Alta North fabricates equipment for the oil & gas industry from Drilling Rigs & Mud tanks to Skid Buildings and more. In June of 2005, President Ed Cote attended the LEAN Conference in Edmonton and was immediately open to the concept of Lean Manufacturing as a system to improve operations. Lean was implemented throughout the company from top management down giving Alta North the ability to become flexible in delivering a wide range of products to meet their customer’s Quality and Delivery schedule needs without becoming overwhelmed by the diverse product mix.

Alta North employs 60 people. 6 office personnel, 1 shop foreman, 4 team leads and a blend of fitters, welders and laborers in their 33,000 square foot shop. Employee education in Leadership training and achieving results through people to new hire orientation came from attending classes, bringing in Consultants and in-house workshops.

Since starting their Lean journey, they have realized gains and setbacks but their persistence with implementation has proven well. The shop has become a workplace employees are happy to work in and many man-hours have been reduced on jobs using Lean tools such as 5S, VSM, tool boards, visual communication boards and continuous improvement ideas resulting in both company and employee financial rewards.

Angelo Borrelli, Continuous Improvement Coordinator

Angelo began his work at Alta North Fabricators as an AutoCAD operator. Upon being introduced to Lean by the company president, Angelo began applying his skills of developing teams of people to focus on putting together systems that produce results based on Lean principals (Culture, Continuous Improvement, Best Practices, Standardized Work). This combination of soft skills and best practices transformed Alta North from ‘just another welding shop’ to a team oriented ‘World Class’ quest for Fabrication Excellence.

Any company that has ventured into the Lean arena has faced the challenges of Complacency in Culture and Work habits. It requires an individual that can create a vision of what’s possible and a determination to cast that vision to others and see it through to reality.