Sterling Autobody Centers recently completed the third segment in its journey back to a lean environment. During the past six months, Sterling’s leaders completed the first two segments of lean implementation — Leadership Alignment and Strategy Deployment — to enable the completion of its most recent activity, Value Stream Mapping.
“Our entire organization is excited about creating a strong culture of continuous improvement and eliminating waste," said Sterling Autobody Centers President Nick Notte. “LEAN is all about delighting the customer and we are committed to doing just that."
Sterling’s previous foray into LEAN was successful, but with significant turnover early-on, much of the culture was diluted.
“We wanted the best to help us gain back significant competitive advantage, so we went straight to the Murli Group — the folks who infused our culture back in 1999," said Notte.
The Murli Group is a in developing lean tenants in many facets of business and is a member of the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI). The Value Stream Mapping exercise provided Sterling with a future-state model significantly void of waste, the company says.
“Our new model will help Sterling to greatly reduce cycle time, improve customer satisfaction and grow the company," said Roger Wright, Sterling vice president of strategic design and process mastery.
While Sterling continues its plan to grow its footprint, the tenets of lean will be included in those new stores. Sterling is currently piloting the lean process in its Rolling Meadows location.
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Sterling Autobody Centers
