Strategy: Become a Case Pan in Your Laboratory

Last year, my husband Kevin and I visited The Argen Corp. and were blown away by its Lean Manufacturing operation. We had visited one year earlier and were amazed by the noticeable changes and systems they had implemented across the entire operation in just a year’s time. This inspired us to start implementing some changes in our own business. We didn’t think our lab was that disorganized but knew there were areas in which we could improve.

Our first step was to talk to our team and get their input; we explained that our goal was to ultimately make all of our jobs easier and everyone was on board with that. Then, Kevin and I stayed late one night to map out the route of a case pan in our laboratory to identify areas that could be improved or streamlined. The following week, we did the same exercise as a group with all of our employees taking notes, then we compiled our thoughts and talked about areas we could improve.

For instance,...