Mezel Mods: Competitive Niche Manufacturing in New Mexico

Visual management at work; courtesy Mezel Mods Facebook page

Mezel Mods, a family -owned and -operated company in Rio Rancho, NM, has been in business for three years. The company, which consists of two founders and one employee manufactures individual creative additions (aftermarket) and replacement parts for pinball machinery, which they sell online directly to the end-user. What sets Mezel Mods apart from other New Mexico manufacturers is its reliance on emergent 3D printing technology for its core manufacturing capability as well as the fact that it is able to make significant revenues from this technology platform.

When Mezel Mods turned to New Mexico MEP for help, many of the company’s challenges were related to standardization of work areas, point of use storage, elimination of defects, production signaling, production sequencing, and order fulfillment. Through visual management, lean and line-balancing techniques, New Mexico MEP helped the firm improve its lead time, production volume, and quality, thereby reducing costs and pricing.

The company estimates that it has gained about 20% more efficiency in its new product introduction processes from its increased understanding of value stream mapping pre-planning. The increase in new product introduction reflects the firm’s ability to free up resources by driving out waste, which allows the firm to fulfill its mission to do both R&D- design, and light manufacturing. Addressing these issues has put the company on track to gain market share and grow its customer base. Mezel Mods calculated a cost savings of $43K resulting from discontinued wasteful processes. More efficient production and fulfillment also led to an estimated $20K loss avoided from lost opportunities and customer satisfaction/goodwill.

“New Mexico MEP engaged in our challenges deeply. The NM MEP got into the trenches with us to do the hands-on application of concepts to improve efficiency. We made critical improvements that we could never have made on our own.  The value is truly beyond measure to a small manufacturer.” – Kristin Browning-Mezel, Co-Founder, Mezel Mods