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50 ISE Magazine | www.iise.org/ISEmagazine Hartman's net-to-gross ratio before implementing lean on the farm was 30 percent. After lean, the farm now reaps about 60 percent of what is sold yearly, sales have increased 10 per- cent per year with little added investment, and customers are retained more easily. "Lean has helped us to learn [value], where we are actually performing a direct action on the product causing the value to go up and focus our efforts there, as opposed to going to farming conferences and leafing through seed catalogues," Hartman said. Sowing seeds for the future Hartman maintains production by implementing kaizen methods for continuous improvement. At the end of every year, Hartman and his team identify ways to cut costs by 5 percent. "It's a simple activity that we've grown to love because we save 5 percent a year, and over 10 years we've grown our busi- ness by 10 percent," Hartman said. The team also uses what Hartman calls the "15 percent rule": Fifteen percent of what is grown every year is new – approximately one in five crops – in order to test new markets. Hartman includes his employees in the lean process and so- licits ideas for process improvement from them on a weekly basis. When a new employee joins the team, Hartman ex- plains lean and the different types of waste, then invites them to partake in rooting it out of the farming process. By doing this, "it eliminates any challenges that would arise from hav- ing to win [employees] over or have them get used to a new way of doing things," Hartman said. Since implementing lean and seeing its success on Clay Bot- tom Farm, Hartman has written a book, The Lea arm, and regularly holds workshops at local farm conferences. "I'm not setting out to be a lean guru here. My goal is to equip small farmers with the business tools they need to make a living," Hartman said. He and his wife also are working on making the farm an inviting place for their two children and eventually want to set up a garden for kids and help raise the next generation of farmers. Hartman's plans for the future include getting rid of more waste and writing his second book – a field guide for vegetable growers. — Cassa dra Jo so Case study If you have been involved in implementing a project and can share details, we'd like to interview you for a case study. Contact Web Managing Editor Cassandra Johnson at (770) 449-0461, ext. 119, cjohnson@iise.org. Spread the news Clay Bottom Farm's owners ditched their central tool storage in favor of a waste-free, hanging approach.