MONROE – No matter what good ideas you have, it doesn’t matter if the bosses aren’t listening.
Carl Spencer for years advised big cabinetmaking companies on how to improve the way they made their products, preaching the benefits of lean manufacturing practices.
Sometimes the managers listened, other times they didn’t.
After a while, he tired of “beating his head against a wall.” He decided if he wanted to see how well innovative practices could work, he’d have to start his own factory.
Which is how Spencer LLC got its start in late 2005. Inside the cabinetmaking shop at a Monroe business park, the business is testing out ideas already adopted by some of the world’s biggest companies.
“We’re still in our infancy with this,” said Spencer, who co-owns the business with his wife, Dottie. “But I hope we can use more of it as we grow.”
Ideas and practices embodied by kaizen, the Japanese concept of continual improvement in manufacturing, are evident in the Spencers’ shop.
There isn’t a huge inventory of raw lumber on hand, the manufacturing equipment is thoughtfully laid out, and there’s nary a speck of sawdust on the floor.
Key to the process, however, are the rolling carts. They hold the work order for each cabinet job and the wooden parts for the work, moving from station to station as the cabinets are built.
The carts are the Spencers’ version of the moving assembly line – a system that works well, Carl Spencer said.
With just themselves and a half-dozen employees, Spencer LLC might seem an odd place to try out the ideas behind kaizen, which famously helped build Toyota into one of the world’s most successful car manufacturers.
The company’s ideas have been studied or spread throughout other large companies around the globe, including the Boeing Co.
But Gemba Research LLC of Mukilteo, which has advised companies on improving processes through kaizen since 1998, notes that many small- and medium-sized companies have adopted the ideas.
That includes cabinetmakers such as Strasser Woodenworks of Woodinville.
Carl Spencer’s knowledge and interest in lean manufacturing was sparked by his study of such techniques during his 30-plus years of working for others in the cabinetmaking industry, including Masco Corp., the nation’s largest cabinet maker. Over the years, he traveled twice to Japan to see Toyota’s production systems.
He also oversaw the implementation of such techniques at other plants. He found, however, that some companies viewed the acquisition of new plant equipment as more important than innovative ideas.
“The big plants were oriented toward big, expensive toys, but that didn’t necessarily improve their processes,” he said.
While Spencer LLC’s shop is well outfitted with equipment, it’s not full of automated machines. Instead, the Spencers rely on good training for their employees on how to best use their materials and tools efficiently.
As a result, Spencer gets about 5 percent more usable wood out of each board cut in its shop than most operations. The firm also recycles its scrap.
Part of the kaizen concept is to listen to employees’ suggestions for improving processes. Carl Spencer said they do that, and they listen to their customers, the majority of whom are home builders and remodelers. The company also sells its work from a showroom at 17381 Tye St. SE, Monroe.
“We get good ideas from installers all the time,” he said.
Cross-training employees to do virtually any job in his shop and improving on the shop’s just-in-time inventory system are other things the Spencers want to do as they move forward.
But the best manufacturing practices don’t mean much if they don’t result in a good, competitive product. That doesn’t seem to be a problem for the company, which limits its business exclusively to the Puget Sound area. After doing a little marketing last fall, Spencer LLC has gained enough customers so far that it was overwhelmed by orders this spring.
“We’ve taken customers away from pretty much everybody,” said Carl Spencer.
Instead of taking a week to 10 days to finish a custom cabinet job, like some of the big companies, Spencer LLC can fulfill an other within two days after receiving it. And the company’s price-to-quality ratio apparently is good enough that business is growing.
Dottie Spencer, a former grade-school teacher, said she was fully supportive of her husband’s idea to start a new company. She’s in charge of the books and sales, and has gotten involved in designing cabinets and even helping to build them.
The couple almost single-handedly set up their factory together. They say the work of running their own company is getting easier.
Carl Spencer added, however, that he still has more lean manufacturing ideas to try out.
“It’s starting to get fun,” he said.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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