Crane Plastics lean manufacturing journey began in 2005 with the implementation of a 5S program.  The 5S effort organized the manufacturing operation and created more space within the manufacturing facility.  The results improved our ability to respond to our customer's demands for reduced costs and shorten the order fulfillment cycle to as little as one day from receipt of a customer requirement.

Crane's continuous improvement effort began with the conversion from a paper based statistical process control system to a computerized system for automated data collection and analysis.  The enormity of data collected in the paper based system left little time to analyze the data or act on it.  Collecting data in a computer based system allows real time tracking and facilitates making improvements based on real time data collection. We collect statistical data in areas ranging from die wear to part length variation.

Crane's current CI project is to increase finished goods inventory turns.  Effectively this means reducing inventory levels while maintaining a high level of on-time delivery performance for our customers.  Reducing inventory frees capital invested in W.I.P. and finished goods inventory and reduces the amount of space required to store inventory. 

Both the lean manufacturing and continuous improvement programs are on-going at Crane.