Lydon 1

Caitlin Lydon
Ms. Leila Chawkat
Intern/Mentorship Program Period 6
Kevin Lydon, Manufacturing Consultant
LSMS
11 March 2016
Manufacturing Line Efficiency Improvement

Without efficiency, every business would shut down in a heartbeat. Many businesses
today do not maximize efficiency on their product lines leading companies to seek assistance
from consulting companies like LSMS. Efficiency is the key to success for a thriving company.
There are two main ways to provide efficiency for a company: creating strong employeremployee relationships and a visualization of the production line. A strong relationship will form
traits of respect and loyalty to one another giving the two incentives to work harder. Newer and
better employer-employee relationships creates a positive environment for the workspace for
everyone to work leading to efficiency. By creating a visualization, it will allow the line leader
of the production line to quickly understand where to place everything, like the raw materials and
associates, to run the product line smoothly. This technique provides a clear explanation of how
to run the product line limiting the opportunity for miscommunication and error. Efficiency will
be maximized with these two techniques combined on the product line.

Table of Contents:

Lydon 2
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.

Introduction page. 3
Employer-Employee Relationship page. 4
Visual Diagram page. 7
Results on the McCormicks Retail Display Pallets page. 10
Conclusion page. 11
Works Cited page. 12

Introduction
Efficiency can be accomplished by anyone in the manufacturing field. The skills to
achieve efficiency on product lines are so straightforward that Efficiency is [also called]
intelligent laziness (Dunham) and Simplicity is the soul of efficiency (Freeman). David
Dunham and Austin Freeman both imply that efficiency is elementary, and all the manufacturing
companies can achieve maximum profit with minimum wasted effort on a product line. With
that information given, why are lots of businesses losing profit and shutting down? It is because
efficiency is actually very complex to accomplish. Many companies are going out of business
because they are not optimizing maximum efficiency on their product lines creating a huge loss
of profit. However, people like Harry Moser has brought back an estimate of about 25,000
manufacturing and field-related jobs back to America in the past couple of years because
companies were not achieving efficiency (Hagerty). Because efficiency is challenging to
achieve, companies need manufacturing consulting companies to help boost efficiency on the
product lines.
Logical & Sustainable Manufacturing Solutions, also known as LSMS, is a
manufacturing consulting company driven to achieve long lasting excellence for its clients. The
owner of the company LSMS, and expert on manufacturing excellence is Kevin Lydon. One
client named Case Mason, a contract manufacturing company, is having a hard time maximizing
efficiency on the McCormick Retail Display Pallet production line. This main product line is not

Lydon 3
producing enough products for the amount of time used which creates a lot of wasted time and
money. The product is all packaged by temporary associates, it ranges from constructing the
stands and boxes to organizing and putting the spices on the stands to finally making the inner
and outer shroud to protect the product in transit. With temporary associates, efficiency is hard
to accomplish because the employers have to continually teach new low-quality employees the
routine of how to make the products. Since the employees are not as well-educated, the
employer does not show the respect the employee deserves which creates conflict in the
environment and non-motivated workers. Also, the product line leaders are having a hard time
visualizing the line like putting the raw materials where it is needed to make the line run
smoothly. Establishing new methods, like forming stronger employer-employee relationships
and creating visualization diagrams, the product line will benefit by maximizing the efficiency
and productivity.
Employer-Employee Relationship
New positive and respected employer-employee relationships for the product lines are
necessary components to provide maximum efficiency. First, the environment for the workspace
has to be a supportive and a productive atmosphere for great outcomes on the product lines to be
produced. [Building] a high-performance culture (Burnett) for the company, the associates
will want to create a major beneficial difference in the outcome. When creating relationships in
the company, [management] and labor [need to] make [the] choice to build a positive
relationship, the kind of choice that requires a sense of purpose and patience (Flint). Employees
work more efficiently when the line leaders give respect and motivate them because the workers
feel important.

