Marta Tompkins, a graduate in industrial engineering from Purdue University, was excited. She had accepted a new job in South Carolina as the Operations & Logistics manager at Kempfer Furniture, Incorporated. Marta had work for Honda Manufacturing in Marysville, Ohio for twelve years as the director of Lean Operations. Her resume documented extensive experience with lean manufacturing and Six Sigma strategies and methodologies. Many of her improvement initiatives created fast throughput, and less waste and inventory. She had also led projects on new environmental quality standards outlined by ISO 14000. Kempfer hired her to be the factory manager at their South Carolina facility.

During her first two weeks on the job, Marta learned the processes that produced some standard and some customized furniture orders. Kempfer manufactured wood furniture, such as kitchen and dining room tables and chairs, beds, and bedroom dressers and night stands. They specialized in specialty hardwoods, such as cherry and red oak. The firm was known for producing high-quality furniture at low to moderate prices. Delivery time was a problem. 

Kempfer was one of a handful of American based furniture manufacturers because most furniture was built in Asian factories. But Kempfer Furniture had not been profitable for two years. The owner, Mr. Tomas Luke, hired Ms. Audubon to help turn the business around and make it profitable. His mandate to the 156 factory employees was if the business didn’t make a profit in two of the next three years, he would close the business and declare bankruptcy. 

Marta keep notes on all that she heard and saw. A sample of her notes are shown in Exhibit 18.8. She also noted that work center, loading dock, and shipping managers often missed her meetings because they were too busy getting the product out the door. 

Case Questions for Discussion: 

1. Identify three lean tools that you would recommend Kempfer Furniture use. Explain the benefits of using them. 

2. Recommend three Six Sigma or Theory of Constraints methods and tools that would help turn this firm around. Explain your reasoning for choosing them. 

3. Develop a ten-step improvement implementation plan to be completed and led by Marta Tompkins in the first six months. Justify this plan based on the facts of the case. 

4. Recommend three longer-term improvement initiatives to be accomplished after the first six months. Describe each initiative in no more than three sentences (i.e., a short paragraph).