Muth Electric: Lean Transformation

Mitchell, South Dakota, is home to the Corn Palace and to Muth Electric, an electrical contracting business servicing many industries including schools, office buildings, healthcare, and manufacturing facilities. Their company is known for working on large industrial projects like water and wastewater treatment facilities, wind and solar energy plants, airport runway lighting, correctional facilities, and more.

Started in 1970, Muth Electric Inc. has grown from two people to over 435 employees across South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska. The family-owned business has expanded into prefabrication, data and fiber cabling, automation and controls, thermal imaging and design and build work. They can assist companies from conception to completion and will make it their mission to stay in budget and on time.

To Muth the customer is the most important asset. They believe in serving their customers through exceptional service and quality. To do this, they embrace lean concepts to provide the finished service as quickly and as safely as possible. Their speed adds value to the customer and helps them complete their project in a timely manner as well.

Because their customers are their primary focus and their employees are determined to have satisfied customers, Muth wanted to continue to refine their lean processes. The leadership team at Muth decided to reach out to the lean experts at MTS to help guide them along on their lean journey. MTS served as a mentor to help the company find new ways to implement lean concepts. Muth Electric found it helpful to have extra hands for training employees on lean principles and leading projects to implement their lean transformation in the prefabrication division of their business.

Every day, the company works hard to apply practical lean methodologies in their prefabrication division, which is their manufacturing operation. Their lean transformation included implementing supermarkets for quick turn-around of standard assemblies, standard work, dedicated work cells, quick changeover, workplace organization, paperless work procedures, paperless manifest system and quick response delivery system.

 At Muth, little changes are celebrated. No matter the size, the company encourages employees to identify problems and share lean improvements with others. The company knows that little changes over time can deliver sustainable business results and keep their customers coming back.