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Industrial Case Study

Western Metal Decorating

Western Metal Decorating (WMD) is a privately held company founded in 1952 in South Gate, CA. WMD is a full service provider for decorated sheet and coil stock, including coating, vinyl-to-metal laminating, lithography, shearing and slitting. They specialize in small custom paint runs and vinyl laminations. In 1958, WMD built a 20,000 square foot facility in Rancho Cucamonga that was close to a key customer, Kaiser Steel Plant. The current facility has 100,000 square feet in two buildings. WMD employs 39 people and has annual sales of nearly $5,000,000.

“CMTC gave us the tools we needed to reduce our
customer claims by 74%.”

Scott Brotzman
President

Issue/Needs
WMD had been experiencing a reduction in sales and earnings as many clients and prospects began to require ISO 9000 certification. In addition, WMD wanted to reduce the number of claims they received in order to decrease their costs. WMD management approached CMTC to discuss their plans for developing and implementing an ISO 9000 compliant quality management system (QMS) to improve sales and reduce customer claims.

Implementation Highlights
Beginning in September 2002, CMTC developed a customized training program for WMD owners, managers and key employees on the requirements and application of ISO 9001:2000 and the development of a continual improvement process. During 20 classroom sessions lasting six months, this core group discussed current practices as they applied to ISO 9000 and identified improvement opportunities. A CMTC consulting team worked on-site with WMD management to develop and implement the QMS and improvement activities. To help WMD address their needs, the team developed a wide range of processes including Customer Satisfaction, Corrective Action and Defect Reductions.

Improvement Description
The project had some notable improvements, both qualitative and quantitative. After working with CMTC, WMD achieved certification which allowed them to pursue new clients. Further, WMD was able to acquire a new client that would only contract with an ISO 9000 registered company. Prior to the project, WMD work instructions and procedures were not very clear and many tasks were performed differently by individual employees. Process controls were based on who ran the job, not on “best practices.” Work performance and process controls were not standardized, documented or followed by all employees. In the past, this had led to errors, defective product and customer claims. After working with CMTC, WMD standardized their procedures and reduced defects and their customer claims resulting in saved time and money. Another area of improvement was employee satisfaction. Prior to the project, most employees worked alone and did not share information or team with other employees to improve operations. WMD conducted an initial employee survey early in the project followed by an additional employee survey one year later. The results showed a significant increase in employee satisfaction.

Financial and Investment Impact
WMD’s hard work resulted in a sales increase of $99,000 due to the addition of one new client. They also saw a 74% reduction in customer claims, which led to a $200,000 cost savings and an employee satisfaction improvement of 28% from April 2003 to April 2005. As a result of the cost savings and increase in sales, WMD was able to retain 5 jobs.