Bri-Mar leads the way in Hydraulic Dump Trailers

Source: Manufacturing Digital

Date :3/12/2008 2:20:56 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…

March 12, 2008

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