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Jasper Rubber Products, Inc. specializes in the manufacturing of molded rubber, lathe cut rubber, TPE, and LSR products. The field of elastomer technology has changed frequently and dramatically since Jasper Rubber was founded. Often, Jasper Rubber leads the way. The company offers a full range of rubber, thermoplastic, and plastic materials that can be custom compounded to meet individual needs.

Situation

Our company wanted to advance our employees competence in Lean manufacturing practices through training in order to create a culture of continuous improvement to drive cost savings initiatives. Through Purdue TAP's help and funding provided by the IEDC, we were able to accomplish our objective of educating our employees on how to incorporate Lean manufacturing principles to eliminate waste, streamline processes and improve quality.

Solution

Twenty of our employees spent 1600 training hours on the Principles of Lean Manufacturing, Value Stream Mapping, 5S System, Quick Changeover/Set-Up Reduction, Cellular/Flow, Total Productive Maintenance, Pull Systems/Kanban, Standard Work & Error Proofing, Advanced Problem Solving, and Kaizen Event Facilitation.

Results

The foundation of this training has yielded several impactful cost savings initiatives and we anticipate many more to follow. The culture of continuous improvement has become and will become an important baseline for how we move forward. Thus far, we have the following to report:

• IEDC contribution of $29,375 through a Workforce 2.1 training grant
• Jasper Rubber contribution of roughly $40,000 in labor hours
• Estimated savings of between 15-20% in certain areas of production once training is fully implemented

“Purdue TAP's capabilities have greatly surpassed our expectations and we look forward to continuing the beneficial relationship we have with them."

- Doug Mathias, President & CEO, Jasper Rubber