Lean, or “just-in-time” manufacturing can save companies money. But can it help cool a warming planet? Elroy’s Rob Honeycutt says yes.
In 1989, Rob founded a bike messenger bag company built around two novel concepts: mass customization and U.S. production. The company, Timbuk2, originally based in his San Francisco apartment, tapped into an urban chic aesthetic and became a must-have functional–and fashionable–accessory.
As a small start up company, Rob sought a way to distinguish Timbuk2 from made-in-China heavies like Jansport and Eastpak and he figured a mass-produced, but customizable product made in the U.S. was the way to do it. Customers could choose the colors for their bags and Rob’s production crew would sew products on demand or sell to retailers. That meant he never held onto inventory nobody wanted or sold out of styles customers did want. He claims “stock-outs” and “overstocks” are the hidden costs that many companies don’t anticipate when they outsource production to China, Vietnam, and elsewhere. Lean manufacturing is a concept he picked up on reading about Taiichi Ohno, an efficiency expert for Toyota who called for the reduction of “transportation waste,” clustering production facilities, and low inventories.
By following Taiichi’s example, Rob said he could compete with Chinese-made brands that had to commit to production runs and style choices as much as two years in advance. The U.S. label added to the bags’ appeal, too.
“When (mass customization) is done right it’s incredible how efficient it is,” he said. “Everything I sent out the door was something a customer wanted…The inventory is digital”
When he sold the company to investors in 2002, the company was doing a respectable $4 million in sales.
Rob went on to start other companies and now he’s in start up mode again. This time he’s entering the world of electronics with a product called Elroy, a hybrid between a Bluetooth device and earbuds. For Rob, a Bluetooth headset looks kind of dorky. But earbuds are forever getting tangled. His solution is to shorten the cords on the earbuds to a device that clips to the users’ lapel. Magnets connect the earbuds to the device when not in use. When a call comes in, removing the earbuds from it answers the call. Customers can personalize the device by choosing a color or design on the faceplate.
Rob launched a $150,000 Kickstarter campaign to to get Elroy going. He fell well short of his goal, but says he’s not discouraged and will try again.
Rather than head to China for production, he’s planning to base the final stage of assembly in the Bay Area. “Final assembly in the U.S.” doesn’t have quite the same cachet as “made in the U.S.A.,” but Rob hopes to move more production to the U.S. in time.
But basing production in the U.S. offers more than a business advantage, he says. There are obvious environmental benefits to lean or “just-in-time” manufacturing. Rob has become a vocal advocate for climate change solutions and making manufacturing leaner by reducing the number of bunker fuel burning (and spilling) cargo ships that lumber between the U.S. and China (a clear case of transportation waster since it adds no value) is part of that solution, he says. In a recent piece he wrote for Think Progress he explains:
Practicing Lean manufacturing over long periods of time translates into ever improving quality of goods. As manufacturing guru, W. Edwards Deming, was always quoted to say, “Quality always costs less.” As counterintuitive as that sounds, it is a fact. The implication is that by eliminating transportation waste and leaning out production, you create far more efficient systems, and produce far higher quality goods for less. In this you can vastly reduce CO2 emissions and create more profitable businesses
While he’s in business to make money, Rob says climate change is “humanity’s biggest issue” and he hopes his approach will spur other manufacturers to follow suit.
“People are going to have to build things without generating CO2. I want to show people that things can be done differently.”
Rob is optimistic because of what he sees as the convergence of the maker movement and manufacturing and the efficiencies of lean manufacturing.
“There’s a wide open territory for people who make or build things to produce it domestically,” he says.
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