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Thread: UL's MEPol helps companies improve capacity, grow sales

  1. This is a GREAT IDEA UL's MEPol helps companies improve capacity, grow sales


      According to best-selling author Eliyahu Goldratt, "The Goal of a manufacturing organization is to make money. And everything we do is a means to achieve The Goal," which "is to increase net profit while simultaneously increasing Return on Investment (ROI) and cash flow."

    So how does a manufacturer increase net profit while simultaneously increasing the company's ROI and cash flow? By improving its existing capacity then filling the additional capacity with new sales.

    OK, how does the Manufacturing Extension Partnership of Louisiana (MEPoL) help a manufacturer improve capacity and grow sales at the same time?

    To improve capacity and grow sales simultaneously, three strategies must be implemented:

  2. Theory of Constraint -- treat the root cause, not the symptoms,
  3. Throughput Decision Making --increase sales while decreasing operating expenses and inventory, and
  4. Sales Growth -- adding new products and/or new customers.

    Cane River Islands Foods is a recent example of how MEPoL is working to help a small manufacturer in Cloutierville in Natchitoches Parish improve its capacity while adding to its customer base. The company is owned by a mother and daughter. And its product, according to Judy Matt, the mother, is the "Best Crawfish Pie on the Bayou."

    MEPoL initially received a referral to the company from the Small Business Development Center at Northwestern State University. After meeting with the company and learning of its needs to help improve production and increase sales, MEPoL staff began to pull together the expertise necessary to meet its needs.

    The expertise came from within MEPoL and from our partners, which include the University of Louisiana-Lafayette, Coordinating & Development Corp.'s Business Incubator, the Louisiana Labor Department, the U.S. Agriculture Department, the NSU Small Business Development Center and Jig-Saw Advertising & Marketing.

    In a collaborative effort, MEPoL and the partners created a logo and package design that accented the "Cajun Certified" crawfish flavor of the pies. Then a Web site was created featuring a "Bayou" theme created during the logo and package design phase.

    At the same time, MEPoL staff evaluated Cane River's existing production operations. The evaluation led to a recommendation for the company to implement Lean Manufacturing principles and practices, which could ultimately lead to a 100 percent improvement in capacity. Then, to create new sales to fill the company's new improved capacity, the partners began working on a marketing plan that will allow the company to expand its sales as it increases it capacity.

    If you are a manufacturer, I have a question for you. If MEPoL and its partners can help Cane River improve its capacity and sales by 100 percent, will Cane River achieve Goldratt's "The Goal" of increasing net profit, ROI and cash flow? By working with MEPoL and the partners, the possibilities for the company's success are astronomically greater than it would be by the company trying to go it alone.

    "The Goal" has no boundaries; it applies to manufacturing or service organizations, small or large, rural or urban, new or established, or local or international. "The Goal" is about creating value for both profit and nonprofit organizations, customers and other stakeholders.

    If you would like to discuss how MEPoL could help your manufacturing company, please call our office at (318) 671-7675. We welcome the opportunity to discuss your needs and tell you about our services, which are designed to make your company more productive and competitive in today's global economy.

    Mike Hayden is MEPoL's project director for northern Louisiana. MEPoL is a service funded, in part, by the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

    Story link broken

    ShreveportTimes.com


  5. Homes SO Clean

  6. #2

    Default MEPoL

    Check out the headline. Rather interesting statistics...


  7. Louisiana Re: MEPoL

    Let me understand this. MEPoL as part of UL is doing great things with no state money, private and federal only.

    Yet the state is pouring dollar after dollar to the Puke's in agriculture, another area that is losing millions of dollors.

    Welcome to the Banana Republic of Louisiana.


  8. #4

    Default Re: MEPoL

    Quote Originally Posted by Lafitte the Pirate View Post
    _ Let me understand this. MEPoL as part of UL is doing great things with no state money, private and federal only.

    As someone who has worked in oilfield manufacturing for the past 30 years, that is truly amazing. It always seems the state only wants to know what they can take from us not what they can do for us.

    Hopefully MEPOL will make a difference in this arena.

  9. This is a GREAT IDEA Corinne Dupuy, MEPoL Director


      This is Part II of our (ULToday) interview with Corinne Dupuy.

    Tell us about yourself.

    I grew up in Breaux Bridge, the child of strong-willed parents. I married my high school school sweetheart, he's a purchasing agent with JP Oil Company headquarters herre in Lafayette. We've been married 25 years, we have two children, both with Down's syndrome. Mark is 24, and Lindsay is 21.

    I got my BS & MS in engineering at UL. I've been here 20 years. I was hired out of college to work for what was then the Louisiana Productivity Center, and which is now MEPoL. I started at the bottom, and worked my way up.

    ULToday.com

    Homes SO Clean

  10. #6

    Default Re: MEPoL

    Quote Originally Posted by Lafitte the Pirate View Post
    Let me understand this. MEPoL as part of UL is doing great things with no state money, private and federal only.

    Yet the state is pouring dollar after dollar to the Puke's in agriculture, another area that is losing millions of dollors.

    Welcome to the Banana Republic of Louisiana.
    It is very concerning. And it's not just that it's UL vs. LSU.

    It's just plain short-sighted. We desperately need manufacturing, and agriculture is shrinking. One of the biggest threats to Louisiana right now is the brain drain. We are losing our best and brightest to Houston, Dallas, Atlanta, and even Birmingham.

    Manufacturing and other high tech business could help reverse that.

  11. #7

    Default Re: MEPoL

    Quote Originally Posted by BeauCajun View Post
    As someone who has worked in oilfield manufacturing for the past 30 years, that is truly amazing. It always seems the state only wants to know what they can take from us not what they can do for us.

    Hopefully MEPOL will make a difference in this arena.
    Anybody have any ideas of what we could do to change the funding for MEPoL?

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