events are a constant theme at Bri-Mar and the importance of it must never be underestimated, says Goldstein: “From the desk I sit in, one of the most important things about a kaizen event is that you ensure you involve people from all levels of the organization in a way which allows you to grow and flourish. We actively try to do this, making processes better and then enjoying the fruits of our labour together.” From this perspective, kaizen is great financially.

“There is more to kaizen than that though: there is also a cultural and human resources dynamic to kaizen, where the workforce becomes smarter, increasingly dedicated and takes ownership in implementing change and in doing their job the right way,” he adds. “So there is a non-financial benefit to kaizen as well.”

Bri-Mar is continually analyzing its performance in terms of kaizen brush-ups to determine how it is performing and how it might improve in the future. “More can always be done; we strive for change and I guess that is one our strong points.”

Supply chain focus

Equally important as manufacturing efficiency, Bri-Mar also has a heavy focus on the supply chain. “I would say that the bulk of our improvements have come through our suppliers,” says Goldstein. “So it is important to maintain a focus on them.”

However, what exactly has Bri-Mar done with respect to supply? And how has it benefited operations? “Positively for the business, we have moved the bar significantly in that category,” answers Goldstein. “Our VP of Operations, who is also responsible for all of our process improvement successes, brought in a supply chain manager, and together, they have worked wonders. From the start, they evaluated our vendors, helping us make a conscious decision on how best to change the way we manage our supply chain. As an organization, we used to focus on the cheapest prices on a particular day for a particular product, but we now assign specific commodities to trusted suppliers [often only one or two]. We fully understand that in doing this we will be subject to price fluctuations, but this method helps us build strong partnerships, which in the long run are hugely beneficial to any business.”

To offer an example of how better management of the supply chain has helped Bri-Mar become more efficient, it has reduced inventory from around $1.2 million in raw material in 2005 to just $500,000 today; that is simply amazing, and is due almost entirely to the focus on the supply chain. “Nowadays we enjoy great relationships with suppliers, employing some JIT tactics and kanban techniques to great effect, and outsourcing non-core parts of the manufacturing process,” adds Goldstein.

Great in 2008?

Goldstein points out that the US economy has been in better shape, and this will probably have an impact on Bri-Mar sales in 2008. But, having said that, he is confident the company will have a strong future, especially as it managed to grow last year despite a market slowdown. “The trailer industry had been in a boom until the troubles with the housing market struck,” he says. “In 2007, we are hearing that the industry was off anywhere between twelve and 20 percent. However, we didn’t see that. We grew five percent last year. So, if you believe the industry was down then we took a bigger piece of a shrinking pie.

“Certain parts of the country have been hit worse than others by the troubles in the economy and we are reasonably lucky that we don’t have as much of a market share in those areas,” he continues. “Florida for instance was hit hard by the slowdown and I understand the trailer manufacturers with significant share in the southeast have seen 30-40 percent declines.

“The fact remains that as the credit crunch continues to impact our industry, it is becoming increasingly difficult for company’s to convince consumers to part with their hard earned cash. This means Bri-Mar’s task is to give consumers confidence that it is okay to go out and spend. “You get such conflicting data on the state of the economy these days,” Goldstein explains. “One day the market is doing well and everything is great; the next the market comes down and it is all doom and gloom. The general contractor is concerned about spending money, and there is no question that this is impacting our sales. Our forecast for 2008 is that it’ll be a lot like 2007. It will be a tough year for our industry and the good manufacturers that market aggressively and make good products are probably going to do well. Hopefully, we’ll get the election behind us in 2008 and 2009 will be a good year.”

Click here to view the corporate brochure on Bri Mar