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Company Profile

Grace Pacific Corporation, a long time kamaaina company, has provided quarry aggregates, hot mix asphalt and paving services statewide for many years. Today the company, with its 300 employees, is embarking on a new journey, a journey to achieve excellence.

Situation

A year ago, CEO Bob Wilkinson decided to bring process improvement concepts to his employees. He contacted the HI MEP, now known as Innovative Solutions, for “hands-on” assistance. HTDC-MEP project manager, Kathy McKenzie, teamed up with Dr. Ray Oshiro, a seasoned trainer and TQM expert, to deliver the training. Grace Pacific’s senior management team was the first to receive the training, and became the steering committee for its rollout.

Solution

Using a combination of training, coaching and hands-on sessions, Ray, Kathy and HTDC-MEP introduced the TQM philosophy to the workforce. The company's business is now viewed as a series of "processes", with internal and external suppliers and customers. Company employees have been challenged to identify opportunities for improvement. Tools such as flow-charting, Ho-shin (assembling clusters of ideas), and cause and effect charting have led to a sharper definition of the processes and related issues as seen by the company's employees.

Results

One year later, this process improvement effort has led to improved communications between departments, development of work teams, and has focused problem solving on the processes rather than people. "TQM" has been internalized as the way to run the company smarter, rather than something a consultant talks about.

Testimonial

Most importantly, with the help of Kathy and Ray, the company has made a commitment to change its culture to one whose goal is continuous improvement, and by developing working teams with participatory decision making, to become a high performance company.

-- Robert Creps, Senior Vice President, Grace Pacific

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