Lydon 4
When the employees feel significant in the workspace, they tend to work harder and
accomplish more, leading to a more efficient line. Because American workers and businesses
are the athletes in a global competition that we must win (Collins), companies need the positive
relationships to keep the businesses operating efficiently. Employers make sure everything falls
into line while the employees make things happen, and without the employers and employees all
the companies would collapse. No one side is better than the other, for they are interdependent
on each other because without one of them the whole company would collapse. The effective
organizations are contingent on the effective relationships that include trust (Flint). However, the
main problem is that the employers are not making the effort to create the effective relationships.
According to James Flint, If services are to be effectively delivered, labor-management
relations must focus on forging a cooperative bond and on problem solving, rather than on
positions of power or egos. If employers attempt to establish an understanding of each other,
businesses will run much more efficiently.
With a strong employer-employee relationship, the employee will be more enthusiastic to
work harder and train more to gain more skills for the company. For example, the United States
is trying to grasp the idea started by Germany in which [...the use of] world-class worker
training [...leads] the union and the companies [to] "continually upgrade [...] productivity,"[...]
(Meyerson). Proper training for the employees have greater chances of positive results over poor
training because the respect given in proper training will make the employee more amenable to a
hard-working mindset. Since [..] training targets a glaring imbalance in the labor markets
(Davidson), employers tend to formulate the idea of superiority leading to more poor training, so
the employees are never compared to employers. However, with poor training, the efficiency on
the product lines will severely decrease potentially putting the company of business, so

Lydon 5
employers need to properly train their employees to boost efficiency. Poor training would
include portraying the idea to the employees that they can be replaced or be let go any minute to
provide a bigger incentive to work harder. Nonetheless, the employers that believe the idea of a
layoff is an incentive to work harder actually negatively impacts the mindset of employees in the
businesses (Preston). Therefore, employers need to establish effective relationships with the
employees to instigate diligent associates for an efficient company.
The increase of productivity is another beneficial outcome of an effective employeremployee relationship. A major component for measuring companies and the overall economy is
productivity, which is how much one produces for every hour worked (Huntley). If the
employees do not like the employers like in Case Mason, than the productivity will be slow
because the employees do not have the motivation to work harder. Case Mason layoffed people
to attempt the associates to work more efficiently, but the layoffs [did not] increase individual
company productivity, either (Pfeffer). Eventually, when new temporary associates signed to
the company, the employers at Case Mason tried to form new relationships. This one bright lady
who connected very well with Kevin Lydon, and the lady proved to him that she was trustworthy
by working very effectively that she earned a new position as line leader on the McCormick
Retail Display Pallets. After that lady, more employees followed in her footsteps hoping for their
acknowledgements in a promotion, too, substantially increasing productivity and efficiency.
A positive employer-employee relationship creates efficiency and productivity on the
product lines; however, the outcome do take time and trials. The productivity of labor is a real,
average inflation-adjusted output of labor per hour (Arnold), so productivity is not one trial
there are multiple trials to institute an accurate reading of much products are being produced.
Since productivity is calculated over time, [...]training workers in different fields of their work

Lydon 6
and giving them ample time to learn (get experience), is critical to improving their productivity
(Businge). A method that provides long-term productivity for the companies requires models to
be made to see the results and predict a theory to improve efficiency (Kahn, Rich). The graphs
below shows the production output from 2012 to 2016 on the McCormick Retail Display Pallets
product line to provide long-term productivity. From the previous graphs prior to 2016, the
average production lines are in a negative slope, this represents a positive employer-employee
relationships had a positive effect in providing efficiency and productivity to the product line.

Overall, ...productivity growth is the principal source of improvements in living standards

(Bernanke). With the growth in productivity, the company has increased in efficiency and
created a bigger profit compared to previous years. Not only a trustworthy employer-employee
relationship can fully maximize efficiency, there is another technique that can provide more
profit with minimum wasted effort named a visualization diagram of the product line.

Lydon 7
Visual Diagram
A visualization diagram of the product line creates an effective time to understand where
to put all of the raw materials to build the product. Before the visual diagram, the company, Case
Mason, would put all the raw materials everywhere and not in organized places, so when they
need a specific material, they could not find it. Also, the time to set up the line was unbelievably
slow, for it took two hours to organize and start the line which is at least one hour of wasted time
and money. The wasted time and money setting up could have been put toward producing the
products to make profit instead of losing profit. For example, new safety regulations and
protocols with visuals were created to try to reduce the risk of the oil spills after the big oil spill
on April 20, 2015 and create less communication to also reduce human error (Gilbert). Even
though the oil spills were a little more traumatic than Case Mason, this example explains the
reason behind the necessity of organization to create efficiency.
Leadership and planning that follow visual diagrams benefits the businesses by
increasing efficiency and productivity. A planning system using a visual diagram allows the line
managers or any manager to understand where all the materials need to be placed, so the
employees can start producing products as soon as possible. By establishing evaluation as a
management best practice, the Department can retain institutional knowledge about programs
and empower managers to make better decisions (David, Mehdi) which lead to a boost of
efficiency and productivity. Below is the new visual chart created by Caitlin Lydon and her
mentor Kevin Lydon. This chart was tested numerous times in the year of 2016 which is
represented in the previous bar graphs on page seven. The visual diagrams represents where
everything goes from the every little raw material like the spices to which side of the roller
conveyor belt the workers should be on. The diagram is split in two parts. The first diagram is

