Seaman Corp. is expanding its international footprint, and it did so while the whole world watched.
Seaman’s Shelter-Rite fabric was used to cover a temporary NBC “Today Show” broadcast studio and pavilion during the 2008 Olympic Games in China.
But having its products sharing camera time with Matt Lauer isn’t all the company is doing to evolve its manufacturing operations.
The company, led by President and CEO Richard N. Seaman, has implemented and sustained lean sigma into its manufacturing process to eliminate waste, increase efficiency and reduce manufacturing costs. It has conducted lean events in all of its manufacturing processes and started to implement it into other business processes. Seaman uses a rigorous selection process to identify and learn projects that will result in a high return on investment. As a part of this process, Seaman creates a value stream map to assess the impact and difficulty of each lean event.
Through the implementation of its lean strategy, Seaman has achieved many successes, including increasing productivity by 21 percent on average and reducing the size of production lots by 50 percent, which in turn allows for more diversity in the production schedule.
In addition to its lean strategy, Seaman has made significant capital investments in its manufacturing processes in recent years. Between 2001 and 2004, Seaman invested more than $15 million in designing, acquiring and installing state-of-the-art hot melt coating equipment in two of its manufacturing facilities. As a part of this investment, Seaman completed an approximately 19,000-square-foot expansion of its Wooster facility and an approximately 12,000-square-foot expansion of its Bristol, Tenn., facility. Additionally, in December 2008, Seaman dedicated a new $5.5 million coating line for primer application in its Bristol facility as part of a plan to invest $7 million in this facility over three years. The plan also provides for new mixing equipment as well as weaving and knitting machinery for the Bristol facility.
The capital investments made by Seaman in recent years have allowed it to remain competitive worldwide, increase its production capabilities, produce fabric in wider widths preferred by customers and strengthen its research and development efforts for the industrial fabric market.
How to reach: Seaman Corp., (330) 262-1111 or www.seamancorp.com