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Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP)

Assistance During Pandemic Keeps Production Moving

With the help of: University of Tennessee Center for Industrial Services (UT CIS)

About

In 1956, the Clayton family began its journey when founder Jim Clayton sold his first home and launched the dream of making homeownership attainable for everyone across America. They have come a long way over the last 60 years. CEO, Kevin Clayton joined his father’s family business at the age of 7. After graduating from college and earning his MBA from the University of Tennessee, Kevin gained valuable experience at several other highly successful companies before returning to Clayton, where he has promoted a servant leadership style to guide various company initiatives over the years. Clayton Homes is a vertically integrated manufactured housing company with 41 manufacturing plants, 451 company-owned retail distribution outlets, more than 1200 independent retailers, and a full-service financing and insurance division. Owned by Berkshire Hathaway, Clayton Homes is the largest builder of manufactured housing and modular homes in the US with corporate headquarters located in Maryville, Tennessee.

The Challenge

Clayton Homes is committed to providing quality, attainable housing, while constantly improving the experience for both Clayton team members and customers. During the pandemics employee turnover and supply chain disruptions exposed the need for improved process and quality documentation. The company requested assistance from UTCIS in improving standard work instructions, quality plans, and key quality indicators. The documents and standards would be beneficial to improving overall performance and invaluable for the recruiting, on-boarding, and retention of new employees as the plant recovered from pandemic related issues.

 

TMEP/UTCIS brought with them great expertise and experience that helped us get our quality processes dialed in very quickly so that we can serve our customers.  We are now exceeding customer expectations and leading the industry on quality for this product.

— Will Love, Continuous Improvement Manager

MEP's Role

With funding available through the MEP National Network CARES grant, TMEP, part of the MEP National Network™, assisted Clayton by providing lean and quality consulting and training. The project began with twenty-four hours of lean manufacturing training for 45 Clayton associates and progressed to seven days on site consulting. The onsite project helped the Clayton team members demonstrate the benefits of lean manufacturing including improved efficiency, improved quality, reduced customer lead time and reduced processing (touch) time. TMEP led the team in developing time studies to inform Clayton’s standardized work documents, creating quality documents to track process tolerances and quality expectations, and designing a Kanban system for incoming materials.
Created August 2, 2022