By Amy Nolan, Knoxville News-Sentinel
In the employee break room at Boatmate Trailers in Maryville stands a large whiteboard filled with Post-it Notes that have scribbled upon them changes that workers have suggested at the manufacturing facility.
The heading, “Just Do It,” has the lion’s share of paper underneath it, and during a tour of the 60,000-square-foot plant, company president Ron Miller points out some of the changes on the factory floor, including a light that signals a conveyor belt has stopped moving and carts filled with tools and parts an employee will need for his shift.
“As people see immediate results that’s when we start seeing a culture change,” Miller says.
Boatmate Trailers has worked the past eight months to introduce Lean manufacturing at the 80-employee facility, where workers build custom boat trailers for Sea Ray, MasterCraft, Allison and other boat makers near and far.
Miller bought the company in 2007 after spending 17 years at Denso, a Maryville automotive parts manufacturer. The ensuing Great Recession shrunk the business by 53 percent, but the company has rebounded and grown 400 percent. “We’ve come back really strong,” he says.
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Photo of Boatmate’s Ron Miller by Saul Young, Knoxville News-Sentinel