American Polarizers, Inc.

Based in Reading, Pennsylvania, American Polarizers, Inc. (API) is a global leader in the manufacture of polarizers and optical filters. The company offers a wide range of linear polarizers, circular polarizing films and filters, and waveplates and retarders, as well as custom optical- and pre-cut filters. Its expertise in polarization is backed by 60 years of experience, industry-leading product development, and excellent quality, as evidenced by ISO 9001:2015 and FAA-PMA certification.

“MRC has been a critical part of our Continuous Improvement journey.”
– Jeff Snyder, President, American Polarizers, Inc.

Having achieved ISO certification and worked to maintain it for the past seven years, American Polarizers, Inc. (API) sought to apply Lean and Six Sigma initiatives to increase customer satisfaction and improve profitability

Solution

Through a partnership with MRC, API investigated Lean Master and Six Sigma training. “We established that initiative in 2023 for this year,” says President Jeff Snyder. “We wanted to examine our existing business processes to make them more lean and efficient.”

The initiative also included using a Six Sigma approach to analyze sales and production data gathered over the last few years to see what insight it held.

Order processing emerged as the first project API undertook; they studied the challenges that exist to identify obstacles that may have delayed production work in the past. “We had a ton of data,” Snyder says. “We needed to apply that Lean perspective to see what data we could have collected more effectively and study the repeatability and overall production limits we’ve established in order to reduce the tolerance band for parts.”

To effectively streamline order processing and related processes, individuals throughout the organization took advantage of this training—Snyder completed Lean Master and Six Sigma, then repeated the former with the production engineer and the latter with an application engineer.

The training didn’t end there. “We also sent our production supervisor and her assistant to Lean Thinking, introducing them to the strategies and tactics that production engineers need to keep in mind,” Snyder says. “We wanted buy-in from the supervisor level, and that required us to find projects and begin applying various Lean tools to address the challenges we identified.”

API’s purchasing and logistics coordinator, meanwhile, attended Supply Chain 101, and the production engineer took part in an Advanced Manufacturing Technology (AMT) show. “I’m always looking for new tools to add to our toolbox,” Snyder says. “AMT is especially interesting with the labor challenges we face today. We are likely to have people retiring in the near term, and we can’t always find people to fill those gaps. I’m curious about ways to automate our way out of that scenario.”

As for next steps, Snyder says he looks forward to applying Lean tools to office processes. “I’m eager to implement Lean in the procedural/office end,” he says. “There are plenty of opportunities to refine order processing and quoting.”

Results

API noticed an obvious increase in employee engagement.
“People are excited and looking for more Continuous Improvement opportunities throughout the shop and spreading that excitement through the whole organization,” says Snyder.
The ongoing relationship with MRC has saved API well over $100,000.