Lean Manufacturing Transformation

About Ver-Mac

Founded in 1955, Ver-Mac is a leading manufacturer of electronic road signage equipment. The company manufactures variable message signs, arrow indicators, solar lighting towers, speed billboards, trailer cameras, temporary traffic lights, and more. Each of the product families offers eco-responsible solutions powered by solar energy. The company also delivers intelligent real-time traffic management solutions through its JamLogic software. Over the past fifteen years, Ver-Mac has successfully deployed more than 200 smart building projects in different countries.

Challenges and Objectives

Ver-Mac is growing. With growth comes new challenges. Since 2010, the increase in sales the company has been carrying out generated some problems, consisting of :

• A filled order book;
• Delivery times not met;
• Order delays ;
• Lack of space for storage;
• Lack of stability in production.

The need to switch from artisanal to industrial mode also created a tense atmosphere between the sales department and the operations department. The organization of work had to be revised, particularly by defining the roles and responsibilities of each. During this same period, competition has been increasing, and the exchange rate rising. These events created major cost pressures for this exporter, as a considerable part of its turnover is generated in the United States.

It is in this context that Ver-Mac sought out Talan’s consulting services, particularly to increase its production capacity. Thus, following an operational diagnosis (using value chain mapping), the firm's experts established an operational improvement program based on Lean principles to be able to quantify significant gains in:

• Productivity;
• Reducing time-limits;
• Improving quality.

From Diagnosis to Action!

Upon acceptance of the improvement program, Talan actively worked on specific projects to implement Lean at different levels at Ver-Mac. These include, among others:

• The correction of the causes of variation and low-quality on automated equipment (micro-stops, resumptions, errors, rejections)
• Improving the flexibility of bottleneck operations;
• Establishing the right "mix" of production and setting up a scheduling system
• The organization of assembly operations
• The balance of the manufacturing process.

Talan’s experts have accompanied and supported Ver-Mac in the decisive stages of this transformation. The role of the latter was, among others, to:

• Lead the Lean process of transformation of the company;
• Make all Ver-Mac stakeholders aware of the need for change and mobilize them within the framework of the Lean program;
• Implement transformation projects;
• Standardize the deployment of projects to optimize all the processes of the company;
• Involve all collaborators in daily management rituals;
• Promote the development of a culture of change by undertaking awareness-raising actions and accompanying employees.

Talan Continues its Support

Several other projects have been completed in recent years to support Ver-Mac in its growth and continuous improvement approach:

• Support in improving the tools and management of engineering;
• The establishment of a Lean daily management system;
• Support for the implementation of an ERP system;
• The implementation of a "Sales and Operation Planning" (S & OP) process;
• Improvement of the supply function.

Ver-Mac and Talan again joined forces in April 2018 to simplify and accelerate the development of new products and technologies.

Talan's flexible approach helps organizations develop their potential to become a high-speed business. Ver-Mac is a perfect example.