Elevating Efficiency at Golden Technologies

Golden Technologies is a market-leading manufacturer of lift chairs and other durable medical equipment designed to improve the lives of those with long-term mobility issues or temporary mobility concerns following surgery. Located in Old Forge, Pennsylvania, the history of Golden Technologies defines the American dream. Founded in 1985 by Robert Golden, Sr., and Fred Kiwak, Golden Technologies was established on the pledge to “build it right the first time”, a motto that still holds true today. Golden and Kiwak began manufacturing lift chairs in a one-car garage in West Pittston, Pennsylvania, a small town where families worked hard to survive as the Pennsylvania coal mining era was winding down. The pair partnered with some of the finest craftsmen in the region and worked together to design and build lift chairs that would withstand years of use. As their reputation for quality spread, the business grew, and quickly became a family operation. Since its founding 35 years ago, Golden Technologies has expanded its product line to include scooters and power wheelchairs. A family-owned, family-operated company, Golden Technologies is committed to manufacturing the highest quality products in the durable medical equipment industry and developing its team of more than 100 full-time associates.

Golden Technologies’ aggressive growth and new product development exposed bottlenecks in manufacturing and inefficiencies in scheduling that affected throughput and on-time delivery of customer orders. The company needed to develop processes and operations in a way that maximized efficiency and capacity and improved product flow.

Once Golden Technologies decided to partner with NEPIRC, part of the Pennsylvania MEP and the MEP National Network™, it was deemed that the creation of a value stream map of the manufacturing process of the Lift Chair product family was the best place to start. Working with Golden Technologies’ Manufacturing Improvement Team, NEPIRC mapped the current process and developed an optimal future state of production that improved process and material flow, minimized downtime, reduced non-value-added activities while reclaimed misused floor space. At the conclusion of mapping the current and future states, NEPIRC developed a detailed improvement workplan that included a list of “just do it” improvements that could be implemented on-the-fly to provide the company with an immediate positive return on its investment. The workplan also established a 90-day timeline for waste-reduction activities that could not be done immediately and assigned responsibility for the accomplishment of those items to individuals or small groups. NEPIRC also identified long-term actions that were more practical in the future as part of the company’s overall strategic plan.