Bracalente Manufacturing Company Profile - Continuous Improvement
Bracalente Manufacturing Company located in Trumbauersville, Pennsylvania employs 170 people and has been family owned since 1950. Bracalente is a leader in precision machined parts providing contract manufacturing solutions to world-class customers in the medical, recreation, hardware, agricultural and specialty markets. The company’s website is www.bracalente.com.

Situation
To survive and thrive in today's global marketplace, the company needed to maintain customer satisfaction levels and repeat business by utilizing lean principles to boost continuous improvements, product reliability, and on-time shipments, while maintaining its pricing competitiveness.

Solution
The MRC Lean6^® team conducted multiple continuous improvement events which included a set-up reduction program, value stream mapping, establishing a 5S event, employee training and involvement, set-up carts with pre-tooling, shadow boards, and created part families.

Results
As a result of the assistance of MRC, the company realized a:
46% reduction in set-up times for all machines
67% reduction in set-up times for the part family machines
12% increase in productivity overall
35% reduction in days-to-process an order
42% reduction in total cost of quality
18% reduction in controllable costs

Testimonial
“We have relied on the MRC to help communicate, train, implement and sustain our continuous improvement efforts. With their expertise, we were able to implement the training, involve all levels of employees, and see the results of our efforts quickly. We continue to rely on the MRC for training and empowering our employees.”

Ken Kratz, Vice President