Every fabrication shop has waste. Most don’t talk about it. We’re talking about it — because acknowledging the problem is the first step to eliminating it, and eliminating it is how we become the highest quality Indiana limestone fabricator in the world.

That’s not a marketing line. It’s the actual aspiration driving decisions at ILF right now. And getting there requires being brutally honest about where we are today.

We’re early in our lean journey. The mill has inefficiencies. Processes that could take two steps take six. Material moves when it shouldn’t. Time gets lost that shouldn’t be lost. We know it. We’ve been studying it. And we’ve brought in serious people to help us fix it.

This post is the honest version of that story — not the polished press release version.

What Waste Actually Looks Like in a Stone Mill

Lean manufacturing defines waste as anything that doesn’t add value for the customer. Motion that doesn’t need to happen. Waiting that slows production. Overprocessing steps that consume time without improving the product. Defects that require rework.

In a limestone fabrication facility, waste is everywhere once you know how to see it. Stone moved twice when it should be moved once. Tools not where they’re needed when they’re needed. Setups that take longer than they should. Information that doesn’t flow clearly from the shop drawing to the saw to the CNC to the finishing floor.

Lean manufacturing identifies eight specific categories of waste — known in the Toyota Production System as the 8 Wastes. Learning to see them in our own operation has been one of the most valuable and uncomfortable exercises of this process.

The uncomfortable truth: most of this waste is invisible until you’ve been trained to see it. We weren’t trained. We ran the shop the way shops get run — by habit, by tribal knowledge, by “this is how we’ve always done it.” And that’s exactly the problem.

Paul Akers of FastCap built the framework we’re studying: 2 Second Lean. The idea is deceptively simple — every day, every person identifies waste that can be fixed in two seconds and fixes it right then. Not a two-second problem — a two-second fix. The point is to make improvement immediate, tangible, and habitual rather than theoretical. Stack those fixes across a team over months and years, and the cumulative effect is transformational. We’re implementing this framework at ILF. We’re at the beginning. But we’ve started.

Before you can fix waste, you have to see it. Before you can see it, you have to be willing to look. That willingness is harder than it sounds when the waste is your own operation.

— Donovan Garletts, President & CEO, ILF

Who We’re Learning From

We didn’t try to figure this out alone. Lean manufacturing has a deep body of practice and a community of practitioners who have done this work in real facilities. We went looking for the best of them.

The common thread across everyone we’ve learned from: lean isn’t primarily about tools or techniques. It’s about culture. A facility where every person is empowered to identify waste and fix it is fundamentally different from one where improvement is someone else’s job. Building that culture is the real work — and it takes years, not months.

What We’re Putting Into the Mill

Culture change and process improvement are the foundation. But lean manufacturing also requires capable equipment — machines that don’t create waste through breakdowns, inaccuracy, or bottlenecks. We’re investing in both simultaneously.

What We’re Building Toward

The destination isn’t a specific piece of equipment or a certification or a consultant’s sign-off. It’s a facility and a culture that eliminates waste systematically — where every person on the floor is actively improving their work environment every single day, where the stone moves efficiently from saw to CNC to finish to shipping, and where the customer gets a better product because the process behind it is better.

Henry Holsters didn’t get where they are overnight. Toyota didn’t build the Production System in a year. Lean transformation is measured in years of consistent effort, not months of initiative. We’re at the beginning of that timeline. We know it. And we’re committed to the long version.

What this means for customers in the near term: the investments we’re making now — in equipment, in process, in people — are building toward shorter lead times, tighter tolerances, and higher consistency in finished product. We’re not there yet. We’re working toward it with every improvement, every day.

What it means for the long term: ILF’s stated aspiration is to be the highest quality Indiana limestone fabricator in the world. That’s not achievable without a lean operation behind it. You can’t produce world-class stone from a facility full of waste. So the lean work isn’t separate from the quality aspiration — it’s how we get there.

We’re covered in waste and we know it. That’s actually a good place to start — because it means there’s nowhere to go but better.

— Donovan Garletts, President & CEO, ILF

Come Watch Us Work

One of the things we’ve learned from the lean community is the value of transparency. Lean facilities open their doors. They let people see the work — not because everything is perfect, but because the improvement process is visible and ongoing and worth seeing.

ILF is in Spencer, Indiana. If you’re an architect, contractor, or builder working with Indiana limestone — or thinking about it — come see the operation. Walk the mill. See how stone gets from a quarry block to a numbered panel ready to set. Ask hard questions about our process. We’ll give you honest answers about where we are and where we’re going.

The stone that built America’s most important buildings is still coming from southern Indiana. We’re building the operation that will fabricate it better than it’s ever been fabricated before. We’re early. We’re working. And we’re not stopping.