Sometimes a fresh perspective is all it takes to change a business for the better. Jeff Whittle, recently appointed CEO of Royal Seating Ltd., plans to combine that perspective with strong internal resources for a winning combination.

Whittle spent 15 years as a commercial litigator before deciding he wanted to “be on the business side.” After moving quickly through the ranks of sales, technology and management positions at various companies, he jumped at the chance to learn the manufacturing industry.

Despite a vigorous appetite for industry know-how, Whittle believes a fresh perspective can only go so far. He sees it as nearly unbeatable, though, when combined with some of the most experienced manufacturing minds in the business.

Royal Seating's production manager, Dr. Y.V. Rao, earned his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University. “Here, in little Cameron, Texas, we benefit from one of the most talented and educated production managers we could hope to find,” Whittle emphasizes. “He is just a wealth of knowledge about what we do and how we do it.”

With this combination of enthusiasm and experience, Whittle says, the educational furniture manufacturer is ready to head in a new direction - a lean direction. “We are so fortunate to have this production leadership capability - we don't have to find someone to drive these initiatives,” he says. “I have total confidence that we can do it successfully.”

Royal Growth
Royal Seating was a small manufacturing company when Walter Dossett purchased it in the early 1960s and began to invest in it. By 2003, the company had reached $25 million in revenues and, with 200 employees, became the largest employer in the county. Through its employee stock option program - which Whittle describes as Walter Dossett's legacy to the company - Royal Seating is now 30 percent employee owned. Whittle believes this is a primary driver of its success. The Dossett family owns more than 50 percent of Royal Seating's parent company, Royal Cameron Corp.

“We've been here in Cameron a long time,” Whittle says. “We have families and generations of people who have worked with us over the years.”

According to Whittle, Royal Seating has developed a complete product line of educational furniture. Through an acquisition 10 years ago, it added church and library furniture to its offerings as well as a specialty woodworking group.

“We are one of the primary players in the market,” Whittle explains. “There are both public and private companies that we compete with. Historically, we have specialized in quality and service. That won't change.”

Unlike its competitors, Whittle notes, Royal Seating operates only through distributors and does not do any direct sale. This avoids situations in which a company sales force is competing against a distributor on the sale of the same products, he says.

“We focus on the relationship with the distributor,” he explains. “We make sure they have the highest-quality product, we make sure they can get it quickly and that they know there will be service after the sale, if needed. There is no question about who our customer is and where our loyalty lies.”

Getting Lean
Whittle says Royal Seating's No. 1 priority is to “get our arms around our production costs.” As a newcomer to the business, he is cautious about making generalizations, but he believes Royal can improve its understanding of what it costs to make each item and work to assess its production lines.

“We are just getting started with lean principles,” he explains. “We have a very talented production staff, but we have to look at how they maintain costs.

“I think we have a lot of progress we can make when we combine this talented team with some concepts of production flow,” Whittle adds.

Although he is excited about implementing these principles, he is leery about predicting an easy change. “I don't think lean is anymore a cure-all than anything else,” he cautions. “It's a framework for us to think about changes.”