KANDU Industries is moving only their Arrow Park operation (located on Parker Drive) to 1227 Barberry Drive throughout the weekend of December 3 - 5^th, 2010.  Operations will be up and running on Monday, December 6^th.  The Barberry property will increase KANDU’s ability to serve their production customers.  The new building offers a flexible open floor layout, high cube storage capacity, nine dock doors increasing semi-truck access and an outside storage building.

KANDU’s staff and clients are very excited about this move.  The new facility will provide a great work environment in a secured building.  The property on Barberry Drive is a Hendricks property in which they are remodeling specifically to meet KANDU’s needs.  Staff and clients will be able to enjoy a new break room and all new bathrooms.  The new property also provides ample parking, a more convenient drop-off/pick-up area with less traffic and lots of green space.

KANDU creates, promotes and provides diverse opportunities within the community that offer persons with disabilities or disadvantages the opportunity to pursue greater independence and meet their full potential.

For more information contact Gary Bersell, Executive Director at 608-755-4123 ext. 305 or Mike Ellis, Production/Facility Director at 608-755-4123 ext. 370.

I was out on the production floor recently, with customers. They were watching us in the initial stages as we started a job for them. A client worker from one of the other lines, Joel *, came over to our customers and asked “Who are you?” They smiled and said they were customers visiting from their company. Joel said, “but who are you?”  They laughed and said they were the quality control people and they were here to help set up the job. He looked at me and said, “Who are they?” I made the introductions using their first and last names. Joel said “Oh! So you are Carla and you are Jim.” Then he smiled, turned and walked away. As we realized that he was just looking for their first names, it made us all chuckle.  Sometimes, “Who are you?” doesn’t mean, what are you doing, what is your title , or even why are you here. It can just mean, what is your name and I will give you a welcoming smile. KANDU is awesome like that!

*Not his real name.

This is the last entry in a series of four blogs touching on when and why companies would work with KANDU for production services.

Would you like to cut costs and/or focus employees’ time on core competencies?

Many times focusing employees on their higher skilled job duties can also increase employee satisfaction.  Company A had highly skilled machine operators putting a small piece together by hand inbetween all their other duties. The pieces were showing quite a bit of variability depending on the operator and the amount of time they had to complete the piece. We took that small piece as an assembly job and now the operators are more focused on running the machines. The product has more consistency due to the jigs we built and we are seamlessly providing the piece when needed. The machine operators are glad they don’t have to hassle with these little parts anymore.

Our purchasing power might also save you money on material needs. Some companies, depending on the quantity of their project, find that  we are able to get a better pricing on packaging materials because we purchase a higher volume throughout the year.

No matter what the reason a company works with us, no company works with us solely because they like our mission. That is just the side bonus. They need us to save them time or money or both.  That’s what we do. Feel free to call us if you want to discuss a project or go to our production page  at www.kanduindustries.com.  You can also fill out a free quote request to get the ball rolling and get a great bonus of putting adults with disabilities to work!

placing a curved label around a bottle neck

When people ask, “What type of production service does KANDU offer?”,  instead of reciting a laundry list of possible processes (packaging, assembly, kitting, etc), we  tell a broader-view of those problems that we solve for our customers. It helps our potential customers consider their current processes from their own point of view.  They  don’t have to get distracted by wondering what specific processes we can perform. Instead, they can review what processes their own employees do that prevent them from being more focused and efficient regarding core competencies.

We will feature a few of the more common situations that bring companies to work with us over the next few posts.

Are you looking to fill an unusual customer request especially those that don’t fit your current automation capabilities? For example, company A is making widgets. They do it well and they sell many of them. Then a customer orders 100,000 widgets and asks Company A to package them with another product. This other product doesn’t fit their automation configuration. Company A decides that instead of buying an expensive machine or incurring overtime, they call us. We can do it.