As Total Door’s Controller, Jeanne Kitchen is one of the leaders driving the company’s quest for product speed and continuous improvement. Recently, she discussed her roles at the company and what excites her about the future.
Q: What projects excite you for the future?
I’m responsible for all the computer systems that make the business run, such as parts ordering and inventory control; and I head financial metrics and human resources.
A project that I’m particularly excited about is what we internally call “the Configurator.”
It will provide more ease and visibility to pricing and quoting future projects. It will be a fantastic resource for distributors to quickly and easily quote projects; and for end users to see how budget friendly our integrated door systems are for a wide variety of projects.
The second one would be our new preventative maintenance software. This is backstage software that is a part of our continuous improvement initiatives. It makes sure that any maintenance issues are addressed completely and on time. Our maintenance team is notified about planned maintenance immediately and receives reminders until the issue is resolved.
The system then automatically schedules the next maintenance issue after it is completed.
Q: How do these projects work to help distributors succeed?
The Configurator will allow distributors to put a Total Door into any frame from anywhere in the field. All they need is internet access and the configurator will make sure the hardware and software work together to create a door that will fit any opening.
Our focus on preventative maintenance concerns the speed and quality of our products. When we maintain our equipment, we don’t experience unexpected downtime. We can get quality orders to customers in the time we expect every time.
It’s exciting to work towards goals when everyone on the team is pulling together towards excellence.
