Sennheiser Improves Sales by $8 Million After Lean Culture Training

(New Mexico MEP: Albuquerque, NM) -- After enrolling its employees in New Mexico's Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) Lean Culture and Leadership program, Sennheiser raised its 2008 sales by $8 million, improved productivity by 28 percent, and experienced other significant improvements in quality and space utilization.

Sennheiser, a German company established in 1945, manufactures wireless communication products at its Albuquerque facility, which employs approximately 150 people.

After attending an introductory course about lean manufacturing, Sennheiser production manager Jeff Duvall enrolled a group of employees in New Mexico MEP’s Lean Culture and Leadership program. The program provided Sennheiser with bimonthly team building training and individual coaching. Employees also participated in the lean enterprise certification program that gave the team 32 hours of in-depth lean training, and a 24-hour kaizen event. In total, New Mexico MEP has provided Sennheiser with more than 1,000 hours of personalized training sessions.

New Mexico MEP helped Sennheiser employees understand the benefits of workplace organization. The company has experienced significant improvements in quality and space utilization. Since the training, Sennheiser increased surface mount productivity by 28 percent and reduced internal quality issues by 91 percent.

“By focusing on creating a lean manufacturing environment, we’ve been able to realize a significant increase in our output and quality while holding our resource base constant,” Duvall says. “We’ve also freed up close to 1,000 square feet of space that we’re now using to grow our business.”

Sennheiser employees now have the skills to think lean and find solutions to problems.

Duvall says the changes he has seen in his employees are positive. "Our employees have become problem-solvers, they can identify wasteful activities and take actions to minimize that waste,” says Duvall. “They communicate better and they highlight concerns in a timely fashion.”

Additionally, the company has brought manufacturing volumes, that were once outsourced, back in-house. By applying New Mexico MEP’s lean concepts to its manufacturing process, Sennheiser is now able to meet customer needs easily and more efficiently.

The New Mexico MEP is part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) MEP program. NIST's MEP is a national network with hundreds of specialists who understand the needs of manufacturers.

MEPs provide companies with services and access to public and private resources that enhance growth, improve productivity, and expand capacity. For the past 20 years, they have worked with thousands of manufacturers delivering $1.44 billion in cost savings annually and $10.5 billion in increased or retained sales in one year.