RSR Trims the Fat

Lead recycling company RSR Corp., Dallas, has announced that employee Joe Wheat has been awarded a Lean Master Certificate from the Lean Learning Center in Novi, Mich.

To earn the certificate, Wheat had to participate in the Lean Experience, Lean Leadership, Lean Kaizen Boot Camp, and Lean Value Stream classes at the Lean Learning Center and complete an individual project assigned to each. Additionally, Wheat had to successfully implement a number of on-site programs at RSR facilities.

Through its JTE (Journey to Excellence) program, which has been guided by the Lean Learning Center, RSR Corp. has been implementing lean manufacturing across its corporation.

The company reports that the Indianapolis facility documented $220,000 in savings within the first five months of 2005. Wheat has played a key role in this enterprise-wide transformation, including his Lean Final Demonstration Project, which analyzed the Refinery Hard Lead Loading procedures at the Indianapolis facility. The project team was able to identify potential savings of $876,272 annually through process changes that would reduce both shipping and hard lead material costs.

“Lean has brought RSR together with a common purpose to eliminate waste and continually improve processes,” says Wheat. “The biggest lesson that I have learned in my training is that most companies fail in their lean transformation because they confuse the tools and practices of lean with the system. Lean has to be adopted as a way of thinking and acting,” he adds.

RSR Corp. has more than 600 employees and operates recycling facilities in City of Industry, Calif., Indianapolis, and Middletown, N.Y. It purchases scrap lead acid batteries, lead cable strips, re-melt lead, scrap lead, wheel weights, drosses and other lead-bearing materials. From these materials, RSR then produces pure lead as well as a complete line of calcium and antimonial lead alloys.