It Begins with Bruno

Welcome to my very first blog post! Starting this blog with the first company visit to Bruno, which is still in the United States. Bruno makes living aids such as straight stair lifts, curved stair lift, vertical platform lift, and scooter/power chair lift. Their mission statement is “Bruno is the Leading Provider of Solutions for an Independent Lifestyle.” Bruno is a family run company with about 450 employees. After a presentation and taking a tour of their facilities, I would say they follow this within their everyday life. Bill Benson, Director of Engineering took time out of his day to speak and show us around Bruno. As he said many people say his voice can put you to sleep I did not want to fall asleep as his presentation was very informative about Bruno and what they have done to improve the company. It was also a special day for him as he has spent the last 31 years committed to Bruno. Safety is a high priority as many precautions and test are done to secure safety in every situation. They use about 5-6 different test to make sure that the equipment is going to work properly so there will not be any harm. They also keep the lifts quiet because if there is a sound that is louder and unfamiliar people may get paranoid and they need the lift to get around in their home or in everyday life. The high praise to give Bruno is their ability to adapt and to become more efficient with every move they make. Every lift is not the same so they have all custom jobs which means they can not keep a solid inventory. With that being said they are able to have every lift ready to be shipped in 20-30 hours from the placement of the order. Bruno also has advance the way the dealers measure and handle a clients situation. They use programming, which cuts time from about half a day to about 15 minutes. That allows for more time getting more clients and to prepare for set up. There is a lot of moving parts in that short period of time. Starting in the manufacturing plant, making all the cuts and tracks ready for assembly with laser cutters and welding and every little detail that goes into making a lift. Continuous improvement is something that is followed to make some of these run smoothly. Some of the improvement points are error proofing, waste elimination, identify value, identify and solve problems. I believe that they are on the right path in following these things to improve the company more and more everyday. On time shipments are 97% for the year as there were some valid points for missing the deadline but they are looking to do better year after year. I found it helpful and interesting to see that they display graphs and goals on boards around the factory and warehouse. This is a great idea to do because this give value to the employees and to show them that their hard work is not going unknown. I think more places should do this in warehouses and factories. Bill did a great job with the presentation and answering all of our questions with the 31 years of experience. The lunch was fabulous with the Jimmy John’s.

Daily Reflection