Company Background

At Mavpak we serve people, not products. We take pride in focusing on what you want to buy, not what we have to sell. Every time we meet with you our goal is to help you define what you need to be successful. We consult with our team to identify the best products for you. A few examples of what we provide: stock corrugated, die-cut corrugated, printed corrugated, point-of-purchase displays, molded pulp, poly bags & sheeting, stretch film, bundling film, shrink film, labels, adhesives, chipboard, and various types of foam.

Purdue MEP Project Details

Situation

Mavpak is a company clearly guided by their mission: a packaging distributor dedicated to honoring God by serving their customers, employees, vendors and community in a life-giving pursuit of excellence and accountability.

To fully serve their customers and mission, Mavpak was in search of ways the company could help other people go further, faster.  That journey began when two employees participated in a Purdue Manufacturing Extension Partnership’s (MEP) Lean course.  Laura Hayes, one of these participants, knew Purdue MEP could be a valuable resource for Mavpak, as the company was just beginning to be built.  Mavpak had seen other companies that did not take the time to setup processes correctly.  To avoid finding themselves a few years down the road with numerous inefficient processes, Mavpak wanted to focus on value-added processes from the very beginning. 

Solution

In order to structure things correctly, Purdue MEP came onboard to walk Mavpak through a process map, an exercise that documented the company’s current state and planned for the ideal future state.  Mavpak was dedicated to identify and implement the best possible process and flow.  Experience had taught the team sales was the most wasteful process in any business, so Mavpak used the process mapping exercise to create value in the sales process. While every customer is different, Mavpak sought to find what was common between each one.

To ensure success, the company made a full commitment to the project with Purdue MEP.  Not only did the entire Mavpak team participate in the process mapping, they openly talked to customers and vendors about the project.  The feedback from customers and vendors was a vital piece in helping the company put an accurate process map in place.  

Results

The company’s biggest realization was the incredible amount of waste in the sales process/value creation stream.  One specific issue pinpointed was the quoting process.  The company was quoting orders after they tested the design for a potential customer.  Mavpak realized the testing was irrelevant if the pricing was not right, so they made a major shift to quote before testing. This change in their thought process has resulted in a dramatic culture change since the price issue is now off table as soon as possible.  This has also changed Mavpak employees’ mindset, and they are now willing to hear the customer tell them no.  The change in their process allows them to lose as quickly as possible, which frees them up to move onto something that will result in work.

In addition, with a clearly defined process, the company has stopped wasting time building irrelevant tools to solve a problem.  As an example, Mavpak had plans to invest and design their own CRM, but once they started working with Purdue, they changed course due to the realization the CRM tool would not serve their process. 

Most importantly, the work with Purdue MEP allowed Mavpak to focus on creating value for customers while eliminating work that did not move the needle for the customer. 

Testimonial

“We engaged Purdue to help us set our company up for success in the near and long term.  Purdue MEP helped us understand the importance and benefits of first taking time to document exactly where we were.  They helped us to walk the path of defining the what, when, where, why, and how of our current business processes.  This process was long, painful, and ultimately quite empowering.  Once we were all on the same page about where we were, it became fun and exciting to dream together about where we could go.  We saw incredible impact immediately in our sales process.  We were able to eliminate a ton of waste for us and our customers.  At Mavpak, our single greatest resource is our time.  Eliminating waste from our sales process allows us to spend more time on the projects that matter the most for the customers that we care so much about.  Our mission statement is to “Honor God by serving our customers, employees, vendors, and community in a life-giving pursuit of excellence and accountability”.  The Purdue team definitely helped us in our pursuit of excellence and our new processes keep us 100% accountable to one another and our customers!” 

John Goo, President, Mavpak, Inc.

“While completing the value stream mapping exercise with Purdue, we made a deeper connection with our mission. Because we serve people, not products, being able to qualify the potential of a relationship is essential for us. When we can focus on needle moving projects for our customer, we’re at our best. Purdue MEP helped free us up to meet the next customer who wants to go further faster.”

Laura Hayes, Director of Mavpak U