APRIL 7 I PEAVEY I CORPORATE
Peavey Gets Lean

Peavey has begun a company-wide lean initiative to maximize efficiency among its 33 facilities and strengthen the organization’s position in global markets.

Peavey’s lean program is part of a multi-million dollar reinvestment that Peavey has made in its infrastructure since 2008. The initiative also includes a new computer network to streamline the flow of information, enhance communication and unify global affiliates. As Peavey moves into its next phase, Courtland Gray, chief operating officer of Peavey, said that the company’s employees will play a critical role.

“Our lean strategy depends on an internal team that will determine how to alter the company’s workflow and processes,” Gray said. “The team is a stratified representation of the Peavey employee family, including manufacturing line workers, plant managers and product engineers. It’s important that our plan is shaped by the people who will ensure its success.”

Michael Harbaugh, operations manager of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership of Mississippi, a division of the Mississippi Technology Alliance, is working with Peavey on a lean business model that will help the company retain its innovation and competitive edge.

“Today’s globally competitive environment demands that companies use every resource to its full potential,” Harbaugh said. “In traditional approaches to business, only 5 percent of the resources expended on a daily basis result in value-added activities or those that people are willing to pay for. The more we convert that waste into value-added activities, the more profitable, competitive and faster the company becomes. Customers want things faster, cheaper and easier, and lean is the only known sustainable mechanism that makes companies operate faster and more efficiently.”

peavey.com