Mark Willmering

Sonic Machine & Tool, an ISO certified machine shop that manufactures aerospace parts for clients such as Honeywell, is based out of Tempe, AZ. With official plans to build a new 6,500-square-foot facility, the company's vice president, Mark Willmering, knew he wanted to follow a Time Wise Solutions® lean approach.

"I heard about the Time Wise Principles of Lean Manufacturing workshops through the Arizona Tooling Machining Association," Willmering said, "and now I recommend them myself to everyone involved in the association."

He continued, "I am a great believer in the process and pretty much the entire management team at Sonic has attended Lean workshops, and we are now in the process of educating our employees in the same concepts."

"There's no doubt the Arizona MEP has been very helpful with Sonic's Lean transformation," he added.

"We knew we wanted to follow a Lean Manufacturing approach," said Mark Willmering, vice president, "but we realized we didn't have the skills or knowledge of the concepts necessary to do so."

Willmering and several other top officials at Sonic received training in the concepts of Lean Manufacturing in the Scottsdale office of the Arizona MEP and the results - in Willmering's own words - "were eye-opening."

An ISO certified machine shop, Sonic's 35 employees manufacture aerospace parts for clients such as Honeywell.In business since 1981, Sonic officials plan to build a new 6,500-square-foot facility next to their current plant, which they hope will generate $1 million in annual sales and create 10 new jobs.

"While the current economic climate has made us put the new building on hold," Willmering said, "we have definitely applied Lean Manufacturing procedures in different departments and have continued the ongoing training of our employees in Lean principles."
...
Willmering agreed."I am a great believer in the process," he said, "and pretty much the entire management team at Sonic has attended Lean workshops, and we are now in the process of educating our employees in the same concepts."

While a new building would have tied everything together, Willmering said, he didn't wait to implement the process or to build the teams necessary for Lean Manufacturing concepts to be successful.

"I heard about the Lean workshops through the Arizona Tooling Machining Association," Willmering said, "and now I recommend them myself to everyone involved in the association.

"There's no doubt the Arizona MEP has been very helpful with Sonic's Lean transformation," he added.