~authored by Dave Rizzardo, Associate Director

Our seventh and final MWCC Lean Facility Tour of 2025, took place at CHUTES International in Waldorf, Maryland. Despite the challenges of hosting an event during the holiday season, we had an excellent turnout for this visit, packed with Lean learning. Following is a brief review of the morning and some key takeaways.

We began with an overview of CHUTES’ history, products, and, most importantly, their Lean journey. A standout aspect of CHUTES is its enterprise-wide Lean alignment. They recognize that Lean is not just a manufacturing methodology, but an organizational one. We learned about their Product Improvement Team (PIT), their application of Scrum, Gemba Walks, KPIs, cost-of-quality tracking, recognition practices (including the “Golden Hammer Award”), improvement meeting routines, and more—before heading out onto the floor to see these practices in action.

Attendees participated in the daily Gemba Walk, moving from area to area to see how +QDIP boards are used to monitor performance and highlight issues for the PIT team—a cross-functional group that ensures timely resolution and support. After the Gemba walk—a 15-minute daily “pulse check”—we returned to the meeting area to observe the PIT meeting itself.

The PIT session flowed through discussion of issues, successes, impediments, and improvement opportunities—an approximately 30-minute routine that reinforces daily improvement habits. We then observed the Sales Department stand-up, which uses its own AQDIP board aligned with the company’s overall performance metrics.

Experiencing these continuous improvement routines firsthand was a valuable conclusion to our 2025 facility tour series. Many thanks to Doug Galeone and the entire CHUTES team for their hospitality and willingness to share. One final observation: the Lean culture at CHUTES is clearly embedded in the attitudes and engagement of team members across the organization. The tools and routines we observed work because they are grounded in a strong culture. Well done, CHUTES team—and thank you for an outstanding learning opportunity.