Soapy Faith Soap Co.
Soapy Faith is a natural soap company with positive affirmations to soothe the soul enclosed with each bar of soap. Founded in 2015, Soapy Faith was created by three sisters. Going back to their roots of creating bath and body products, they decided to focus on soap, an item for everyday cleansing, not only for physical cleansing but to inspire its user to have faith, and push through when times are not always perfect.
Improved Space Utilization, Reduced Waste & Lead Time
Client Business Need
As Soapy Faith outgrew its San Leandro location and moved to a larger facility in Hayward, it faced several challenges including how to use their new, larger space as effectively and efficiently as possible. They were also in the middle of a company and product rebranding initiative. And, they needed to make the most of the holiday shopping season to recoup lost revenue due to the pandemic.
Approach
Soapy Faith was able to take advantage of the Small Business Technical Assistance Expansion Program (SBTAEP) that provides funds to help with consulting costs. Manex performed an assessment of the current space and operations and determined areas of improvement. Based on the results of the assessment, Manex recommended a highly interactive Kaizen activity focused on inventory control, space utilization and a Kanban card system in three main areas:
- Islands of Operations
- Existing Finished Goods Inventory (FGI)
- Controls on Materials & Supplies
Results Delivered
As a result of the Kaizen strategies implemented by Manex, Soapy Faith has seen a significant reduction in waste in finished goods inventory and production lead time, as well as achieved 55% reduction in production process travel time on the production floor.
Soapy Faith expects an increase of at least $18,000 in new sales and retained sales in the coming year. They are now in a position to hire more employees.
“With Manex’s guidance, we were able to rearrange workstations and supplies for better flow and space utilization. We have seen a significant reduction in waste in finished goods inventory and production lead time. Due to an expected increase in new sales and retained sales, we can now consider hiring more employees to continue growing our business. Moving forward, we plan to engage Manex to explore possible automation opportunities to capitalize on production throughput.”
Krystal James, Soapy Faith Soap Co. Founder & CEO
