Since beginning their work with GaMEP, Isotec has:
- Cut approval time by 50 percent, enabling problems to be solved at a 65 percent higher rate.
- Increased revenue by 43 percent and new customer acquisition by 90 percent.
- Improved daily communication on raw material issues by 75 percent.
- Grown shipments from an average of 30 to 50 per week.
- Decreased new production samples needing adjustments by 77 percent.
- Increased new production samples by 30% with the same number of employees.
- Improved staff’s ability to identify priority raw materials for production by 65 percent, and product priority by 55 percent.
Isotec International, located in Canton, GA, has been a thought leader in chemical manufacturing for 35 years, creating innovative solutions to meet market demand. Servicing many manufacturing industries, from Automotive to Taxidermy, their goal has remained the same: to deliver cost-effective, stable, and sustainable products to their customers.
Isotec has been a trusted partner of the Georgia Manufacturing Extension Partnership (GaMEP) at Georgia Tech, having worked together for almost 10 years. After the management team completed an Organizational Excellence Assessment, Forest Knight, president of Isotec, wanted to build on the positive company culture by increasing open lines of communication between the staff and management teams to operate more effectively and efficiently. He turned to his trusted resources, Bill Ritsch, North Metro Atlanta region manager, and Andy Helm, senior project manager for strategy and leadership development, to conduct Managing for Daily Improvement (MDI), a training that increases overall teamwork and development of key performance indicators (KPI) within an organization.
Helm led the project to identify critical metrics, and engaged the teams in developing KPI’s that staff and management could use to encourage collaboration and solve daily problems more efficiently.
As part of the Isotec process, they now utilize 30-minute GEMBA walks throughout the plant, stopping in each area to problem solve right on the spot, shortening the communication loop and improving troubleshooting time. Staff now feel more comfortable voicing problems in a group setting and have embraced working together as they feel the lines of communication are always open without judgement.
Knight said, “The MDI training has helped us manage our growth by organizing and planning better so that we are proactive, not reactive.” As a result, Isotec has increased revenue and new customer acquisition. Their daily communication of raw material issues has improved by 75 percent, and approval time has been cut in half, enabling problems to get solved at a faster rate.
GaMEP continues to help Isotec identify opportunities for business growth, and Knight has already engaged the GaMEP team for additional projects, including leadership training and a cybersecurity assessment.
