Background
PDC Machines was established in 1979 to design and manufacture very high pressure pumping systems and pressure vessels. PDC owns three buildings within the same industrial park and employs nearly 80 full-time employees from the Philadelphia region. PDC is the premier manufacturer in the world of diaphragm compressors for a variety of different applications industry wide. The company sells its machines all over the world. It is based in Warminster, PA.
Situation
Mateen Afzal, Vice President of Operations and General Manager, along with his father, Syed, and brother, Karim, had built an incredible business over the years. In 2015, they sought help from DVIRC to grow and sustain the company’s expansion. Growth was accelerating quickly, and the management team was worried about the effective management of that growth, including their ability to take on new work while continuing to serve existing clients at the highest level they deserved. PDC needed a way to help them manage growth effectively – create the ability to continue to serve existing customers as well as take on new customers and attack new markets where growth was happening. The management team’s goal was to get ahead of growth and create processes to ensure the sustainability of the business.
Solution
DVIRC initially engaged with PDC management to perform a Continuous Improvement (CI) Assessment of the company’s production and operations. DVIRC’s CI Assessment is a proprietary process used to evaluate the current state of a manufacturing business through a mix of interviews, a factory tour, management discussions, key performance indicator (KPI) evaluation, and bottom-line analysis. This assessment laid the groundwork for future work and helped PDC and DVIRC to plan effectively. From that engagement and assessment, PDC management and DVIRC came together to form a CI and strategic deployment plan for the business. These plans included training more than 60 employees in Lean / CI methodologies, tools, and processes. The employees were also organized into cross-functional teams that worked on real-life improvement projects within PDC as they went through the training. This work also included CI coaching with management and project teams, organizing kaizen work focused on process mapping, 5S organization, standardizing work, root cause analysis, and daily / visual management.
DVIRC also provided Executive Coaching to PDC’s top leaders and helped the management team form a Board of Advisors to help steer and develop strategic initiatives for the business and provide counsel to management. DVIRC’s Executive Coaching provided one-on-one counsel to top leadership at PDC related to the deployment of those strategic initiatives, troubleshooting issues, and maintaining adherence to work to better the business.
Lastly, DVIRC aided the business in consolidating seven management information systems into one overarching Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform. These seven disparate systems had been used at varying degrees usage and created process redundancies, issues with reporting and analysis of business information, and increased overhead to manage all seven systems. DVIRC worked with PDC management to shepherd the business through a proprietary selection process in order to assess and identify potential solutions, as well as select the right platform for the business, as well as aided the company in sourcing a project manager for the implementation and migration of the business into the new ERP system.
DVIRC has worked very closely with PDC to enhance and develop Lean manufacturing skills among our employees. We have seen a direct impact on the production floor and a reduction of costs in raw materials and increased efficiencies. Working with DVIRC has also led to increased engagement and empowerment of our dedicated team members as they implement their learnings throughout our organization.
Mateen Afzal, VP/GM, PDC
Results
By participating in DVIRC’s unique “learn and apply” approach to Continuous Improvement, PDC was able to identify and capture $500,000 worth of cost savings over a period of three years.
Through this work, PDC was able to maintain the production of legacy customer work on a particular product line worth $7 million while bringing in a new $7 million piece of business without skipping a beat, a feat that the management team did not see possible without the help of DVIRC and implementation of CI within PDC’s business. Further, business leaders made investments of $200,000 in their people and internal processes, and helped create and retain important jobs at PDC crucial to organizational growth.
- PDC was able to identify and capture $500,000 worth of cost savings over a period of three years.
- PDC was able to maintain the production of legacy customer work on a particular product line worth $7 million.
- PDC brought in a new $7 million piece of business.
- Business leaders made investments of $200,000 in their people and internal processes.