The annual AME Conference is the largest manufacturing excellence conference in North America attracting 1,800 attendees with over 100 sessions, keynotes and workshops. Much of the content is focused on the culture, philosophies and tools of Lean. Favorite activities of the CAMT crew who attended this past fall in Dallas were the Vecta plant tour, Jim Collins keynote, and the Texas Motor Speedway Pit Crew "Changeover Challenge."

This year’s conference is being held in Chicago from October 29 - November 2, 2007. AME is requesting proposals to deliver one of 60 “Best Practice” presentations that will comprise the core program of this conference. CAMT clients are by definition innovative, aggressive in their pursuit of quality excellence, and excellent candidates to deliver a “Best Practice” presentation at this conference. One hour presentations should cover the tools and knowledge necessary to replicate the best practice, as well as challenges encountered and successes realized. The “Best Practice” can occur anywhere throughout an enterprise. If you are accepted, your registration fee ($2,261) and two nights of hotel charges are covered by AME. Presentations will take place in concurrent Value Streams with approximately 20 presented per day from October 30th to November 1st, 2007.

The Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME), founded in 1985, is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to cultivating understanding, analysis and exchange of productivity methods and their successful application in the pursuit of excellence. For more information on AME and the annual conference go to www.ame.org.

Denver Rubber Company (DRC) is a custom gasket and hose manufacturer to the industrial machinery and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) markets in Colorado. DRC also manufactures and distributes wholesale products to the national construction, floor care and concrete pumping industries. DRC takes pride in its unique ability to offer gasket manufacturing and industrial distribution, in addition to its commitment to superior customer service.

Since its inception, DRC developed and implemented many good processes for both inventory management and quality control. However, management recognized that in order to market to larger manufacturers, an ISO certification was critical. Working towards the ISO certification would facilitate a greater understanding and documentation of the processes already in place, and assist in the development of additional quality standards. DRC enlisted the help of CAMT to develop a training plan for process improvements. The training included on- site customized training in both Lean Inventory Control principles and formal Quality Control principles for the warehouse and management staff.

As a result of these trainings, many new processes were put in place by the warehouse team, such as quality inspection documentation, a detailed process flow chart from beginning to end with “bottlenecks” identified, staging and kitting processes for press operations, a streamlined process for returned materials, a unique manner of labeling and tagging rubber materials, and a training matrix for documenting the ongoing training of warehouse staff. Regular process inspections have also been implemented. Denver Rubber Company President Karen McCormack shares, “CAMT’s trainings and consulting helped us to identify unique solutions and achieve results which far exceeded our highest expectations.”

Results:

• Reduced waste materials by 60%
• Increased productivity by 40%
• Saved $97,000 in labor costs
• Combined economic impact of $328,000

Merrily Hill Smith, Marketing Manager, joined CAMT in July of 2006. With a degree in communication and political science from the University of Washington, and several years of non- profit experience, Merrily is a welcome addition to the CAMT team.

Merrily uses much of her previous experience-- event planning, proposal-writing, and non-profit management—to assist CAMT in disseminating its message to Colorado manufacturers. Most recent roles include Executive Director of the Colorado Alliance for Microenterprise Initiatives, where Merrily led state microenterprise advocacy efforts, including producing annual reports on Colorado’s microenterprise business sector and conducting extensive outreach campaigns targeting legislators, media and community and economic development leaders. She also conducted outreach efforts to small business owners and community and economic development leaders across the state through trade fairs and conferences. As Director of Operations at Micro Business Development, Merrily oversaw all marketing efforts of the organization, as well as events, press and public relations, and client and business community outreach.

At CAMT, Merrily creates and produces e- newsletters, success stories and other marketing and communications needs, in addition to developing and coordinating public seminars and partner events. Please welcome Merrily as the newest addition to CAMT.

In benchmarking the Supply Chain Management practices of hundreds of companies, it has been shown that many companies achieve competitive advantage by leveraging the management of their supply chains. This article explores the most powerful of three SCM competitive advantage principles. The most important is embodied in the following: Stick to your core competencies and outsource non-core competencies, then coordinate these functions across supply chain partners. Find out more in IndustryWeek's recent article, "Supply Chain Management."