This is a press release sent to the local paper in regard to our new membership in the Drugs Don’t Work initiative.
Osborne Wood Products Implements Drugs Don’t Work Program
Toccoa, Georgia
06/19/09 — Osborne Wood Products has implemented a state-certified drug-free workplace program. The company has joined with more than 7,800 certified drug-free workplaces in Georgia in providing a safe, drug-free work environment for employees. On June 19th, Chuck Wade – the director of the state’s drug free workplace provider, Drugs Don’t Work in Georgia – conducted employee education for the employees of Osborne Wood Products. Employee education is one of the five requirements of state certification. The other requirements are: 1. Substance Abuse Policy, 2. Drug testing of employees, 3. Supervisor training, and; 4. List of treatment and counseling centers in the area. The Toccoa-Stephens County Chamber of Commerce assists companies in achieving certification in Stephens County. State certified drug free workplaces in Georgia receive a state-mandated 7.5% discount on workers’ compensation insurance premiums.
When asked about implementing the program, Osborne Wood CEO Leon Osborne responded, “It is important to us to provide drug prevention information and education to our employees. This is information they can take home and share with their children to help keep them drug and alcohol free. We are proud to be a member of the Drugs Don’t Work in Georgia program.”
Above (L-R) Drugs Don’t Work State Director Chuck Wade, Osborne CEO Leon Osborne, and Executive Assistant to the CEO JR Muretisch with the new Osborne Wood Products Employee Handbook, edited to include information on the Drugs Don’t Work program and the related Substance Abuse Policy.
Osborne Wood Products is continuing on the endeavor to streamline the production process through Lean Manufacturing. To that end, Osborne has recently hired a Lean Accountant. Lean accounting is so new on the fiscal scene that only a handful of companies in the country have anything like it. It is such a cutting edge field that training for it can only be found in a few places. Among the few, however, is South Carolina school Clemson University.
The reasoning behind changing to a lean accounting system is this: whenever a company seeks to implement lean manufacturing methods, they learn very quickly that clashes will occur between these lean techniques and the conventional cost accounting methods. The methods of traditional accounting can almost actively counteract lean manufacturing procedures.
Traditional accounting processes are complicated and generate a great deal of work that adds no value to the products being manufactured. Additionally, the reports generated often encourage keeping large levels of inventory, when in fact a large amount of inventory indicates that those monetary resources are unavailable for any other use. In addition to being a poor indicator of the exact impact of lean changes made, traditional cost accounting reports are generally understood by few, if any, of the people using that data to make significant company decisions. These reports, typically done on a monthly basis, often provide information at a point when they are too late to be the most beneficial.
Lean accounting methods seek to provide only that information which is necessary to make good decisions, in a frequent and timely manner, typically on a weekly basis. These reports are cultivated in ways that indicate the effects of the lean processes, and help to better facilitate those changes in ways that will increase the value of the products, the growth of the company, and the flow of fiscal resources.
Lean accounting is not simply pushing numbers around or “selective” reporting. Rather, the principles and procedures of lean accounting comply with the complete extent of GAAP, or Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, insofar as requirements and regulations. Essentially, lean accounting applies the same lean manufacturing principles to the gathering and processing of financial data, to eliminate waste in that process, as well. In doing so, the reports generate information in a way that wastes less time and fewer resources, and provides information that helps indicate the performance of lean manufacturing processes, while also indicating ways that the capacity of the company has increased or diminished.
Joining the Osborne Wood Products team as the new Lean Accountant is Bill Thomason, who lives in Cornelia, Georgia, with his wife, Sheila, and their three children. Thomason has a BBA in Accounting, and is currently working toward an MBA, including studies in lean accounting. He has over 15 years in accounting and fiscal experience, including 3 years with the Eastanollee-based American Woodmart.
Osborne Lean Management Coordinator, Bob Ward, commented, “In our search for a lean accountant, we sought out an experienced financial professional who was open to change, an individual who could embrace lean accounting principles. We found that person in Bill Thomason.”
Company CEO Leon Osborne also commented on Thomason and the newly created position, saying, “Lean Management is a part of who we are, and goes hand in hand with the ideals we have been committed to since our beginning in 1979. While traditional accounting is often at odds with the lean management processes, lean accounting augments the implementation of lean management in every aspect of the business. We at Osborne are proud to have Bill Thomason supporting our lean initiative as our Lean Accountant.”
Recently we were privileged to receive pictures from a scout project we were able to help with. Parker, an Eagle Scout in Gilbert, Arizona sent us pictures from his recent project. Parker’s project was to make tables for the Chandler Preparatory Academy’s new drama department. To make these tables, Parker and the boys helping him needed tapered legs. They came to us, and because it was an Eagle Scout project, we were able to give them a discount on the legs they needed.
Parker wrote us a letter, thanking us for the legs. In his letter he described the process they went through in order to make the tables: “Everything went smoothly during my project. We used a drill press to drill holes for attaching [the legs] to the table apron. Once the legs were attached and the rest of the tables and benches were assembled, the legs held the furniture up very sturdily. [The other helpers and I] are very happy with the outcome.”
Here are some pictures of Parker’s project!
Thanks for sharing your pictures with us, Parker! This is beautiful work!
For some time now, Osborne Wood Products, Inc. has been exploring the world of Lean Management, and striving to make it a part of the way that they do business. Lean Management took Osborne by storm when Leon Osborne initiated consultation from Georgia Tech University, in order to make the facility more efficient. Processes were revamped and the shop was rearranged completely, while lead time and cost were greatly reduced. Recently, it was realized that a new team member was needed, in keeping with that goal; a coordinator and facilitator of the changes needing to be made, helping to educate about the lean process, along the way.
