NEWS & EVENTS
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Michiana MEDA Annual Spring Business Tour
Name:
Michiana MEDA Annual Spring Business Tour
Date:
March 17, 2018
Time:
8:30 AM - 1:00 PM EDT
Event Description:
Please join Michiana MEDA for our annual spring Business Tour, this year featuring Aluminum Trailer Company (ATC) Saturday, March 17, 2018, at 8:30 am Mullet's Dining -- 72280 County Road 100, Nappanee (first stop) Aluminum Trailer Company -- 751 North Tomahawk Trail, Nappanee (second stop) Our morning will begin with an Amish buffet breakfast at Mullet's Dining, just west of Nappanee. After breakfast, we'll head to Aluminum Trailer Company, also in Nappanee, to tour their new 100,000 square foot, state-of-the-art LEAN manufacturing facility. It's a tour you won't want to miss! Please continue reading below for a special note from Steve Brenneman, MEDA member and CEO of Aluminum Trailer Company. Cost is $5 for students, $15 for Michiana MEDA members, and $20 for others, payable at the door with cash or check. Please RSVP by Tuesday, March 13, to info@michianameda.org or 574-355-3607. We look forward to seeing you there. All are welcome! ______________________________________ A note from Steve Brenneman, MEDA member and CEO of Aluminum Trailer Company: "Anabaptists with European roots are an odd and distinctive group. I have been observing some unique characteristics within my heritage over the last 5 years or so. These characteristics lend themselves toward organizational skills, timeliness, dependability, empathy, and efficiency. Sometimes to a fault, we like order and we hate waste. Back in 2008 I lost one of my manufacturing companies that the local MEDA group had toured in 2005. Losing Nappanee Window was one of the most painful experiences of my life. We had such a great company and had been so successful but we hadn’t paid much attention to improving the processes that we used to build and run the business. I was also new to the business world and was trying to learn as I went in my career. I made some decisions that eventually caused us to lose the business during that difficult business environment. Out of that experience I began, in 2009, to fundamentally change my other business, which is the Aluminum Trailer Company. I picked up a book on lean manufacturing and read about many of the mistakes that we had made and how we could change for the better. Lean is the North American version of the Toyota system of manufacturing based on the scientific method used to continuously improve any business, system or process. As I have studied Lean Thinking and the scientific method for the past 8 years, I have realized that there are many similarities between lean thinking and Anabaptist thinking. I have several Mennonite artifacts to prove it. I welcome you to join me at our new state of the art 100,000 square foot facility in Nappanee on March 17th for an interesting view of how we can live out our calling and succeed in business by living out our unique continuous improvement tendencies. You will see ways to improve the way we keep our factories, our pantries, our kitchens and our lives. It’s a lean life!" -- Steve Brenneman |
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