Not a Weight Loss Program

The NWCA members meeting this month (Tuesday blip) was held at the FastCap company facility in Bellingham. FastCap is a very successful and innovative company that started in a garage in 1997, and now has 2000 product distributors worldwide. They introduce twenty new products a year, on average.

We were very privileged to have Paul Akers, the company founder and president, give us a presentation about his company and philosophy, followed by a tour of the plant. 

Paul attributes his success to Lean manufacturing, but emphasizes that the Lean concepts are applicable to any organization, and to everyday home life. The elements were formulated post-WWII by W. Edwards Deming (1900-1994), an American statistician. Deming was ignored by American companies but embraced by Japanese auto manufacturers. It wasn't long before the quality of Japanese cars surpassed those manufactured in the US.

Paul's presentation and tour were very inspiring -- I've already started thinking Lean at home. As a nice bonus, we were each given a FastCap tape measure with a belt holster, and a copy of Paul's book. The tape measure is better than any of my previous ones.

I almost forgot to mention that FastCap makes woodworking products, but you might have guessed that.