Lydon 8
the beginning of the product line to halfway point, and the second diagram is the halfway mark
to the end of the product line. Using the visual diagram, the efficiency and productivity of the
product line increased based on the bar graphs on page seven.

Lydon 9

Results on the McCormicks Retail Display Pallets

Lydon 10
The two techniques were used to create the 2016 production bar graph. Looking at the
bar graphs, all the previous years have a negative slope while the only positive slope is the 2016
with the new techniques used. In the end, the techniques, creating an effective employeremployee relationship and a visualization diagram, talked about were successful looking at the
data.
Conclusion
In conclusion, creating a respectable employer-employee relationship and a visualization
diagram are two opportunities to provide efficiency on a product line like the McCormicks
Retail Display Plates. The two techniques create organization and clarification to avoid error and
miscommunication on the product line which boosts efficiency on a product line. The data
displays a positive slope in the graph which mean there has been a rise in efficiency and
productivity after using the two techniques which concludes my experimental design as a
success. Even though there could be flaws in the experiment, it is reasonable to assume that the
two techniques of creating a strong relationship between an employer and an employee and
creating a visualization diagram both contribute to boosting efficiency on a product line. In the
end, efficiency is difficult to accomplish; however, when a company uses these tools and realizes
the productivity, the experience will feel like the impossible is possible.

Works Cited
Arnold, Robert. "Labor Productivity: Developments Since 1995." Labor Productivity:

Lydon 11
Developments Since 1995. March 2007: 1-12. SIRS Government Reporter. Web. 30 Nov.
2015.
Barnett, Nicholas S. "Five steps to better engage employees and improve productivity."
Australian [National, Australia] 21 Nov. 2015: 48. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 11
Mar. 2016.
Bernanke, Ben S. "Productivity." Productivity. Aug. 31 2006: n.p. SIRS Government Reporter.
Web. 30 Nov. 2015.
Businge, Julius. "Maximizing Employee Productivity." Africa News Service 26 Nov. 2013.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 11 Mar. 2016.
Collins, Susan. "The Economy Needs a Regulation Time-Out." Wall Street Journal. 26 Sep.
2011: A.15. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 21 Aug. 2015.
Davidson, Paul. "More High Schools Teach Manufacturing Skills." Florida Today. 12 Nov. 2014:
1. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 23 Dec. 2015.
David, Virajita, and Reaz Mehdi. "Office of the Month: Strategic and Performance Planning."
State Magazine. 31 Jul. 2008: 42-45. SIRS Government Reporter. Web. 23 Dec. 2015.
Flint, James. "Mending Labor-Management Relationships." Public Management. Aug. 2002:
18-21. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.
Gilbert, Daniel. "Oil Rigs' Biggest Risk: Human Error." Wall Street Journal. 20 Apr. 2015: B.1.
SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.
Hagerty, James R. "Remade in the USA." Wall Street Journal. 22 May 2012: A.1. SIRS Issues
Researcher. Web. 21 Feb. 2016.
Huntley, Helen. "The Buzz on Productivity." St. Petersburg Times (St. Petersburg, FL). Feb. 19
2006: 1D-2D. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 21 Sep. 2015.
Kahn, James A., and Robert W. Rich. "Tracking Productivity in Real Time." Current Issues in
Economics and Finance. Nov. 2006: 1-7. SIRS Government Reporter. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.
Meyerson, Harold. A Better Way for Labor. Washington Post. 30 Apr. 2015: A.21. SIRS Issues
Researcher. Web. 14 Aug. 2015.
Parsons, Chrisit. "Obama Pushes Paid Leave for Workers." Los Angeles Times. 16 Jan. 2015:
C.1. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 23 Dec. 2015.
Preston, Julia. "In Turnabout, Disney Cancels Tech Worker Layoffs." New York Times. 17 Jun.
2015: A.18. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 23 Dec. 2015.