New Manufacturing Facility Goes Online in Record Time

The company realized 33% of their projected return seven months ahead of schedule

Company

A billion dollar manufacturer and marketer of beauty, personal care, and household products around the globe.

Challenge

After completing a 28-state search to identify a site for its new manufacturing facility in the US, the company sought to accomplish an ambitiously aggressive timeline of one year from groundbreaking to get a state-of-the-art, 475,000 square foot, $60 million dollar manufacturing facility open and operational.

Solution

The company’s key executives sought out a dedicated program leader to ensure that all aspects of this highly complex, enterpriselevel strategic initiative were orchestrated as a coordinated effort. They turned to PM Solutions for a senior program manager who could meet these aggressive goals, translate the company’s vision into a actionable plan, identify the right resources to involve, and coordinate all stakeholders toward the common goal. Just weeks after groundbreaking, PM Solutions’ senior program manager played a key role in unifying the program, minimizing confusion, improving communications among business units and senior leadership, building an awareness among team members on the strategic implications of the program, and establishing and managing the schedule to ensure that strategic milestones were being met. 

Working with more than 20 senior internal leaders from over 25 corporate and site-level operating units, PM Solutions’ senior program manager fostered evolutionary change within the organization in terms of reducing barriers and building communication bridges between the different units. At the site level, PM Solutions’ senior program manager used lean manufacturing principles to assist in the translation of existing corporate policies to fit the new manufacturing culture

Results

The new manufacturing facility was delivered on time, beginning production one year after breaking ground. It normally takes up to 24 months for a facility of this size and complexity to open. Initially 120 new US-based jobs were created, and once the facility was operating at full capacity, 400 new jobs were created. This facility project was predicated on providing the company with organizational consolidation, an additional growth platform, lean manufacturing capability, overhead reduction, and added capacity at an expected savings in excess of $12 million per year. Since the facility was able to be operational in just 12 months, the company realized 33% of their projected return seven months ahead of schedule.

Based on this performance, PM Solutions remains engaged with this client helping to integrate specialized manufacturing units into the facility along with newly acquired product lines. 

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