Based just outside Chicago, Paragon Manufacturing has accumulated nearly 70 years of business experience through sustained, lean efficiency, and day-in, day-out commitment to quality. Now, the company is preparing to scale some even higher peaks through its elevation to SQF Certification.

Paragon traces its lineage to 1953, when William Wright set up a small tool & die shop in the Chicago suburb of Melrose Park. Growth was steady, and within a few years the fledgling business was able to expand into its current location just 10 blocks away.

Soon after opening his shop, William made a custom mold for a customer, a 5-gallon pail, but was left with it after the customer couldn’t pay. Reasoning he could make more, he set up Paragon’s first injection press in the early 1960s, soon becoming a major supplier to the container industry.

As Paragon expanded over the decades, it scaled back its custom molding and instead became a significant provider of food pails and shipping containers.

Today, William’s son Peter Wright leads Paragon, having joined the company straight out of college, and taking over leadership duties in 1992. One of the new president’s first actions was to replace Paragon’s old hydraulic presses with electric. “Our presses were hydraulic, and hydraulics are inefficient,” says Wright.

This switch was a prescient move toward a policy of sustainability, a policy which has endured and intensified at the company ever since.

As a major supplier to food suppliers across the United States, Paragon offers pails in sizes from one to six gallons, with additional options such as four-gallon square containers and five-gallon stretch pails. All pails are available in a variety of colors, with a choice of either metal or plastic handles. Paragon offers ‘EZ-Off’ covers to keep ingredients fresh but can be opened and closed quickly. Finally, all pails and containers are available with spouts, tear tab lids, ¾ plugs and more.

That Paragon’s product line has remained strictly limited to pails, covers, and handles has surely contributed to its longevity. “That’s all we sell,” says Sales Manager Greg Alm. He and his colleagues have fully grasped the wisdom of focusing on a small market niche rather than overextending the company. “There are other companies that might have expanded into other product, but we’ve always been focused on that, and Peter’s led that focus.”

This focus has endured despite the addition of more presses and work shifts over the decades. Up against so many competitors admittedly bigger, Paragon’s strength is that it’s small but nimble, able to respond to customers’ needs flexibly.

“We have a minimum order quantity of one box,” says Operations Manager Ashley Carroll. This allows Paragon to cater not only to large clients but also smaller operations, which may not need pails by the pallet or skid. “We can get you 42 pails, and we can get it to you same-day or next-day,” Carroll says.

She notes that Paragon prides itself on its rapid turnaround times. “If you call and you’re in dire need, we’re going to try and accommodate you in any way that we can.” With an efficient office staff, Paragon’s team can discuss operations and make decisions quickly—no tedious emailing to project managers.

Yet this flexibility is tempered by Paragon’s clear knowledge of its own limits, and the refusal to go beyond them. Having scaled back from custom molding, Wright argues this need for customization and turnkey solutions limits Paragon’s ability to help its primary customer base.

“When you do a custom mold, you’re really forced to adhere to that one customer’s needs,” he says. “We want to help all our customers, large and small.” To ensure this flexibility continues, Paragon will always have a diverse customer base, he says. “My goal is never to have a single customer over five percent of our business,” he says.

In a modern business world where instant communication and results are expected, if not essential, Paragon’s team takes pride in its more personal touch. “I’ve never allowed voicemail,” Wright says. “If a customer comes in, they’ll always talk with someone.”

Carroll confirms this policy. “Someone is always going to answer the phone,” she says. “Your call really is important to us, because I’m talking to you!”

Yet despite this arguably anachronistic environment, Paragon’s small size and decades in business has earned it a loyal cadre of repeat customers, some of whom have enjoyed business with Paragon for over 30 years. This loyalty has been earned through Paragon’s commitment to its clients.

During the pandemic, the Texas Deep Freeze of early 2021 literally froze the operations of many of the Lone Star State’s resin suppliers. Yet even during this darkest hour, Alm remarks, with quiet professional pride, “We have not let any customer go without. We’re in tune with their production schedules, and that’s the flexibility we have in supplying them with the product that they need.”

The loyalty has kept the company going through rough times.

