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The Difference in DeSCo
With the help of: South Dakota Manufacturing and Technology Solutions
About
Nestled in the quaint town of De Smet, South Dakota, lies a high quality, service-oriented window manufacturer. DeSCo Architectural Inc. is locally owned with 30 employees producing beautiful, high-quality architectural windows used in schools, hospitals, offices, and churches throughout the nation. Customers repurchase repeatedly because of the superior quality woven into the windows. Not only that, the high-performance windows are also environmentally friendly, safe and destined to last.
The Challenge
Working at DeSCo allows people to build a great career as well as a great product. At DeSCo, leadership believes in creating a positive work environment and investing in their people. The same investment holds true for their product and processes, because they believe in continuous improvement and always refining. So when James Girard, President of DeSCo, noticed a process was less than efficient, he decided to call upon South Dakota Manufacturing & Technology Solutions (SDMTS) for help.
We choose MTS for our SPC training because they had qualified instructors that could come into our facility and teach our people using our own equipment. It was two days well spent.
MEP's Role
A business advisor from SDMTS determined the best starting point was to do Statistical Process Control (SPC) training with the team. The training taught employees how to identify quality issues and provided them with a solid foundation for spotting and correcting future errors. This methodology helped them to detect variations in their processes, and the team is now able to properly gather quality data and calculate if data is outside the control limits. SPC training also reinforces the continuous improvement mindset and encourages employees to look for small changes they could make to reduce waste. The company saved, and continues to save, significant amounts of time and labor by revising their process using skills taught by the SPC training.
Today, DeSCo continues to invest in their people. Whether that’s sending employees to a Lean 101 training to learn about unbalanced workloads or bringing in an expert to teach them about quality control, DeSCo knows if they invest in their people, their people will invest in them. By applying their newfound knowledge, employees can optimize costs, quality and delivery, making DeSCo a great place to work and a great place for windows.