Futura Recognized for Lean Manufacturing in Anodizing Operations

Article Post: 10/1/2017

Jared Bringhurst, President, Futura Industries

Jared Bringhurst is president of Futura Industries, a division of Bonnell Aluminum, a leading manufacturer of custom-fabricated and finished aluminum extrusions. Under Bringhurst’s operations leadership, Futura improved the quality of its products and on-time delivery in the extrusion industry, while most recently overhauling its anodizing facility. Bringhurst shared Futura’s successes at a recent Aluminum Anodizing Council conference and writes about it here.

This is an expanded case study on lean manufacturing and the benefits achieved through the application of specific lean tools and concepts in an anodizing and manufacturing environment, as we have seen at Futura Industries.

In most cases, an organization does not have to look too far or too deep to identify streams of waste: excess motion of employees or equipment; defective material; employees or equipment waiting; excess inventory; over-production; over-processing; and transportation of material from one location to another.

Often, the people who have worked for years in environments with these forms of waste have become accustomed to seeing or recognizing that there is an opportunity to work more efficiently. An example could be something as simple as a garbage can placed 15 feet from where an operator performs the bulk of his tasks on a machine. These scenarios exist in almost every organization. The question is, how do we eliminate them?