Twenty VideoRay employees used training they recently received from the Delaware Valley Industrial Resource Center (DVIRC) to begin solving some real-time issues facing the Pottstown company.

Jeff Kopenitz, a DVIRC instructor, met with the employees during two sessions, one in February and one in March. Four more sessions are scheduled before the end of June. The training is being underwritten by a state-funded grant from WedNet. The three topics discussed during the first two sessions were Problem-Solving, Root Cause Analysis and Lean Manufacturing Principles.

Andy Goldstein, Vice President of Engineering at VideoRay, noted that a mix of production employees and engineers gathered in VideoRay’s training room during the sessions. At one point the employees were broken down into teams of five to address specific issues.

Kopenitz mentored each team, giving them problem-solving guidance that directly addressed their issue. The process itself proved to be invaluable, according to Goldstein.

“It’s been helpful in a variety of ways,” Goldstein said, noting that among the issues tackled were reducing paperwork on the production floor and implementing improved document controls. “The training also gave the employees an opportunity to engage in team building.”

He added that all the team projects involved issues that weren’t being addressed up until the training sessions were held.

The DVIRC training also expanded the employees’ knowledge beyond their typical scope of work and provided insights about the continuous improvement process, Goldstein said.

“We came away with a better understanding of how to work as teams and to address problems that hinder the ROV design and manufacturing processes.”

Kopenitz offered his own insights regarding the training.

“Working with the VideoRay team has been very rewarding,” he said. “I find the team to be extremely talented and capable. Their desire to learn and apply continuous improvement efforts to better serve their clients has been very impressive. I look forward to the next session with them.”