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NEWBURYPORT, MA - From submarines, to destroyers, all the way up to the largest air craft carriers, you can't find a United States Naval vessel today that's operating without equipment manufactured by L-3 Communications Henschel Inc. of Newburyport, Massachusetts.
For almost 90 years, L-3 Communications Henschel Inc. has been manufacturing communications equipment for the shipping industry, and the company's relationship with the U.S. Navy dates back to World War II, when it received awards for its support of the war effort.
With such a long history of supplying the shipping industry, L-3 Communications Henschel often receives equipment that has been in service for an extensive period of time and needs repairs. Because it is such a time consuming process to repair older equipment, one that takes manpower away from other core jobs, items in need of repair were sent to a section of the plant called the Return Material Authorization Area (RMA), where they would sit and wait.
To help make the RMA area more efficient and less of a drain on precious time and resources, L-3 Communications Herschel turned to the Massachusetts Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MassMEP). The MassMEP team implemented Time Wise® Principles of Lean Manufacturing. The RMA space was reorganized three times to decrease the physical area parts traveled through the repair process. Working with L-3 Communications Henschel, the process was reduced to less than 50 feet, creating a 250 percent increase in capacity."
"The implementation of Lean Manufacturing changed this company’s operations," said Seth Traub, L-3 Communications Henschel, Inc. vice president of operations. "Employees now challenge the long-time processes and work with management to streamline the operations, improve productivity and increase company profits."
"The RMA work is going so well that we just started taking on work from other companies," said Traub. "It’s a continuous improvement process. Hardly a week hasn’t gone by where we haven’t made changes, and now we’re taking a broader look at the entire factory and the way we do business. I would highly recommend that all companies consider Lean Manufacturing."