The Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center (TMAC), through the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering, recently worked with Neon Electric Corporation to orient employees on "lean" concepts and where waste occurs.
"The first thing we did was tour the entire facility, identifying scrap and recyclable items and marking them for disposal," says Alexis Hink McCarty, president of Neon Electric. "It was amazing how much stuff we were keeping for no reason. Moving things out really gave us much-needed room."
The next process TMAC identified for change involved the company's large crane trucks. "We move our trucks inside the building at the end of each day. This means that all projects in process have to be moved each night to make room and then moved again each morning. Based on TMAC reports, we were losing about $25,000 a year doing this," says Hink McCarty.
To eliminate this unnecessary expense, Neon Electric is currently building a garage that will house these vehicles.
"Although some things just make sense, it gives you a new perspective when you actually see the numbers in black and white. TMAC provided us with many recommendations on what we could do to further reduce costs and increase productivity. It is frustrating because we want to make the changes quickly but change can sometimes be difficult to implement. So, we are slowly going down the list and trying to work on them," Hink McCarty says.
Neon Electric just completed building a new facility for the newly formed Graphic Fabricators Inc. to occupy. "The TMAC specialists gave us very valuable information and although we have not implemented all the suggestions yet, we are still working toward that direction."
Neon Electric Corporation was established in 1946 and to this day remains a family owned and operated company. They manufacture and service signs and have expanded to three divisions; Lighting Services, the service and maintenance division, Graphic Fabricators, the graphics division, and the Architectural Metal Products Division that specializes in shelters, benches and kiosks.