REINÆRDT: lead time from 3 weeks to 1 week in 4 months

REINÆRDT Deuren produced doors in 10,000 versions, but the lead time was a competitive disadvantage. The goal: from 3 weeks to 1 week.

Symbol guided the improvement process via Value Stream Mapping and nine sub-projects. Result: a lead time of one week achieved in 4 months, 5,000 doors delivered per week, and the company can now call itself the fastest supplier in the Netherlands.

Challenge

Reducing lead time from 3 weeks to 1 week

Approach

Value Stream Mapping and 9 Lean sub-projects in 4 months

Result

Lead time of 1 week, 5,000 doors delivered per week

About REINÆRDT Deuren

REINAERDT Deuren is based in Haaksbergen and is part of VolkerWessels, one of the largest construction and real estate groups in the Netherlands. The company produces high-quality doors in approximately 10,000 different versions for the construction and renovation market. With a large and diverse range and its own production facility, REINÆRDT is a leading player in the Dutch door sector. The ambition: not only to deliver the best doors, but also the fastest.

The challenge

95% of the doors at REINAERDT were ready within 16 days. However, the goal was a lead time of one week for all doors. The gap was large and the impact on the organisation would be significant. Internally, people had already been trained in Lean, but changing proved more difficult than expected. The culture was a bottleneck: people knew things had to change but were still working in the old way.

A concrete cause was the buffer size: 5,500 doors of work-in-progress caused long waiting times in the process. Doors were waiting instead of flowing.

Our approach

A Symbol consultant acted as an external referee and expert who guided the improvement process. The approach was structured via Value Stream Mapping and divided into manageable sub-projects.

What was specifically done:

Value Stream Mapping performed
Nine sub-projects established
Machine capacity increased to 1,000 doors per day
Factory infrastructure completely redesigned
Buffer size reduced from 5,500 to 2,500 doors
Culture change supported through coaching

“Previously, we delivered doors with great difficulty within three weeks. Now, we effortlessly deliver five thousand doors to our customers every week.”

Results

Metric	Before	After	Improvement
Door lead time	3 weeks	1 week	−67%
Throughput time achieved in months	Goal not met	Goal achieved in 4 months	On time
Work-in-progress buffer	5,500 doors	2,500 doors	−55%
Weekly delivery capacity	Variable	5,000 doors per week	Stable and scalable

Lead time reduced from 3 weeks to 1 week in 4 months.
REINÆRDT Deuren can now call itself the fastest supplier in the Netherlands. The next improvement project, first time right, will be handled completely independently according to the approach taught by Symbol.

Lessons learned

Having internal Lean knowledge is not the same as implementing Lean successfully. REINAERDT shows that a fresh pair of eyes can make a difference: an external party acting as a referee breaks through the resistance that arises with any change, even when people internally already have the knowledge.

The second insight: large improvement project, start small. By dividing the process into nine manageable sub-projects, it remained clear and project leaders could take ownership themselves. That is the combination that made the goal achievable in four months.

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Do you recognise this in your organisation?

A lead time that is too long and costs customers. An internal desire to improve, but the change does not get off the ground.

Symbol helps you find the bottleneck and set up the improvement process so that it delivers results.

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