Paragon’s resin supplier, with whom the company has maintained a relationship for over 25 years, guaranteed the company’s resin supply even when it couldn’t make similar guarantees to its competitors. “Because of our relationship, because of the familiarity that was there between us, they made sure we had our resin,” says Vice President of Special Projects Dina Wright.

“As we are loyal to our customers, we are loyal to our vendors, and that really paid off during the pandemic,” Carroll adds. She relates a time when steel handles could not be produced due to supply difficulties in the steel industry, and Paragon was able to step up and make more plastic handles.

This loyalty results from Paragon’s commitment to quality above all else. Alm relates one example in which a batch of pails came out slightly off-color during a color change. Despite the customer still wanting to buy them, Wright refused. “I don’t want anything leaving this plant with our name on it that’s not perfect,” he says. “Peter’s invested in quality, and that has continued,” Alm remarks.

Paragon’s high-quality policy continues with its new SQF Certification. Offered by the Virginia-based Safe Quality Food Institute (SQFI), itself a division of the larger industry organization The Food Industry Association, SQF Certification has established global food safety standards since its initial development in 1994.

SQF standards are updated regularly, most recently in 2020, in accordance with GFSI (Global Food Safety Initiative) standards. While Paragon started with AIB (American Institute of Baking) certification for its food containers, SQF has increasingly become the industry standard.

As Carroll puts it, Paragon’s upgrade to SQF certification was not only a sound business move, but a gesture of practicality as well; many of Paragon’s clients, as well as Paragon itself, share similar auditors with similar auditing practices. Paragon’s change to SQF standards gives auditors more confidence in the company’s practices, she says. “It opens doors with bigger food companies.”

Implementing this change required a new set of regulations and balances at Paragon’s plant, not without moderate disruption, but Carroll remarks how the company reacted with excitement. “It was a struggle for some, but everybody took part,” she says. “There was no hesitation or pushback.”

In addition to its practicality, Paragon’s upgrade to SQF serves to keep it competitive in a global market.

“Some customers won’t even talk to you unless you’re GFSI-certified,” Alm says. He predicts that, one day, all food vendors will be required to be SQF-certified. “We saw that coming and said, ‘this is an opportunity for us, not only to improve but also an opportunity to gain more quality customers who appreciate SQF.”

Now that Paragon is officially SQF-certified, Alm notes how the company is already feeling its effect on business practices, particularly in enhancing customer service. “If there’s a complaint, we’re on it that day, and part of SQF is to conduct traceability,” he says.

Paragon’s team will trace the problem to its source, working with clients and/or vendors. “It’s helped us eliminate issues and take care of them in the minds of the customers, and they really appreciate that. That helps with boosting the quality of the product we manufacture.”

As Paragon prepares to celebrate its 70^th anniversary next year, the company is investigating expanding elsewhere in the Midwest. Nevertheless, at present, with its location near Chicago, a loyal client base, flexible team, and new production standards, the company offers the best of high-quality containers and lean management standards.

And with its new SQF Standards, it is now ready to embrace bigger challenges.

The post Reaping the Benefits of Lean Management & High Standards<p class="company">Paragon Manufacturing Corp.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

For nearly seventy-five years, Albany Packaging has been providing affordable, highly-customized paperboard boxes for clients across the continent. Its decades in business have provided the experience needed to work closely with clients to provide custom packaging solutions. Now, the company is taking steps to make its packaging more sustainable and lessen its environmental impact while maintaining its high customer service standards.

Demonstrating its reach and versatility, Albany’s paperboard packaging can be found in grocery chains, bakeries, and clothing retailers throughout the United States and Canada. With a rapid support network and over 270 box types in its production line, the company meets any customer need.

In addition to its wide product line, Albany applies its experience and customer service skills to creating custom bakery boxes, donut boxes, cupcake boxes, and other packaging solutions in paperboard or materials such as metalized polyester laminate. Its design department works closely with clients, examining prototypes or existing packaging and making recommendations to add or remove features as needed. The result is packaging designed to fulfill client requirements while remaining budget-conscious.

