Montie Gear Quick Quiver and bow hanging from a Montie Gear Hunter’s Friend So, when we got the opportunity to pick up the quiet quiver product, it seemed pretty cool. And I spent a little bit of time with it on top of the mountain a while back, but haven’t spent the day hunting …

Continue reading “Podcast and Video: Deer Hunting with the Quiet Quiver – Field Test”

Montie’s Note:  Here is a Montie Gear product story that gives a insight into the design and a use case that includes testing and field use by the designer.  This was a customer newsletter item. Fall is synonymous with whitetail deer hunting in the South.  Our wives become “deer widows” for 2-3 months while we …

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Montie’s Note:  As product designers, we often obsess with QFD, House of Quality, Pairwise groupings, but some products are just simple and fun.  Here is a new product announcement for a Montie Gear product that we had fun with.  Here is an example of a simple and less serious outdoor sporting goods product that is …

Continue reading “Fun Product Design – Easy Camp Fires with Fatwood Kindling”

We use Kanban cards at Montie Gear to manage our inventory.  The purpose of the cards is to make sure we don’t run out of inventory so we have the products you want, when you want them.  Kanban is a way to use a simple formula to determine how much product to keep on hand …

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If you are going lean, the boss has to set the example.  One of the places where I spend a lot of time is at the shipping desk.  So my 2 second lean project for the week is cleaning up the shipping desk.  Here are the results. Questions, comments, videos, suggestions are all welcome! Montie …

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Managing Production and Inventory in Context of Lean by Montie Roland Audio File:    2016 Mar – Managing Production and Inventory in Context of Lean.mp3 Good morning.  My name is Montie Roland with Montie Gear in Apex, North Carolina.  And I’d like to spend a few minutes talking about managing your production and inventory in the …

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Designing and making products is something we really enjoy at Montie Gear.  We serve you (our customers and our vendors) by pursuing manufacturing and operations excellence.  What does “manufacturing and operations excellence” mean?  Operations excellence means that you receive exactly the product you want quickly.  It also means that our vendors get paid on time.  …

Continue reading “Montie Gear is Transforming into a Lean Manufacturer”

Non-hunters reading this blog may not realize that preparation for deer hunting season is almost a year round endeavor.  These pictures were taken in March when we were planting a deer food plot.  The plot includes sugar beets sunflowers with high protein content seeds red clover white clover  soybeans Imperial Whitetail Clover™ from Whitetail Research …

Continue reading “Getting Ready for Deer Season (not product development related but still fun)”

This is one over the top slingshot! It is a Montie Gear Y-Shot that has been modified. See the video and read Adam’s review of the Montie Gear Y-Shot Summary Author RatingAggregate Ratingno rating based on 0 votes Brand Name Montie GearProduct Name Y-Shot SlingshotPrice USD 129.95Product Availability Available in Stock

  Greetings, Can you get so Lean (Lean Manufacturing) that you get lost in the process?  You bet you can. Lets talk about the Kano model.  The Kano model helps you to organize your product development and management efforts between basic expectations, performance enhancements and delightful additions to your product.  Understanding the difference  and applying …

Continue reading “My Journey Into Lean Manufacturing – Kano Model / Don’t Forget Customer Delight”

Forget about designing from a clean sheet of paper.  It can’t happen.  The designer himself prevents brings a tapestry of experience, skills and preconceptions with him.  Embrace that diversity and create better designs, even when you are starting from scratch.  Once you understand you, then you can think on a broader scale and truly innovate …

Continue reading “Who You Are and Why Your Designs are Better Because of It”

  Join me and talk about the first steps in considering how Montie Gear could go Lean. Normally, when you think about Lean Manufacturing it is in the context of a large manufacturer.  Can a micro manufacturer go Lean?  Six Sigma?  Lets talk about it. Comments welcome at montie@montie.com Cheers, Montie Here is the transcription …

Continue reading “My Journey to Lean – Part 3 – Can Montie Gear go Lean?”

  10  years ago, the push was to go paperless.  Is paperless too much of a good thing? Data in your computer is passive.  Yes you can manipulate it, share, mine it but you have to go ask for it.  Why not make data active? Lean Manufacturing techniques include tools to make your data active …

Continue reading “My Journey into Lean Manufacturing – Part 2 – Active vs. Passive Data”

  Join me as I chronicle my journey into lean manufacturing! This is part 1 of the series. Comments and suggestions are always welcome at montie@montie.com. Here is the transcript from the podcast…………………………………… Audio file:    2015 May 17 – Lean Thoughts 0.mp3 Time transcribed:    15:50 minutes [Opening music] Hello.  My name is Montie Roland.  And …

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Cooling Electronic Enclosuresmap :: {skin:’green’, animate:true, width:’200′, volume:0.6, autoplay:false, loop:false, showVolumeLevel:true, showTime:true, showRew:true, downloadable:false, downloadablesecurity:false, id3: false} —- Transcript ———————- Audio File: 2014 Feb 12 – Cooling Electronic Enclosures.mp3 Audio Length: 14:12 minutes Hello. My name is Montie Roland. I’m with Montie Design in Morrisville, North Carolina. And today, I’d like to spend a few …

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