Innovative Surfaces, headquartered in Hastings, Minn., has been serving commercial and residential clients as a granite, solid surface and quartz fabricator in the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area for more than 30 years and is now a multimillion-dollar business. The company was founded by Bruce Akins, who is still president, while his son Todd Akins is now the production manager and has been with the company for 22 years.
Both father and son proclaim that much of their success can be contributed to the practice of constraint management. They believe that streamlining production hinges on identifying bottlenecks: the points in the fabrication process where works begins to back up. Todd explains that the bottleneck for natural stone is the CNC machinery, and the bottleneck for solid surface is sanding.
Constraint management is used by Innovative Surfaces for multiple purposes. Bruce and Todd believe that it is the most useful tool they have for creating installation schedules, but they also use it to fine-tune the pricing for each job.
Read more of this fabricator profile here: Innovative Surfaces
