Richard Seaman, Chairman of Seaman Corporation, Talks About their Lean Journey and Long Term Growth Strategy

TBM has a strong partnership with this family-owned manufacturer of high-performance coated fabrics.

At the turn of the century, the industrial textile company was facing stiff competition from domestic and offshore suppliers. Raw material price increases were eroding margins. Productivity was low and scrap was climbing. Customers’ fast order delivery expectations were being fulfilled by holding high levels of finished goods inventory.

By the turn of the century, Seaman Corporation, an industrial textile manufacturer, was facing stiff competition from domestic and offshore suppliers. Raw material price increases were eroding margins. Productivity was low and scrap was climbing. Customers’ fast order delivery expectations were being fulfilled by holding high levels of finished goods inventory.
Their solution was to find an outside resource and trusted partner to help build internal Continuous Improvement (CI) capability and implement lean to deliver improvements that achieve the highest-possible ROI.

Starting in 2006, the initial kaizen events at Seaman Corporation focused on operational speed and agility while improving the cost of quality, increasing equipment uptime and reducing setup times. Subsequent projects focused on ERP implementation, inventory reduction, production line redesign, training and certification for continuous improvement resources, and more.

Throughout the years, Seaman has embraced several lean tools to drive performance improvement including:

1. Production preparation process (2P) to optimize the design and set-up of new production lines
2. Six Sigma training and certification
3. A post-ERP implementation audit process
4. A biennial audit of improvement activities to prioritize improvement projects and ensure the highest-possible ROI
5. Kaizen Events designed to align actions to results and accelerate value creation

In this short video, Richard Seaman, Chairman of Seaman Corporation, said that they wanted to carefully select and invest in a long-term partner to implement their LeanSigma® journey.  Retired CEO and President, John Crum, says that they wanted someone to provide outside thinking and to challenge them to “think big”.  Commentary by Jonathan Wheatley, TBM Client Manager, sheds light on why this partnership has been successful. 

To learn more about Seaman’s success, click here to read the case study.