Albany is proud to be under its third generation of family ownership and management. Sales and Project Manager Daniel Engelberg, who grew up around the company, says both staff and customers enjoy the small-business feel. “I think there’s something to that,” says Engelberg, whose grandfather bought the company back in the 1980s. “We’re small enough; we’re nimble enough that they enjoy it.” Many of the manufacturing and office staff have been with Albany for over twenty years. “The family feel of the company has helped shape that,” he remarks.

Despite its small size and approach, the business has enjoyed rapid growth, particularly in the past ten years. “The growth that we have seen is exponential. We’ve been able to expand our product offerings, our capabilities, and our technology,” says Engelberg. Albany’s small size and family ownership help keep business operations consolidated, ensuring rapid response times. “The fact that we’re family-owned makes us more approachable and more adaptable to customers and customer needs,” he explains. “There’s a lack of layers of bureaucracy that definitely helps us with our customers.”

But more than this, the long history with its clients and the resulting reputation it has built over nearly seventy-five years sets it apart and is responsible for this growth. Engelberg notes that some vendors and some clients stretch back twenty or thirty years, and the company has developed a close working relationship with them over time.

“We hang our hat on the relationships that we’ve had with these vendors over the years,” he says. The company’s reputation has also made it the prime packaging provider to a new generation of bakeries and foodservice providers, particularly with the rise of pandemic-induced takeout and meal delivery services. “We’ve been fortunate enough to provide great service and grow with them,” he says.

As an example of these close relationships, a client importing water bottle packaging sleeves asked how to reduce packaging costs, as the sleeves required labour-intensive gluing and often arrived late due to shipping difficulties. The client sent a sample sleeve to Albany’s packaging team, which closely analyzed potential challenges and recommended solutions. In the end, the team was able to create a new packaging sleeve with inverted folds, allowing for far easier gluing which solved the client’s problem.

Further contributing to growth is the distancing requirements of the pandemic, which have enabled Albany to land contracts far beyond its size thanks to online expositions. Engelberg highlights a virtual trade show in which several large international chains were present. In a traditional physical show, these large companies would have been swarmed, leaving no room for smaller companies. But in the intimacy and equality of a virtual space, Albany could meet with these much larger clients and gain some new contracts it likely would not have otherwise.

“This was just so efficient and cost-effective, and I think it was more productive,” Engelberg says of the experience. “The way this was structured, you were able to really focus.”

Throughout its history, Albany has balanced steady growth with its ability to remain agile. While its manufacturing and shipping capabilities have grown steadily, its core office staff members are still the highly experienced professionals with whom customers have dealt for decades. “There’s a lack of red tape, and that makes customers much more appreciative,” he says. “They can put a face to a name, and that really helps with relationships.”

Within this small structure, customers know they are more than a number. “As far as the customer is concerned, they still can contact me or our other sales manager, so there’s still that feeling of nimbleness.”

Albany is well aware of the move away from plastic packaging and is working to ensure that its paperboard containers are biodegradable. “We are seeing a lot of our customers moving away from plastic packaging,” Engelberg says, “and a lot of need for windowed packaging.” Using mostly paper or paperboard with only a small window of transparent plastic, windowed packaging allows consumers to see food items before they buy but minimizes plastic manufacturing and its resulting environmental impacts.

Due to its small size and adaptable nature, Albany has been able to quickly allocate resources to this new surge in sustainable packaging demands. It has used its relationships with both vendors and customers to keep up to date with customer trends and requirements. “We’re constantly learning about what the need is in the marketplace and then trying to teach them about how we can fit that need,” he says. The company’s own plant has installed environmentally-conscious features such as smart HVAC, lighting systems, thermostats, and variable-speed compressors on its machines, helping reduce energy usage.

However, the biggest impediment to sustainable packaging is its cost-effectiveness. “There’s only so much we can do,” Engelberg admits, noting that roughly fifty percent of Albany’s sale price is the price of paperboard itself. The company can lean heavily on its vendors, purchasing in mass quantities to keep the price manageable but paperboard as a commodity is subject to market fluctuations. “We’ve seen a handful of price increases from paperboard mills over the last two years,” he says.

