You don't pass the century mark without having done many things right, and Clabber Girl Corp. is well past that landmark age. Indeed, the Terre Haute, Ind.-based company, best known for its Clabber Girl brand, has been making baking powder for the retail market since 1870.
Like any manufacturer of any age, however, Clabber Girl faces a wealth of challenges in its bid to remain competitive for the next 100 years — including reining in costs, improving productivity, and keeping current with new processes and technologies. Plus one of its manufacturing structures is more than a century old, bringing with it inefficiencies inherent in a six-story vertical structure built for another time.
"All of these are forces that led us to say, 'We can't continue to do [business] the same way we've been doing it,'" explains Gary Morris, president and COO of Clabber Girl, Terre Haute, Ind.
To that end, the company has embraced lean manufacturing as a means to reach continuing milestones. Clabber Girl is slightly more than halfway through a 24-month lean training program delivered by Purdue University's Technical Assistance Program. Focused first on manufacturing and distribution (both supervisors and hourly workers), the training ultimately will roll out across the remainder of Clabber Girl.
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