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Apollo Metals — Kaizen Event
Due to customer complaints regarding the stretch wrapping of its products and product sweat in transit, the MRC Lean6 Team conducted a Kaizen Event with Apollo Metals in the packaging area.

Ashland Technologies — Innovation/New Product Development
With international competition devouring their market, it was apparent to Bill Wydra Jr., company president, that a long-term strategy for its future growth was needed. He requested the assistance of MRC to help him determine where the company should direct its future growth.

Bailey Wood Products:
Bailey Wood Products was faced with a crisis in December of 2005 when their sawmill facility burned to the ground and most of their equipment was damaged.  Bailey Wood Products was forced to reduce its staff from 11 to five people.  After funding was secured, Bailey Wood Products requested support from MRC to develop a comprehensive Market Assessment and Strategic Business Plan to assist in growing its business.  Click here to learn how MRC helped the company with an aggressive three-year business plan resulting in a 75% increase in sales and the addition of six employees over the same period.

Bally Block:
Bally Block struggled with a marketplace that changed radically after 9/11 as manufacturers sent work offshore, thus driving down demand for the company’s premium workbench products.  With the one-two punch of rising healthcare costs and the weakening market, the company simply could not keep up.  Bally Block sought guidance from MRC, click here to learn more.

Bally Ribbon Mills — Lean Manufacturing
Bally Ribbon Mills has worked with the MRC on many projects over the past ten years to improve its manufacturing operations and product quality, and conduct workforce training. When it learned that MRC was offering lean manufacturing training, Bally Ribbon Mills was quick to sign up.

Bracalente Manufacturing — Continuous Improvement
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.

Innovative Office:
The main arm assembly department is complicated with excess inventory in the assembly area and needs to decrease on hand inventory to support daily production.  The overall process lead-time is too long to support the frequent short lead-time customer orders and too large to support changing business needs.  Additionally, the production methods associated with larger batch sizes appear to be causing a missing parts problem in the final packing area of the department.  Click here to learn how MRC helped this company.

Lehigh Valley Plastics:
LVP is experiencing efficiency issues with their turning centers.  Four machines are shut down every three minutes during the production process for one minute to remove stringers, excess material from the work area.  The company would like to find a way to eliminate shutting down these four machines to increase their productivity and therefore their revenue.  Click here to learn how MRC helped find technology to solve this problem.

ProtoCAM — Website/Marketing & Sales
This project was a cooperative effort between ProtoCAM, MRC, and DVIRC, one of the seven Industrial Resource Centers in the state. ProtoCAM had worked with MRC to create and launch a new website in 2004.

Reanding Electric:
Reading Electric wanted to improve their marketing approach in the market place and attack new market opportunities found within the Critical Power Service industry.

Reeb Millwork:
With the downturn in the housing economy and increased foreign competition, Reeb has been under pressure to improve quality and delivery.  An assessment of the current state of the company identified three opportunities:  to establish a formal continuous improvement program with specific plans and goals, to establish a steering committee to manage the implementation, and to establish and train improvement teams in continuous improvement.  Click here to learn how Reeb Millwork utilized Training Within Industry (TWI) to solve this issue.

Rhetech — Lean Manufacturing
The company needed to maintain quality and keep costs competitive due to the target market it serves, the semiconductor industry. Rhetech asked MRC to conduct Lean training to every employee and to start the process by conducting a Value Stream Mapping (VSM) of their SRD (Spin, Rinse, and Dryer) production area to identify wastes and possible production improvements and utilize a Kaizen Event to document the potential savings.

S&L Plastics — Strategic Plan
The company requested assistance from MRC to profitably improve their sales, position itself for long-term growth, and for the creation of a Business Plan and the expansion of their marketing efforts.

Slaw Precast - J & R Slaw — Safety Training
J & R Slaw needed to reduce its worker's compensation rate, which reached an all time high of 25 percent of the payroll in 1994. Though that number has been reduced over the years, the company wanted to train its employees on many safety issues to try to bring its rate to acceptable levels. The company contacted the MRC for assistance.

Solar Technology — New Product Development
Solar Technology has worked with MRC over the last eight years on 30 projects. The two major projects were ISO 9001:2000 implementation and a plant layout for a new manufacturing facility.