Posted to Gordon’s Window Decor
Lean Office Workshop with VMEC!
"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." - Benjamin Franklin
VMEC‘s primary mission is: “To strengthen and empower Vermont manufacturers.” VMEC has grown since 1995 through strong partnerships, collaboration, and a passionate commitment to help willing enterprises improve, grow and achieve a promising future. VMEC strives for and achieves measurable results and positive bottom line impacts, and has been a trusted advisor for more than 900 Vermont manufacturing companies.” -courtesy of VMEC.org
Last week, the entire GWD team met at The Essex, for a all day workshop to learn how we can have a “Lean Office”.
But first….COFFEE.
“Continuous Improvement, Learning, Growing- these are all cornerstones of our culture here at Gordon’s Window Decor so what an amazing day it was on Tuesday when we took the entire team to The Essex for a day of learning with VMEC (Vermont Manufacturing Extension Corp).” said Kelly Clements, President
“If there are speed or accuracy issues within a business, it’s rarely the people who are the problem. It’s the systems and procedures that need improvement.”– David H., eCommerce Manager
“One goal of the training was to think how we can improve our processes at GWD. We are all going to make a mistake now and then. When we evaluate a mistake we are not critiquing the person, we are trying to improve the process. We know our people are good but the process needs to continuously improve.” –Frank M., Commercial Sales
“Standard Operating Procedures (SOP and/or/also one point lessons) should be documented to allow ease of personnel change, but more importantly documented SOPs help the streamline the process for efficiency. Allowing us to visualize and, therefore add/remove value/ non-value added process/procedures. In other words, documentation solidifies processes, which should allow for adjustments to improve.”- Veronica B., Cellular Production
⬅Click to Watch! Check out this FUN exercise to get a job done quickly and efficiently!
“I learned so much about how to manage my time and cut steps out that aren’t necessary that slow the work progression.” – Jenn C., eCommerce Customer Service
Kelly shared, “We engaged in a workshop which helps bring Lean manufacturing practices into the office environment. As a group we ran through different exercises to help us think differently about the work we do and it was so energizing. It felt awesome to see everyone on the team thinking about their processes and how they could be improved to make our work even more fun (and trust me, it’s pretty darn fun already!).”
“Everyone builds value also finding better ways to be organized both physically and digitally.” –Michelle H., eCommerce Customer Service
“The other cool thing about it is that VMEC is really a shining star in their industry nationally so having a cool Vermont company helping another cool (if we do say so ourselves) Vermont company hit home just how great it is to be a part of this community. All in all it was an awesome day.” – Kelly C., President
And after a day long workshop, some of the team stayed for a cocktail and dinner at The Tavern.