There's no question GE Lighting Systems knows how to build lighting equipment at its Hendersonville, N.C. manufacturing plant. After all, it has been doing just that since the early 1950s. But just getting the job done was no longer sufficient. It now has to be done to Six Sigma quality levels, which require that operational inefficiencies be eliminated. Management at the plant determined that its best approach to operations was demand flow technology (DFT) - a method of building to actual customer demand rather than to forecasts. It backed this approach up with a $2.2 million investment in equipment which included a complete overhaul of materials handling operations on the 800,000 square foot shop floor.
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