One of the key elements on my American Lean Weekday podcast is the weekly interviews that I conduct with companies on their Lean Journey. These companies are from various industries and are all different sizes. I have interviewed leaders from family-owned businesses to multi-national organizations. These are keynotes from a conversation with MD Engineering.

MD Engineering founded in 1999 and located in Corona, California is a nationally recognized leading producer and distributor of quality machined products providing parts to the military, industrial and commercial manufacturers worldwide. They are a leading supplier of complex machined parts, assemblies, and “buy complete” components to the commercial aerospace, military, and contract manufacturing industries. With a strategic focus on lean manufacturing, they manufacture and assemble tight tolerance and short lead-time projects based on customers’ demands.

These are some key points taken from my interview with the Chief Operations Officer Ryan Cortes.

1.  MD began its Lean journey in 2009. They have been aggressively pursuing change for eleven years".
2.  "One of the things that we learned early on was the principles that Lean talks about were true! We ended the year with great sales dollars but had no cash in the bank. It was all tied up in inventory!"
3.  "If you have a dollar in cash you can spend it if you have a dollar tied up in inventory- you can't do anything with it. Cash is king in a small business."
4. "Lean absolutely applies in a machine shop setting. I can't think of a company that Lean is more applicable in than a machine shop."
5. I would get some training as you begin your Lean journey. I don't think the theory sinks in at first for the average person.
6. I wasn't optimistic about what Lean could do for us. I was trying to appease a customer. But as I learned more about it and MD Engineering embraced it, there is no doubt we would not have enjoyed the growth that we have had without a Lean transformation.

 To hear Ryan’s interview please join us on the podcast at Americanlean.com episode forty-seven.

As always, it is an honor to serve you and I hope that you and your company are getting better every day!

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