Colonial Mills Reduces Order Turnaround Time
Pawtucket, RI, September 12, 2007--Colonial Mills Inc. said it has reduced order shipment time by two days, from seven to five.
The order-to-ship time is currently averaging 3.6 days.
The braided-rug company has worked closely with Rhode Island Manufacturing Extension Services (RIMES) since 2000 on adopting and becoming proficient at lean manufacturing processes so to become more competitive in the local, national and global marketplace. RIMES is a not-for-profit Rhode Island affiliate of the national network of Manufacturing Extension Partnerships (MEP’s) which provides low cost, high quality manufacturing technology services and resources to small- to medium-sized Rhode Island manufacturers.
“With the help of RIMES and the lean manufacturing process, we reduced our order-to-ship time from 28 days to seven days by 2001 and we have managed to cut that even further, to five days while still achieving a fill rate of 100%,” said Donald M. Scarlata, president and CEO of Colonial Mills.
Scarlata also said that over the last five years, returns are down from 2% to 0.34%.
Lean manufacturing technology is based on an idea created in