New Grant Partners UMB with Dancing Deer Baking Company

By Thijs Messelaar

While the cookies are rich and rewarding, the cakes lush and luxurious, the daily operation at Dancing Deer Baking Company intends to be nothing but lean. Though definitely not mean.

In fact, worker satisfaction is built right into their mission statement: "We believe that if [employees] love what they're doing, it shows in the food. We developed this philosophy from the earliest days when we observed that baking ‘angry' would ruin a cake."

"We would like to be more efficient as we grow," said Lissa McBurney, Dancing Deer Baking Company production manager, "but we also realize that we are a first job-experience [in the U.S.] for immigrants and we want it to be a good one for them."

Nowadays, attaining these goals has become much more realistic thanks to a recent $50K Work Force Training grant awarded to the Division of Corporate, Continuing and Distance Education (CCDE) and Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership (GBMP) in order to partner with Dancing Deer. The training will combine ESL classes for nearly all production staff along with a series of onsite classes focused on lean manufacturing.

"Dancing Deer is a well-run, successful company, and this manufacturing training and English-language proficiency building will only strengthen them," said Chris Cassidy, director of corporate outreach in CCDE.

According to Chris Martin, associate director of GBMP, the concept of lean manufacturing--or simply, continuous improvement--was developed by Toyota in the 1950s, yet U.S. companies have just begun to latch on to the concept in the past two years. A "lean" shop avoids wasteful, non-value-adding practices such as overproduction, redundancy, and prolonged lead times. Martin and his colleagues trained over 7,000 individuals this year, and through partnerships have helped secure $6 million in work-training grants from the state.

"When the sessions with Dancing Deer begin next year, we'll train from top to bottom--from the president to the bakers," said Martin.

With their value doubling to $5 million this year, Dancing Deer has been growing at a breakneck speed in the last two years. Considering the organizational and space issues associated with this quick expansion--coupled with a commitment to stay in Boston--they turned to GBMP and CCDE for help.

"Chris Cassidy was able to understand exactly what we needed, and he came up with a very good program for us," said McBurney. "Chris Martin and GBMP have done this sort of work before, so we're confident they can provide us with the formal training we need in order to successfully graduate to the next level of business."

"This partnership is such a perfect example of UMass Boston responding to the needs of a neighborhood company," said Cassidy.

"Whenever possible, we partner with CCDE because they have good resources, and with the College of Management for their great staff," said Martin.

"While we're improving local businesses, we try to involve the university as much as possible--we get faculty and staff out there working with real companies."

Image: Surrounded by sumptuous baked goods on the production floor of the Dancing Deer Baking Company, Chris Cassidy, director of corporate outreach in CCDE, Lissa McBurney, production manager for the Dancing Deer, and Chris Martin, associate director of the Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership, talk of plans that include manufacturing training and building employee language proficiency. (Photo by Harry Brett)

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