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Kaufman Global Featured in Current Issue of FORTUNE Magazine
January 15, 2004
International Work with ArvinMeritor Leads to Millions in Savings and More
CARMEL, IND — Savings of $4 million a year. A 26 percent cut in costs from the prior year. Doubling inventory turns. Cutting customer complaints in half within a year. Assembly line efficiencies that brought work to the U.S. from Mexico. These startling results are truly “business as usual” for Carmel, Indiana-based Kaufman Global, LLC in its relationship with motor vehicle supply giant ArvinMeritor. FORTUNE magazine highlights the local implementation services firm’s work with international ArvinMeritor in the January 12, 2004 issue (subscription only).
Entitled “Industrial Management & Technology: The Struggle to Get Lean,” the article documents what Kaufman Global President Jerry Timpson calls the power of partnering with clients who have the discipline, talent and fortitude to fundamentally change the way they operate. The company and its clients undergo a mutual qualification process -- “We choose to work with clients who are very serious about accelerating performance through investing in people, focusing on results and developing sustainable mechanisms,” he explains.
Kaufman Global has worked with multiple divisions of ArvinMeritor on and off over the past several years and has very tangible results to prove its point. As cited in the FORTUNE article, the auto- and truck-parts manufacturer asked Kaufman for help in improving its manufacturing operations in parts of the company’s U.S. and overseas plants. ArvinMeritor then requested that Kaufman assist them with the implementation of a total lean-manufacturing program at a single plant location in Asheville, N.C., with a goal of creating a template and benchmark for all of the company’s truck and auto parts plants.
The results were astonishing — to everyone but Kaufman Global. Timpson says, “Of course we provide the tools, techniques and methods to get results, but what makes us unique is our structured, repeatable approach and the fact that we understand the change management aspect. We help our clients embrace sustaining mechanisms that ensure continuous improvement long after our work has ended. The level of client commitment exemplified by ArvinMeritor gave us confidence that the project would be a huge success.” He adds, “Clients realize the value of our methods because they work over time, instead of just providing a quick fix.”
Timpson continues, “Our people have deep technical and people skills, and we form a very strong team with our clients. We jointly go after success, and we leave a way for them to continue to work better on their own. We are implementers, and the whole foundation of what Kaufman Global does is about helping clients achieve and sustain results.” Indeed, Kaufman implemented “flight-training” to groups of lean-manufacturing specialists at ArvinMeritor who then became continuous-improvement leaders for the firm. Those internal resources have been propagating at ArvinMeritor ever since and are the driving force behind the tremendous results for which they are now being recognized.
“All companies have three things in common when it comes to sustainable transformation: resistance to change, a sense of urgency and a concern about cost,“ Timpson says. “We offer an integrated approach that is repeatable and sustainable, has worked for dozens of companies and has negligible variances through cultural differences.” Kaufman Global offers a variety of applications, ranging from brief diagnostics projects to working with clients for a year or more on a variety of implementation issues.
The FORTUNE article observes that to remain profitable in the highly competitive and low-margin motor vehicle parts business, ArvinMeritor has assembled “what is probably one of U.S. industry’s most complete packages of new programs and methods.” The dramatic results achieved through the partnership of Kaufman Global and ArvinMeritor were spotlighted at the recent Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) conference in Toronto in November 2003.
Read the article now.
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Kaufman Global specializes in the implementation of strategic initiatives for organizations in need of accelerated performance and sustainable results. By leveraging the deep industry experience of its professionals as well as its global affiliations, Kaufman has delivered implementation solutions to FORTUNE 500 companies since 1995.
For additional information please contact:
Valerie Brown
Marketing Coordinator
+1 317 818 2430
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