Holland printer goes 'lean' and 'green'

By: Deborah Johnson Wood

An unprecedented 70 percent business growth in 2006 had leaders at Holland-based The Printery nearly ready to draw up plans for a $400,000, 4,000-square-foot expansion of its production facility. Nearly.

That was before management divided the employees into seven workgroups who identified 100 issues that needed to change in order to improve lead times, meet customer expectations, and reduce waste.

“Even though the suggestions came from different groups, they all fell under the category of processes,” says Peter Houlihan, president.

Working with a third party, the small-format commercial printer began a 16-month transformation that reconfigured the entire facility to reduce waste and increase productivity. They freed up the 4,000-square-feet of needed manufacturing space in just the first week, eventually freed up additional space in the front office and, ultimately, decreased customer lead times by 80 percent.

“We broke apart our departments and put our 35 employees in cross-functional work teams, or cells, to improve communication,” Houlihan says. “Within each cell we have members of the former departments—pre-press, customer service, and sales—working side-by-side.”

Lean manufacturing’s concept of environmentally sustainable practices was a key component in the transformation, so the company hired WorkSquared to redesign the offices using Herman Miller’s Vivo office furniture and Interface carpet tiles.

And along the way, The Printery qualified as a ‘green’ printer by qualifying for certification by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). That certification guarantees that the paper used comes from an FSC-certified manufacturer that uses trees from sustainably managed forests.

“Lean has allowed us to add a huge amount of capacity and maintain the same number of employees.” Houlihan adds. “Our revenue to-date is probably up 10 percent over last year.”

Source: Peter Houlihan, The Printery; Molly Klimas, Intent PR

"After" and "Before" images courtesy of The Printery

Deborah Johnson Wood is the development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].