Engineering & Operations A good problem to have: not enough space to store the volume of product needed to meet customer demands. Over the past few years Eemax’s finished goods inventory levels have continued to increase. Our short-term solution had been to store this inventory in 43 leased trailers outside the facility. In-house inventory was then replenished by shipping/material handling personnel refilling Kan-Ban locations from inventory located in the trailers. In September 2017—with future growth estimated to be 10-12% annually over the next 5 years—we completed a Kaizen event and determined that investing in an on-site, secured storage location was necessary for many reasons, most important being cost and safety. After extensive research and negotiation, Eemax was able to acquire an additional 45,000 square feet at our current location. We are now able to secure our entire inventory. In addition, we have also enhanced several other areas within operations:

• A new production area to build three phase product for Rheem® and Eemax brands
• Safer shop with open aisles, fire hazards minimized, clear lines of sight
• Product test stations supported with additional power