T.J. Dimke, manufacturing engineer with Lexington Manufacturing, was selected to speak at the Window and Door Manufacturers Association’s (WDMA) Technical and Manufacturing Conference in Chicago. The WDMA sets and advances the industry standards for manufacturing residential and commercial windows, doors, and skylights.
Dimke presented the continuous improvement methods Lexington had been designing over the last few years to improve efficiency, lead times, and quality in their window and door component manufacturing facilities.
“We designed our manufacturing systems to help automate processes and simplify the complexity of our production environment,” said Dimke. “Our industry has gone through a transformation over the past 10 years with expanded product offerings, custom products, and shorter lead times. We needed to transform our systems as well, in order to keep up with this changing demand.”
Lexington developed and created their new manufacturing systems in-house without utilizing an outside IT company. Changing the process from paper to digital and applying automation to exchange information mean that lead times can be shorter, productivity has increased, and quality has improved. The new systems now allow Lexington to make decisions on data-driven facts rather than opinions. Collecting and analyzing data under the old system used to take eight hours and now it takes less than 15 minutes.
“The feedback I received was very positive, with many attendees saying that my presentation could have had their company name on it because they are facing the same problems. After seeing our success, they said they now know where to begin to design their own software solutions,” said Dimke.
Lexington is incorporating the new software within all their information and production control systems. This streamlines the entire process and improves access to the details and dimensions of customer orders. Utilizing the automated process allows them to accommodate variations of product to meet exacting customer needs.
Learn more about Lexington’s capabilities, products, and systems by visiting www.lexingtonmfg.com or (218) 825-8429.
