What do lipstick, and sheet metal, have in common? No, it’s not some college hazing stunt gone bad. It is all included in the range of exciting tours you can experience as part of the 2014 Continuous Improvement Conference in Dallas, TX. This year’s tours at Mary Kay Manufacturing and KARLEE get you in to see award-winning Lean manufacturing management and quality practices in progress. They will leave you so impressed you’ll be ready to “throw your hat over the windmill!”
Although you may be familiar with these facilities (as well as some Texas colloquialisms) but you may be surprised by some of their most remarkable quality and manufacturing features. To give you a better look at what you can expect from these tours, we’ve put together this short quiz.
So if you think you’re “as bright as a new penny,” take a shot at these stumpers.
(Answers included below—but don’t peek!)
1. On average, Mary Kay Manufacturing’s 25 packaging lines produce how many tubes of lipstick?
A. 7,000
B. 100,000
C. 25,000
D. 15,000
2. Recognized as an FDA-registered drug manufacturing plant, how many TimeWise®Day Solution Sunscreen SPF 22 can the facility produce in a typical 10-hour shift?
A. 13,500
B. 25,500
C. 72,500
D. 18,500
3. Mary Kay’s commitment to consistent quality is evident in the number of different product and product component tests performed each year. With 100,000 analytical measurements of products, how many measurements of packaging components are performed each year?
A. 50,000
B. 100,000
C. 250,000
D. 350,000
4. In what year did the President of the United States present KARLEE with the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for their “best in class” quality?
A. 2000
B. 2003
C. 2010
D. 2012
5. In this same year, KARLEE employed more than 500 team members who helped the company reach a revenue of:
A. $500,000
B. $10 million
C. $50 million
D. $80 million
6. KARLEE uses ISO 9001-2000, TL 9000, and AS 9100 registrations to develop, optimize, and improve processes by following this approach:
A. The Precision Sheet Metal Benchmarking Standards
B. The Total Quality Management trilogy
C. The KARLEE Quality Standards
D. The Quality manufacturing Standards of Texas
Answers:
1: c—The Mary Kay Manufacturing plant can produce a whopping 25,000 tubes of lipstick in a normal shift, in addition to 35,000 trays of cheek color and 50,000 bottles of body wash.
2: d— Mary Kay produces and distributes products classified as over-the-counter drugs, such as about 18,500 bottle of sunscreen.
3: c— 250,000 measurements of packaging components are performed each year at Mary Kay plus more than 1,000 stability studies on products and 300,000 tests on ingredients and finished goods.
4: a— KARLEE won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in the year 2000 and is constantly pursuing continuous improvement.
5: d— Also in 2000, KARLEE and its team reached the $80 million revenue mark.
6: b— With the Total Quality Management trilogy, KARLEE can drive continuous improvement through metrics analysis, root cause analysis, and closed loop corrective action.
Learn more about the 2014 Continuous Improvement Conference, March 30–April 2, at the Fairmont Dallas Hotel, Dallas, TX. Tours may be added at the time you register.