But Albany and its clients are adapting to price increases by making packaging more efficient and minimalist. “We’re striving to use as little paperboard as possible, to keep the price to the customer as low as possible,” he says, explaining that the custom packaging team works with clients to create and distribute packaging free from unnecessary design features. “We try to be as transparent as possible with our customers on what they need.”

He recognizes that as talented as the staff may be, labour attrition resulting from retirement is inevitable. To prepare for vacancies, the company is working closely with local technical schools to recruit skilled graduates. Internally, it is also cross-training its younger staff in a variety of machine operating skills, to ensure its workforce remains as versatile as possible. While pandemic-induced immigration slowdowns have limited recruitment of the skilled workers Albany needs, these multiple labour pipelines ensure that the company will have a strong and sustainable future.

Albany continues to grow and address these challenges and faces the challenge of retaining its small-business charm while also expanding its production capabilities. Engelberg sums up the dilemma of increasing output while keeping labour costs manageable. “We are seeing so much demand from customers new and existing, and we want to take all this business,” he says. “How do we grow so fast?” To achieve this, the company is investing significant capital in automation, to help blunt the dual impact of a labour shortage and aging labour force.

As Albany Packaging approaches its seventy-fifth birthday, the company looks forward to the years to come. Already well-versed in shifting food packaging towards a more sustainable medium, Albany is the natural choice for environmentally-conscious food providers to help feed a hungry world.

The post Sustainability Backed by 75 Years of Experience<p class="company">Albany Packaging </p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Vidir Solutions, headquartered in the heart of Manitoba, is working to not only bring in more female employees to its industry but also invigorate more rural communities. From its two offices in Manitoba and a third in Pennsylvania, the company is embracing these challenges to help combat the current labour shortages and build a better modern economy.

Vidir, from an old Icelandic term for ‘willow’ as a nod to the Scandinavian immigrants who helped build the company’s hometown, traces its lineage nearly fifty years. Like many companies, it was created to fill a simple need; founder Willie Dueck found that many local farmers were losing hours to tedious machine repairs while many skilled immigrants had no local jobs and started a machine shop to accommodate them.

Over the decades, the company has shifted to manufacturing and distributing its trademark movable storage units, which can be found in stores around the globe. Today, Vidir continues this legacy as well as being North America’s leading provider of automated material handling machine systems and components.

Talent Acquisition and Public Relations Specialist Carissa Rempel (Willie Dueck’s granddaughter) feels that being located outside major metropolitan areas boosts employees’ mental health. “They’re not fighting traffic to get to work; they’re not fighting pollution,” she explains. “They can have a quieter life; they are less concerned about threats to safety; they can get out in nature more.”

She notes that a smaller town can also provide a more intimate workforce. “People care about each other in a way that you don’t often see in a large urban manufacturing centre because in those places it’s very easy to leave work at work,” she says, elaborating that a unique work culture develops when co-workers are also neighbours, peers and friends.

Carissa’s husband, Vidir CEO Ernest Rempel says that the small-town feel also reflects Vidir’s attitudes towards customers and employees. By developing intimate, long-term relationships with its customers over the years, Vidir has cultivated a welcoming atmosphere that has become self-perpetuating. “We’ve found that is an attitude or a way of life that comes back to you,” he says.

Of course, by establishing itself in rural areas, Vidir must also facilitate the infrastructure development needed for its manufacturing operations through partnering with local governments and other businesses to bring about the necessary amenities and housing. While some companies may balk at the time and resource investment, Vidir has years of experience working with local governments to bring about mutually beneficial change.

“It’s an organic growth situation,” Ernest says. Being a job creator means that Vidir can provide opportunities for new businesses as well, bringing new life to small towns. “Many of the manufacturers that are now in the area are here because somebody started working at Vidir, and then branched off and started their own shop.”

In addition to the rural expansions that are reinvigorating North American manufacturing, the company’s drive to bring more women into manufacturing occupies its leadership. Today, the company boasts fifty percent female shareholders and twenty-five percent female ownership. For Carissa, this is just the beginning. A new campaign hopes to bring more new female workers to Vidir and to manufacturing as an industry.

