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The Mueller Co. was ready for a change. The multiplant manufacturer of water distribution products had an excellent reputation in the marketplace, but that good reputation came at a price. Internal scrap and rework metrics told the story. High costs reduced the bottom line and took a human toll. With executive support and a broad-based team effort, the company’s Chattanooga, Tennessee, facility is serving as a transformational model of the focused, strategic shift to a data-driven culture.

Joseph Benford, director of corporate quality, describes it this way: “We had the ‘monthly one-off syndrome.’ Every month we had a different reason why we didn’t make our target.”

Problem-solving teams shifted their focus constantly to address the current emergency. They lacked constancy of purpose over the long term. To make matters worse, data that could help them identify and solve problems were sadly lacking.

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