M.C. Dean is expanding its operational excellence team and applying lean principles at their Modular Mission Critical™ (MMC) manufacturing facility, driving more value to customers and achieving a competitive edge in the marketplace.
“Our intent is to build a continuous improvement mindset across
M.C. Dean, which will include educating our employees, leaders and customers. The outcome will further differentiate M.C. Dean from other engineering firms of our size and will be added into our overarching growth strategies for the next decade,” said Terry Casey, M.C. Dean senior vice president of manufacturing.
This focus on operational excellence started at MMC in 2024 with the establishment of a leadership team, spearhead by Kevin Douglas, M.C. Dean vice president of operational excellence, and a steering committee.
“By deeply integrating operational excellence into our daily actions at MMC, we not only streamline production but teach every employee how they impact the value stream to the customer,” said Kevin. “We document together the impact of establishing standard work and setting realistic production goals to meet customer demand.”
Last year, the operational excellence team hosted their first CEO Kaizen event focused on improving underground assembly production and yielded tangible improvements in M.C. Dean’s workflow. Cross-functional experts analyzed and improved the Power Delivery Modules (PDM) production line to meet growing needs of top data center customers. Kaizen events are a common practice in lean manufacturing, modeled after the Toyota Production System, to improve customer service, quality, and productivity by systematically eliminating process waste.
The second CEO Kaizen event held January 13-17 focused on design, materials, and metal works to further improve the PDM line upstream. The unprecedented event included more than 55 leaders and frontline employees, forming five teams to evaluate and improve key stages of the product line value stream for implementation this year.
Follow along on M.C. Dean’s website and social for more updates as they continue their operational excellence transformation in 2025 and beyond.
