Schaefer Wholesale Florist is pleased to announce its Lean Initiative designed to better serve customers and give team members motivation and encouragement. The lean initiative was enacted to maximize customer value while reducing waste. In simpler terms, SWF means to create more value for customers with fewer resources.
Schaefer Wholesale Florist can already attest to visible improvements with improved cross-departmental communication, simplified language, greater order accuracy and increased processing speed all attributable to their Lean transformation.
With an ideal location in scenic York, Pennsylvania, Schaefer Wholesale Florist has always promised flowers, stocked and shipped each day from fresh-cut growers worldwide to customers across the United States. Schaefer Wholesale Florist has served with pride the Mid-Atlantic’s leading retail florists, floral designers, special event planners, and wholesale floral suppliers with fresh-cut flowers, plants, foliage, supplies and accessories since 1958.
With this proud heritage in place, a routine evaluation late in 2014 revealed multiple opportunities for improvement and Schaefer’s leadership team sprang into action quickly. Finding their traditional processes were no longer working as required was difficult to face, but the team knew that understanding and diagnosing the issues was the first step in treating them. In order to make the positive modifications needed, Schaefer Wholesale Florist began the transformation into a Lean Manufacturing Enterprise bent on the framework of elimination of wasted motions and processes and enhancing the appreciation and respect given to customers, clients and Schaefer team members.
The Lean Process changes required have been met with positivity and the willingness to improve. Flow-charting showed bottlenecking in packing, and with team members input, solutions were quickly found. With the entire company speaking the same language, customers and clients began to see great improvements in their order accuracy. The new processes have also eliminated waste and enhanced flow, which has increased picking time by a huge 46 percent.
“At SWF, we found ourselves tired of the status quo and in need of change. The Lean Culture Change has reduced employee frustration in finding product and removed safety hazards in our coolers while offering our customers a reduction in order errors. Though the process changes have not been easy, our collective mindset is changing as everyone embraces the lean standards being established. From bottom to top, these lean standards promise to elevate creativity and efficiency from each process owner and team member at Schaeffer Wholesale Florist.” Don Sprenkle, Manager~ Business Development/Continuous Improvement, Schaefer Wholesale Florist.
Schaefer Wholesale Florist continues to be the true one stop supplier of the freshest wholesale flowers stocked and shipped daily from around the world. The transition to Lean manufacturing promises only to improve customer service and order accuracy for the Mid-Atlantic’s premier florists, designers, planners, and suppliers.
Experience premium fresh flowers and foliage as well as the highest quality plants and hard good supplies from the new, improved, lean Schaefer Wholesale Florist (http://www.SWFlorist.com) where the Schaefer Fresh Difference is guaranteed.
The original press release can be found online here.
