Lean Manufacturing Makes Forward Merch More Efficient and Increases Customer Satisfaction

Company Background:
It was 1996 when Wes Bokley started printing t-shirts for rock bands out of his garage in Waltham, Massachusetts. He named the company Forward Merch, LLC and they grew quickly. In 1999 they left the garage and moved into a 25,000 square foot facility in Dover, New Hampshire.

Then in 2014 Wes and the other owner left the company and sold their shares to 4 Managing Partners. A year later the Broadway Production of the musical Hamilton came out. Once they got the Hamilton production order they needed a much larger location. So in 2016 they moved into a 40,000 square foot facility in Dover.

With the business growing rapidly they needed to scale up again by acquiring more production space. That was in 2022 when they added a 30,000 square foot facility in Somersworth, New Hampshire. Between their Dover and Somersworth facilities, Forward Merch now employs 87.

Forward Merch, LLC is North America’s premier entertainment merchandiser offering design, production, e-commerce, fulfillment, customer service and touring services all in-house.

Situation:
“It was 2021 and we were growing at a rapid pace,” said Kristian Theodore, Managing Partner, Chief Operating Officer for Forward Merch. “We were scaling very quickly and noticing a lot of inefficiencies. Projects were not getting done in a timely manner because of the way we had things set up.”

Kristian and his partners knew they needed a system to get their products out quicker, with less mistakes, for less cost and increased customer satisfaction. After doing some research they learned NH MEP had a Principles of Lean Manufacturing Training Program and reached out to them for help.

Solution:
Forward Merch worked with a representative from NH MEP who led them on a Principles of Lean Manufacturing Training Program.

The introduction to the Principles of Lean Manufacturing Training Program was the foundation for success at the Forward Merch site. Phase 1 focused on training 10 – 20 key members of the client’s team. This would also be the case for all subsequent Lean training. Shortly thereafter a Value Stream Mapping Training Event was held that targeted a specific product family. That led to 1 Kaizen training event that focused on targeting and eliminating waste discovered during the Value Stream mapping process. The goal of this training was to mentor 2 key company employees in the Lean Deployment methods while engaging other employees. This allowed them to increase their workforce skills and hands-on experiences using Lean Manufacturing techniques. Ultimately it created a workplace environment for Forward Merch that was based on Lean Manufacturing Principles.

Results:
“What we got out of this was efficiencies from top to bottom,” said Theodore. “Where things were placed in the warehouse was changed. We changed our flow from inbound to outbound and that came with efficiencies. This increased our response times, we had less mistakes, and all of it led to increased customer satisfaction.”

The following results for Forward Merch, LLC can be credited to having gone through NH MEP’s Principles of Lean Manufacturing Training:

• Retained sales of $500,000 over the past 12 months that otherwise would have been lost
• Created 5 jobs over the past 12 months
• Retained 15 jobs over the past 12 months
• Cost savings of $200,000 in labor, materials energy, overhead or other areas that would otherwise have been spent in the past 12 months
• Increased investment of $180,000 in plant or equipment over the past 12 months
• Increased investment of $400,000 in information systems or software over the past 12 months