News | July 12, 2001

Lean Concept Inspires Staffing Changes at Parkinson Technologies

Source: Parkinson Machinery & Manufacturing Corp.

Parkinson Technologies of Woonsocket, Rhode Island announces significant changes in staffing to the Engineering department as part of the ongoing Lean effort at Parkinson.

Joe Connelly has been promoted to the Technical Director of Engineering, and Amy MacKay was promoted to the Engineering Manager. Connelly is now in charge of directing designs, R & D efforts, and all technical aspects of engineering. MacKay will handle engineering policies and procedures, project scheduling, personnel issues, and continuing the Lean implementation.

Parkinson incorporated the Lean philosophy in the fall of 2000 to help machine orders flow through the company quicker and more efficiently. Lean has affected all areas of Parkinson, including these engineering staffing changes. Resulting from the Lean process, they realized that engineering needed to be restructured to improve design time through Engineering, and to focus Engineering efforts.

Parkinson's Engineering department has now incorporated a new "team approach" concept. In the past each individual engineer worked alone on projects, making the design process cycle time longer than desired.

Benefits of the "team approach":

    - Team effort in designing machines
    - Lead time reduced
    - Cross training for engineers of all company product lines
    - Team meetings to improve communication
    - Training sessions in manageable sized groups

Parkinson Technologies is a manufacturer of capital equipment, which includes winders and other products for the handling of large webs for the plastic, nonwoven, and paper industries. The Marshall and Williams Plastics Division was acquired by Parkinson in the spring of 2000; they engineer and manufacture equipment for the orientation of plastic film. Parkinson is also affiliated with Key Filters, a manufacturer of filtration equipment for the plastics industry.

Parkinson Machinery & Manufacturing Corp., Highlnad Ind Prk, 100 Goldstein Drive, Woonsocket, RI 02895. Tel: 401-762-2100; Fax: 401-762-2295.