Founded in 1965, Brentwood Industries is a family-owned company headquartered in Reading, Pennsylvania. Now in its third generation of Rye family leadership, Brentwood remains focused on helping people; the company aims to do this with products and services—provided to the water and wastewater, building and construction, stormwater management, and other industries—and through giving back to the communities where it does business.
MRC Training Helps Brentwood Industries Remove Silos
“When someone asks ‘do you have a resource for this?’, MRC is always my first choice.”
– – Henry Ramsay, Organizational Development Manager
Situation
As Brentwood Industries has pursued ISO9001 certification, the company found itself in need of both internal auditor training and staffers with associated education and certifications.
Solution
Henry Ramsay, Brentwood’s Organizational Development Manager, oversees training, career path, and development for sites in Pennsylvania and around the world. He turned to MRC, saying “They’ve been one of our primary training providers since 2000. When someone asks ‘do you have a resource for this?’, MRC is always my first choice,” Ramsay says. “They have solid training solutions and staffers who can help us succeed.”
In terms of time management specifically, he says MRC offered tools to help staffers prioritize their days. “Teaching people to discern busywork versus what is important, urgent versus critical…that’s the heart of it.” Ramsay adds that he often takes part in training as time permits, in hopes of gauging the training’s effectiveness and seeing what he can learn.
Brentwood Industries
Ramsay says he also often encourages staffers to attend the Supervisor Boot Camp Level 1 training. “The boot camps are always wonderful. We have a culture of promoting from within—taking all-star operators and making them leaders. Now we have the support we need to make them supervisors.” Ramsay says one particular challenge is learning to lead a team you were just a part of. “That’s not easy, but MRC makes it possible.”
The company even used a process-mapping effort to eliminate emerging “silos” in one of their facilities. “Once people learned how their work was interdependent with others—that they need to collaborate, they need clear handoffs—that helped to streamline things significantly.”
Brentwood also benefited from MRC’s annual Automation Manufacturing Technology Show, which Ramsay himself attended. “The sessions offered a really good cross section of speakers,” he says. “I brought some people from our Reading facilities so they could walk around, network, and learn firsthand what’s going on in the world with technology.”
Results
• A professionally delivered Kaizen event enabled participants to offer input and work together as a team.
• Initial productivity gains totaled 41% in the IP Tops area and 27% in the Cup Holder area.
• Brentwood benefited from a new, more efficient layout, raw material and tools placed at the point of use, the removal of clutter, and the labeling of necessary items.
To learn more about Brentwood Industries, visit their website at Brentwood Industries.com