Bob Ward has come on board with Osborne as their Lean Management Coordinator (or, in lean terms, the “Lean Champion.”). Ward’s role will be to work with each department and determine the ways that each can run more efficiently. He lives in West Union, SC with his wife Elaine, and they have two grown children. Though he lives in South Carolina, Ward is no stranger to Toccoa, having worked out of Toccoa for 18 years with Coats North American.
Consistent use of lean management in the US is still fairly new. Although technically lean initiatives got their start with Henry Ford and the Model T, they were not commonly used and practiced until the last 25 years or so. In Japan, however, lean management and manufacturing techniques have been in use for the last 50 years. In fact, it was this very same technique that enabled the Japanese to rebuild so strongly in the Post World War II era.
Osborne hopes to use Lean Manufacturing techniques to give them a competitive edge, and to prepare the business to achieve excellence in any economic climate. To achieve this, they needed to create a role specifically for an individual who could both educate current employees concerning lean processes, and also coordinate and facilitate the changes that would need to be taking place. This is the role that Ward is now occupying.
Ward has had a great deal of training in lean processes, having worked extensively in Engineering Management positions, with training and specialization in Lean Management. Ward worked for Coats North America for 22 years, 18 of which he had spent in Toccoa, as previously mentioned. He also worked for Milliken, a global producer of chemical and textile products, carrying out similar roles. In addition to his experience, Ward has a B.S. in Administrative Management from Clemson University, as well as additional courses in lean training and ergonomics from North Carolina State University. Ward has also completed a year of training with Harris Lean Systems.
When asked to give a definition for Lean Management and Manufacturing, Ward said that people are often confused about what “Lean” really means, so he clarified, “Lean is about eliminating waste. Anything that adds cost without adding value is waste. That can mean unnecessary steps, extra motion in transportation, defects, or even too much inventory.” Ward added that too much inventory, while usually seen as an asset, is actually waste because all of the money invested in that inventory is tied there, it cannot be used anywhere else if need be. Ultimately, lean manufacturing is involved with speed, flexibility, and elimination of waste.
One area of waste can also be the failure to take advantage of employee knowledge. For this reason Ward is taking a few weeks with each department to learn the ropes of each department and getting feedback from the members of each team. For instance, Ward spent some time in the office with Osborne customer service representatives, learning the ins and outs of taking customer orders, and troubleshooting any customer service issues that might come up. From there he spent time in the warehouse with the shipping department; learning about Osborne’s process of keeping inventory, and shipping orders. He also spent some time with the director of marketing, and is presently finishing up by spending time on the shop floor with the production crew. While he observes and even participates in the processes that keep things going at Osborne, he will be gaining experience that will inform his analysis of the value of each process. This information will prove invaluable as he progresses in his role with Osborne.
Six Sigma – so named for the statistical measurement of quality level – is a system that goes hand-in-hand with Lean. Six Sigma is a process that strives to improve the quality of a process’ results by finding and eliminating the causes of errors and variations in the manufacturing process. An error or “defect” is defined very broadly as anything which might lead to the dissatisfaction of the customer. The process is highly structured, with sequential steps and financial targets. An expert in the Six Sigma process is referred to as a Black Belt, and Mr. Ward hopes to achieve this status by June 26.
Leon Osborne, CEO, has said, “Lean Management embraces the values that we have been committed to since our inception in 1979. The strength of Lean is in combining the involvement of associates in every business activity with the process of measuring waste, having a goal of continuous improvement. We are excited to have Bob Ward join our team as our Lean Champion”
A customer of ours was recently featured in Home Living, A magazine that makes a monthly appearance as an insert in the News Tribune, a Missouri newspaper. Wayne Wardenhausen of Countryside Woodworks had recently done an extensive kitchen remodel, which Home Living featured on their front page. Below is the press release Osborne issued concerning this event.
Wayne Wardenhausen is a contractor who understands how to provide value to his customers at a reasonable price. Wardenhausen, owner of Countryside Woodworks, specializes in unique kitchen cabinet concepts, specifically tailored to individual customer tastes. One of his most recent designs was the cover article featured in the March 2009 issue of Home Living magazine, which is an insert to the News Tribune, a Missouri Newspaper. The photographs taken for the article include several items from the Osborne Wood Products line.
Wardenhausen believes that it is important to get excited about every job that one does. In a time when many designs are generated on a computer, Wardenhausen’s concepts come from his imagination; the culmination of studying articles, pictures, and products combined with a high degree of personal creativity. In his words, “The best ideas come from the imagination, not out of a computer.”
Wardenhausen utilizes components such as corner corbels, kitchen island legs, corner molding, and crown molding to bring his concepts from ideas into reality. Osborne Wood Products is proud to be a supplier of many of these components. when asked why he does business with Osborne, Wardenhausen stated that he can bank on on-time delivery, knowing his costs up front, and depending on people who know how to do their job.
Wardenhausen’s current kitchen project involves a set of cabinets with a design incorporating Osborne’s new Basket Weave corbels and kitchen island legs for a range hood and a corresponding flat-screen TV installation. Sure that it will be a real “attention getter,” he reports that upon seeing it for the first time the customer exclaimed, “That is massive!” It is reactions such as this which inspire Wardenhausen in his unique designs. Similarly, it is feedback from customers like Wardenhausen that inspires Osborne Wood Products to constantly update our product lines, in order to help our customers continue to generate their artistic designs.
Wayne, keep those ideas coming! We cannot wait to see pictures of your latest job incorporating the Basket Weave Components. We will have new products in our next catalog for you to choose from, and we can only imagine what design concepts might be created utilizing these new components.
