Continuous Improvement

Lehigh Valley Continuous Improvement
Written by: Brian Horwath

The Coca Cola Bottling Company of the Lehigh Valley has been building on strengthening our continual improvement program by instituting formalized corrective and preventative action processes.  Continuing efforts to improve is the basis of our weekly interdepartmental Total Management Meeting.  Each department brings examples of continual improvement that is occurring in their departments.

Operations have increased efforts to utilize inventive ideas when confronted with an issue to resolve and or a task to improve while minimizing financial investments.  Improvements have been made to continue line breakage reductions and address operational concerns to add value.

Continuing efforts have been made in the training of our employees.  The aligning of training requirements have continued to eliminate training gaps, reduce potential inaccuracies, and provide the necessary tools to employees to be prepared for their everyday.  Ambassador training was completed to assist with the challenges present in our society and their questions.  This will aid our employees and maintain the message that our company provides many different choices of beverages for our customers to meet their needs and continue to quench their thirst.

PIT CREW CUP AWARD 2012

In 2012, ABARTA Beverage East was bestowed the PIT CREW AWARD (Performance Improvement Team). 

The award was based on 12 objectives of Continuous Improvement for our Company.  

So, how did we get here? In order to answer that, we need to tell the story on how our Friday morning meetings got started and where we are presently.  
Five years ago, it was recognized that we needed to meet as a group to discuss rotation issues inside our warehouse.  We took that meeting and used our QMS skill sets to address expectations, goals and objectives.   From there, Safety, and Continuous Improvement were incorporated.  

During the last few years, Scott Ellmaker was given the responsibility to oversee and direct the meetings.  A year later, ABARTA created an Innovation/Continuous Improvement Team. Scott was asked to be our representative for ABARTA Beverage East. 

 

In 2011, we changed our name to Total Product Management team  (TPM). This meeting incorporated all departments and unified us in discussing process improvements, operational efficiencies, rotation, and food safety. That year we also initiated the Safe Start Program.

The culmination of the past several years has led to all employee's understanding of why their work is worthwhile, and that each employee is able to experiment, anticipate, and respond to change.  The steps we have taken help all of us reach our departmental goals, as well as our revenue growth goal.

Continuous Improvement is not just what we do inside our four walls; it is also what we do outside of those walls that are instrumental in our success.

Our dedicated team got together at SteelStacks in Bethlehem to celebrate this award on June 6^th, 2013. Congratulations ABE!