Success at Athena Controls did not start with an ERP software purchase. Success began a few years ago with the realization that changes to the business practices of Athena Controls were required if they were to keep the company’s doors open. Software alone can not build a successful and profitable company. The proper match of software and culture is what drives and accelerates success at any organization.

In 2001, the management team at Athena Controls recognized the dynamics of their marketplace was changing. Products which are the bread and butter of the company were seeing fierce competition from larger manufacturers and overseas companies.

Athena Controls’ internal processes were very typical of a manufacturing company using work orders and large batch mode processes and shop floor personnel are functional specialists. Departments were organized around functions, not on value to the customer. Customer orders were processed with the old “over the wall” approach. Cycle time to manufacture printed circuit boards was on average nine weeks, maintenance and housekeeping was poor and quality was only measured at the end of line resulting in large amounts of re-work. Profits were rapidly disappearing and Athena Controls knew they had to change. The significance of embarking upon change would mean their survival!

In mid 2001, Athena Controls began education on the concepts of the Lean Enterprise. The Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center and Brian Maskell (BMA Inc.) were brought to Athena Controls to conduct training and education.

All team members and management learned the 5 elements of Lean:

• Value. Anything that does not add value to the product or service as seen by the eyes if the customer, must be identified and eliminated.
• Value Stream. Companies must manage by the value stream to best serve the customer. The value stream starts with the incoming phone call and ends with collection of cash.
• Flow and Pull. These are the enabling techniques that produce shorter lead times, higher quality and better response.
• Empowerment. This is the recognition that the best process engineers are the people doing the job. Empowerment means teaching people new tools and methods and allowing them to implement process improvements.
• Continual Improvement. A Lean implementation is a revolution that never ends. Lean creates a team culture that does not accept the current methods as the best and believes that everything can be improved over and over again.

Focus teams were created consisting of shop floor and management associates to produce improvements for processes at Athena Controls. Focus team results were astonishing as cycle time reduced from weeks to days, inventory dropped and productivity significantly increased. Initial results were not enough; Athena Controls was ready to rapidly accelerate their improvements after attacking all of the low hanging fruit.

Athena Controls realized that to continue the progress of corporate re-organization to a Lean environment they needed a modern real-time manufacturing information (ERP) system. After a thorough search of products available in the marketplace, Athena Controls selected WinMan in the beginning of 2004.

Athena Controls took a very progressive approach with the WinMan implementation. WinMan handles sales order management, BOM control, RMA management and accounting. Material is expensed automatically when it is received, which becomes the material cost for the month. Material is ordered through WinMan’s fully integrated KANBAN module with electronic releases, using WinMan Real Time Communicator, sent to suppliers based on the KANBAN cards scanned for the day.

Traditional purchase order entry and purchase order management is not needed since material is ordered at the point of need using KANBAN cards. While many non-value added activities have been eliminated, WinMan still creates full sales, shipment tracking, and purchase history for full reporting facilities. WinMan has facilitated Athena Controls’ desire to automate and accelerate many Lean techniques within their production facility.

Athena Controls changed its entire culture, from top-level management down to the shop floor workforce to begin the transition into a Lean organization. Cultural change, process improvements, hard work, desire, and a progressive implementation of a Lean focused ERP software system all contributed to the successful and profitable organization.

Initial numbers from Athena Improvements:

• Net operating profit increased from a loss to greater than 9% for the first two quarters after implementation of improvements
• Inventory reduced 68% and freeing up $2.0M in cash
• DSO, “Days Sales Outstanding”, decreased from greater than 60 days to less than 50 days
• 30% reduction in labor cost at relatively the same revenue rate
• Floor space reduction of 30%
• Actual cycle-time reduced from 9 weeks to less than 2 days (without overnight burn-in of product it would be a few hours or a 96% reduction)
• Cross training. Almost all of the artisan skills have been eliminated and the entire manufacturing process is converted to flow and pull
• Machine change over reduced to zero from approximately 3 hours

Improvements in these metrics are continuing, proving that a Lean Enterprise is a culture of change and never ending improvements.

Customer profile:
Athena Controls Inc, designs and manufactures digital and analog temperature control instrumentation for applications in the process industries worldwide, ranging from plastics and packaging to food and pharmaceuticals.

WinMan customer since – March 2004
Location: Plymouth Meeting, PA
Website: www.athenacontrols.com

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