Clybourn Case Study

A Case Study to Measure the Lean and Six Sigma Opportunities

Corporate Context

Clybourn, Inc. is a domestic manufacturer of housewares and related products that sells through a broaddistribution network ranging from wholly-owned distributors to independent representatives selling into buying groups.

Clybourn is a customer-focused organization. They are pioneers in the industry and havea deep understanding that what drives value for their customer is:

• The ability to supply product with no minimum order size very quickly.

The sales and marketing department drivenot only the strategic plan of the company, but also operating parameters with regard to lead-time, unit cost, order minimum and inventory stocking policy. Given this sales and marketing drivenapproach, Clybourn has organized itself as a make-to-stock business and promises very short lead-times to customers (typically less than 3 days). As a make-to-stock company, the manufacturing process isbased on large lot sizes to drive down per unit costs and reduce change-over frequency. This also allows the company to purchase in larger quantities. The strategic plan of Clybourn, Inc. has been thetried-and-true approach of the customer comes first, win every sale, and keep volumes high to drive down unit cost.

Product Development Process

As part of Clybourn’s outstanding customerresponsiveness, products are developed through a close relationship/partnership with their customers. Sales and marketing are responsible for this process. This is typically an iterative process with thecustomer resulting in a custom design specific to the customer’s product performance and direct marketing needs. The company has an extensive process for collecting product performance data anddisseminating it; however, poor product life cycle management has resulted in higher than normal levels of excess and obsolete inventory.

The Current Game Plan at Clybourn

Currently, Clybourn’s...