TriMas Announces Winner of Its Annual Kaizen Challenge

Internal Competition Drives the Company’s Continuous Improvement Culture

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--TriMas (NASDAQ: TRS) today announced the winner of its 2024 TriMas Kaizen Challenge. The winning project was submitted by a dedicated team at Allfast Fastening Systems, part of the TriMas Aerospace group and based in the City of Industry, California. Allfast’s Kaizen project focused on improving aerospace customers’ quoting experiences by streamlining the ordering process and implementing a new interactive customer portal.

TriMas implemented its annual, enterprise-wide Kaizen Challenge, a core component of its TriMas Business Model, to promote its relentless commitment to continuous improvement. Since its introduction seven years ago, more than 210 of the Company’s top product, process and service-related projects from 27 different locations in 10 countries have been submitted to its internal competition. Each year, the Company evaluates its most impactful Kaizen projects, selecting winning teams based on specific criteria that include positive and sustainable impacts on performance, along with a demonstrated use of employee engagement and Kaizen tools.

“This year, we received a record number of submissions for the 2024 TriMas Kaizen Challenge, each demonstrating an exceptional level of employee engagement and quality,” stated Thomas Amato, TriMas President and Chief Executive Officer. “I want to thank all of our project teams worldwide for their unwavering dedication to using the tools of Kaizen to improve. Embracing a culture of Kaizen continues to remain a cornerstone of TriMas, empowering our employees to drive improvements in our processes, products and customer service.”

Allfast Fastening Systems’ project was a cross-functional team effort, culminating in the presentation delivered by Dale Carruthers, Vice President of Sales and Marketing. The team focused on improving its customers’ quoting experience, including the ordering process, while reducing waste in process steps. Using value stream mapping, the team was able to reduce the quote lead-time, provide real-time information, enhance consistency and improve customer service.

The following locations were also named Finalists in the 2024 TriMas Kaizen Challenge:

• TriMas Packaging group: New Albany, Ohio, and San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
• TriMas Life Sciences group: Denver, Colorado
• TriMas Aerospace group: Simi Valley, California

"Congratulations once again to our 2024 Kaizen Challenge winner, top finalists and all participating teams. I look forward to another year of our leadership driving a culture of continuous improvement across our businesses," concluded Amato.

About TriMas

TriMas manufactures a diverse set of products primarily for the consumer products, aerospace and industrial markets through its TriMas Packaging, TriMas Aerospace and Specialty Products groups. Our approximately 3,400 dedicated employees in 13 countries provide customers with a wide range of innovative and quality product solutions through our market-leading businesses. Our TriMas family of businesses has strong brand names in the markets served, and operates under a common set of values and strategic priorities under the TriMas Business Model. TriMas is publicly traded on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol “TRS,” and is headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. For more information, please visit www.trimas.com.