Four years ago, Cambridge Air Solutions introduced the 2-Second Lean initiative, designed to build an environment where every employee throughout the entire organization could recognize waste and create of culture of continuous improvement. The company’s mission was to “Build a better working environment for our hard-working people.”

Fast forward to today, and the world finds itself right in the middle of the COVID-19 virus pandemic, which is affecting the lives of almost everyone in the U.S. and worldwide. What Cambridge Air Solutions didn’t realize, nor could have known, is that its 2-Second Lean culture has prepared the company to safely continue production during the early stages of the outbreak. 

The lean culture at Cambridge Air Solutions has the entire organization participating in a daily lean and clean effort. Every morning, at lunch, in the evening, and throughout the day, each team member cleans the area of the building in which they work. Just think about that for a moment — the whole facility is cleaned by every employee every day. 

And, now more than ever, while we fight this invisible virus, the need to ensure surfaces throughout a facility are continuously sanitized is vital. At Cambridge, management doesn’t have to train, ask, or constantly prod its work family members to do this. Now, it’s something everyone automatically does as part of their normal day-to-day routine. It’s a natural part of the Cambridge’s new and improved culture and something the company will continue to do as it moves forward.

From the front office to the bathrooms throughout the company’s manufacturing plants to the shipping and receiving areas, employees will continue to clean the facility as they have done for the past four years. Cambridge has implemented this because it cares about it staff and facilities. This decision has unknowingly prepared the company to have an exceptionally clean and safe environment during this trying time. 

Given that Cambridge Air Solutions is a manufacturer of heating, ventilation, and evaporative cooling equipment, the company’s processes can introduce a lot of contaminants into the environment. Although, the technology the company produces has always been designed to deliver improved indoor air quality, keeping everything spic and span inside has been a challenge that the Cambridge family has embraced.

As a lean tour visitor once said during a walk-through of the plant, “The floors are so clean you could eat off of them.” This is a testament to the extent Cambridge pridefully cleans the environment in which its work family spends a great deal of time with people the company enjoys and respects. And, the manufacturer has definitely created a “Better working environment for its hard-working people.”

Now, with the battle to keep the COVID-19 virus at bay, Cambridge Air Solutions is motivated more than ever. This is just one of the positive benefits the company has realized from its lean journey, and there are many more.

If you would like to learn more about Cambridge’s journey and experience exactly what the manufacturer means when it says, “Helping Leaders Create Better Working Environments For Hard-Working People,” visit www.cambridgeair.com.