A Culture of Continuous Improvement

Our Lean Manufacturing and Continuous Improvement journey began more than a decade ago with the goal of becoming more efficient, innovative and responsive to our customers. By taking a step back and looking at our processes, we can continually refine and modify our techniques to consistently produce the best possible products in the most efficient way possible.

All of our improvement starts with one thing - our team of dedicated employees. We give our employees the tools, resources, and training to help them learn and get involved with the continuous improvement process. We’ve become more systematic - standardizing our processes and making them more repeatable. And, maybe most importantly, we’ve developed our team members by allowing them to learn and embrace the Lean culture at Western States.

A few of our continuous improvement processes include:

• Kaizen. A short-term focused continuous improvement event.
• 5S. Sort, Set, Shine, Standardize, Sustain - A systematic process used by businesses to ensure standardization of a clean, orderly, safe and productive workplace.
• TPM (Total Productive Maintenance). Technique that continuously improves the effectiveness of processes and equipment.
• Kanban. Visual signals developed to automate inventory replenishment cycles.

Embracing a culture of continuous improvement allows us to make a higher quality, consistent product for our customers each and every time an order comes through our facilities.

Want to learn more about what makes a quality product? View some of our practices here.