Batesville Casket Company

Kaizen Never Rests
Lean lessons from the Batesville Casket Company.

In this case study, the Lean lessons learned over a span of two decades will be shared. These lessons have enabled the Batesville Casket Company, an AME National Excellence Award Winner, to achieve year-over-year success on the never- ending Lean journey.

The company’s highly integrated manufacturing facilities in the United States and Mexico employ “pull production” and “one piece flow” to feed a high velocity replenishment system with materials and components to quickly and efficiently meet the growing cycle time demands of their customers. The Batesville Business System of Continuous Improvement (based on the Toyota Production System) and effective execution, enable them to reduce waste in administrative processes as well as in manufacturing and distribution.

Batesville Casket Company is a leader in the North American death care industry through the manufacture, distribution, and sale of funeral services products to licensed funeral establishments. Batesville’s products consist primarily of burial and cremation caskets, but also include containers and urns, selection room display fixturing for funeral establishments, and other personalization and memorialization products and services, including creating and hosting websites for funeral homes. The Batesville Casket Company’s mission, supported through the daily efforts of approximately 3,300 associates, is to help families honor the lives of those they love.

Mike Wroblewski, Lean Sensei

Mike Wroblewski, Lean Sensei for the Batesville Casket Company, has 25 years of manufacturing management experience, strong technical skills and a passion for teaching Lean Manufacturing, and Six Sigma. Mike has held various management and leadership positions including Industrial Engineer, Manufacturing Engineer, Manufacturing Manager, Engineering Manager, Manager of Quality and Continuous Improvement, and Director of Operations.

Mike’s journey into Lean manufacturing began in the early 1980’s while working for the Hill-Rom Company. Under the watchful eye of Shigeo Shingo, Mike successfully improved a die changeover from 45 minutes to less than 5 minutes. Mike learned firsthand from the master, Shigeo Shingo, the techniques of the SMED system along with the early teachings of eliminating waste from manufacturing operations.