Lean Manufacturing Blog Tag Lean Manufacturing Teams and NASCAR Pit Crews Share Common Traits info Posted July 20, 2011 by Steve Myrvold in Sustainability As they say in NASCAR circles, “Every Day is Race Day.” This is a concept that is easily relatable for most of us in direct marketing. In fact, there are many similarities between the NASCAR pit crews and our Lean Manufacturing teams at IWCO Direct. During a recent event where IWCO Direct envelope machine operators […] + Read More Lean Journey Continues – Engaging Employees to Tackle 8 Forms of Waste info Posted April 6, 2011 by Steve Myrvold in Sustainability It’s been a while since we’ve written about our Lean Journey, but it is progressing smoothly. So far we’ve covered Value Stream Mapping, creating a Future State Map, testing those plans and replicating those positive outcomes in other business units. Today we’d like to talk about the eight forms of waste. In order for […] + Read More Committed to Environmental Stewardship info Posted February 23, 2011 by Karen Weil in Sustainability At IWCO Direct, we’ve fully adopted the “reduce, reuse, recycle & replenish” mantra into our workplace practices. We’ve made concerted efforts to not only conserve energy use but to recycle paper both on the production floor and in our offices. We’ve also embarked on Lean Manufacturing efforts that help reduce waste, and believe our Total […] + Read More Lean Testing A Proven Success Across Other Areas of Production info Posted August 18, 2010 by Steve Myrvold in Sustainability In previous blog posts, we’ve described the initial steps in our Lean Journey, which began with Value Stream Mapping and transitioned to testing our plans for improvement on one of our envelope converters. The results were impressive, cutting set-up time in half and prompting several safety and ergonomic improvements. Our next step was to […] + Read More Lean Testing Results Exceed Objectives info Posted June 9, 2010 by Steve Myrvold in Sustainability In a previous blog post, we described the initial steps of our Lean Journey. This entailed using Value Stream Mapping (VSM) to study our entire production process, creating a Current State Map to identify improvement opportunities and developing a streamlined Future State Map to define how we would like our process to work in […] + Read More Forests, Paper and Direct Mail info Posted June 2, 2010 by Pat Deck in Sustainability Fans of the Minnesota Twins have probably noticed the “Break a Bat, Plant a Tree” campaign during telecasts. The premise is simple. Every time a Twins pitcher breaks an opponent’s bat, 100 trees will be planted in Minnesota. This is a great initiative that got me thinking about the relationship between forests, paper and direct […] + Read More IWCO Direct Begins its Lean Journey info Posted April 7, 2010 by Steve Myrvold in Sustainability At IWCO Direct, we crave efficiency. In fact, one of our corporate values is Capability, which we define as “the combined resources of mind and machine, creativity and technology to address critical issues of quality, value, and timeliness.” In order to be as efficient as possible and provide the most value to our customers, we […] + Read More 5 Ways to Sustainability in Direct Marketing info Posted February 17, 2010 by Mike Ertel in Direct Mail Tips, Sustainability At IWCO Direct, we see the continued success of paper-based direct marketing campaigns. But there is strong resolve and often mandates among marketers to be better stewards of the environment. Reducing paper waste is one of the best ways to achieve this goal. While it’s important to understand trees are a renewable resource, there are […] + Read More Pages: First Page12345Load More Articles
Lean Manufacturing Teams and NASCAR Pit Crews Share Common Traits info Posted July 20, 2011 by Steve Myrvold in Sustainability As they say in NASCAR circles, “Every Day is Race Day.” This is a concept that is easily relatable for most of us in direct marketing. In fact, there are many similarities between the NASCAR pit crews and our Lean Manufacturing teams at IWCO Direct. During a recent event where IWCO Direct envelope machine operators […] + Read More
Lean Journey Continues – Engaging Employees to Tackle 8 Forms of Waste info Posted April 6, 2011 by Steve Myrvold in Sustainability It’s been a while since we’ve written about our Lean Journey, but it is progressing smoothly. So far we’ve covered Value Stream Mapping, creating a Future State Map, testing those plans and replicating those positive outcomes in other business units. Today we’d like to talk about the eight forms of waste. In order for […] + Read More
Committed to Environmental Stewardship info Posted February 23, 2011 by Karen Weil in Sustainability At IWCO Direct, we’ve fully adopted the “reduce, reuse, recycle & replenish” mantra into our workplace practices. We’ve made concerted efforts to not only conserve energy use but to recycle paper both on the production floor and in our offices. We’ve also embarked on Lean Manufacturing efforts that help reduce waste, and believe our Total […] + Read More
Lean Testing A Proven Success Across Other Areas of Production info Posted August 18, 2010 by Steve Myrvold in Sustainability In previous blog posts, we’ve described the initial steps in our Lean Journey, which began with Value Stream Mapping and transitioned to testing our plans for improvement on one of our envelope converters. The results were impressive, cutting set-up time in half and prompting several safety and ergonomic improvements. Our next step was to […] + Read More
Lean Testing Results Exceed Objectives info Posted June 9, 2010 by Steve Myrvold in Sustainability In a previous blog post, we described the initial steps of our Lean Journey. This entailed using Value Stream Mapping (VSM) to study our entire production process, creating a Current State Map to identify improvement opportunities and developing a streamlined Future State Map to define how we would like our process to work in […] + Read More
Forests, Paper and Direct Mail info Posted June 2, 2010 by Pat Deck in Sustainability Fans of the Minnesota Twins have probably noticed the “Break a Bat, Plant a Tree” campaign during telecasts. The premise is simple. Every time a Twins pitcher breaks an opponent’s bat, 100 trees will be planted in Minnesota. This is a great initiative that got me thinking about the relationship between forests, paper and direct […] + Read More
IWCO Direct Begins its Lean Journey info Posted April 7, 2010 by Steve Myrvold in Sustainability At IWCO Direct, we crave efficiency. In fact, one of our corporate values is Capability, which we define as “the combined resources of mind and machine, creativity and technology to address critical issues of quality, value, and timeliness.” In order to be as efficient as possible and provide the most value to our customers, we […] + Read More
5 Ways to Sustainability in Direct Marketing info Posted February 17, 2010 by Mike Ertel in Direct Mail Tips, Sustainability At IWCO Direct, we see the continued success of paper-based direct marketing campaigns. But there is strong resolve and often mandates among marketers to be better stewards of the environment. Reducing paper waste is one of the best ways to achieve this goal. While it’s important to understand trees are a renewable resource, there are […] + Read More
