Hayward Pool Products Becomes a Lean Leader

The first phase of TBM’s LeanSigma® Growth Strategy is Operational Excellence – getting your house in order and building a culture that will not tolerate waste in any form, in any process. To give you an idea of how this transformation phase can benefit your organization, consider the gains made by Hayward Pool Products from the time it adopted this new management system.

The Hayward Scorecard

• Injection mold press set-up times down from eight hours to one hour
• Mold changeovers from 45 per week in one plant to 235 per week
• Work-in-progress (WIP) inventory at one plant down from $2.7 million to $900,000
• Another plant’s WIP reduced from $4.2 million to $1.3 million
• WIP inventory turns up from 12.6 to 40 times per year
• On-time delivery improved from 65-70 percent to 93 percent
• Time-to-market for new products reduced by 50 percent
• All managers in all plants have participated in Kaizen Breakthrough events
• Two-thirds of hourly employees have participated in Kaizen Breakthrough events
• Productivity, as measured by sales per employee, improved from $202,000 to $319,000
• Another productivity measure: each employee at one plant was producing 5.9 units per day and is now turning out 8.3
• Workforce turnover down from 15 percent to less than one percent
• Lower Workers’ Compensation rates
• Business has grown 50 percent with no change in direct labor headcount
• Business doubled while closing a 240,000 square foot facility
• Gained ten market share points

Hayward’s Paul Adelberg receives the 2004 TBM Perfect Engine Award, an honor that recognizes Hayward’s commitment to continuous improvement, through the implementation of LeanSigma® techniques and standards. Congratulating Paul is TBM CEO Anand Sharma.

While each of these gains is impressive, it’s the combination that sets Hayward apart. It grew the business significantly without having to hire more people or build new facilities. It improved productivity at the same time it improved employee satisfaction. It dramatically accelerated key processes and reduced inventory while gaining market share. And no one has been laid off because of Lean activities. In every area of the company, on every measure by which Hayward evaluates its success, the company made significant improvement once it set off on its Lean journey. And that’s just Phase One!