The campaign has gained public attention with its ‘Spotlight’ video series profiling various female employees at the company. Each subject can explain her career, job duties, and her views on women in manufacturing, and the video is posted on Vidir’s social media channels.

“That has been a tremendous success for us—just showcasing women in manufacturing,” Carissa says, adding that the videos illustrate women in all company roles rather than more stereotypical clerical duties and have been met with immediate success. “We found that to be incredibly effective in showing women what is possible,” she says. By displaying women’s manufacturing success stories, she and her colleagues hope to inspire others. “Our approach was ‘See them, be them,’” she says. “If women see other women doing it, they will naturally be drawn to it as well.”

Carissa and Ernest believe that the campaign is both logical and long overdue. “A lot of women, I think, don’t even consider manufacturing as a career,” says Carissa, noting that the sector is not promoted in schools or widely thought of as a female industry. “There is a tremendous workforce out there that isn’t being utilized, and we are in a labour shortage,” she continues, “and we have people available—they’re just not being utilized.”

Ernest highlights the days of World War II in which millions of women worked factory jobs to support the war effort. “We’re missing a whole section of our society that could be working here,” he says. “Somehow, we forget that’s possible.”

Carissa relates that, while manufacturing is not typically considered a traditionally female-oriented sector, the industry can benefit from a more mixed workforce. “Manufacturing is about innovation and creativity,” she says, “and with women, that’s often a very innate character trait.”

Applying these advantages and more can help Vidir and other manufacturers improve their business model. “It’s also quite common for women to be very organized and set on making things as efficient as possible, which is great for lean manufacturing,” she says. “We want to both promote that externally and promote that at Vidir.”

In some instances, new female employees have limited work experience outside the home, so Vidir has implemented comprehensive training programs for all employees, moving to more specific and advanced programs for specific roles. “Focus on the safety aspects first,” Ernest says. “If you’re already short on employees, getting them hurt and sending them home doesn’t help you either.”

From there, advanced on-the-job training with peers can integrate new hires rapidly. These highly regimented programs measure trainees’ progress and ensure full comprehension before moving to the next level.

“We’re not putting people into situations where they’ll be over their heads,” Ernest says. In addition to employee skills, he says the program boosts retention levels as employees feel they are succeeding. “Their success is our success and vice versa.”

The campaign has already sparked results with a sixty percent increase in female employees last year alone but Carissa says that Vidir is just getting started. “We do have a goal of our workforce being at least twenty-five percent female by 2025, and we’re close—but not quite there,” she says. A $1,000 referral bonus for new hires continues to drive up recruitment.

Other such improvements include such fundamental amenities as female washrooms—“something that’s often overlooked,” Carissa remarks—to a policy of case-by-case flexibility for working mothers. “Just because something might work for someone doesn’t mean it will work for everybody,” says Carissa, who herself works from home to be with her children.

While it may be argued that applying such an individualized policy may be challenging, Ernest argues that, in the long run, it is a mutually beneficial situation. “If there are ways we can improve our business and allow that to happen or encourage that to happen, then we’re after that one hundred percent.”

Vidir continues to enjoy success in its new strategy, and hopes to inspire other manufacturers to follow suit. Ernest has two words for other businesses hoping to follow in Vidir’s footsteps: “Just start,” he says. “The concerns and shortcomings will present themselves, and you’ll get a chance to deal with them.”

The company’s aforementioned policy of flexibility and communication has helped the company navigate this new road, and he admits some ideas have had to change and evolve. But that, he says, is inevitable. “Don’t be afraid of change.”

As Vidir enters 2022, the company is continuing its mission to embrace new demographics. “Our workforce right now is about forty-three percent visible minorities or first-generation Canadians,” Carissa says, and the company is bringing in government programs such as English language learning to further get employees up to their full potential. While the company continues its growth, new challenges are to be overcome and goals to be set.

Carissa notes that if Vidir succeeds in achieving its twenty-five percent female workforce ahead of schedule by 2025, the goal will be stretched; in fact, she hopes Vidir can one day have an equally gendered space. “We’re 50/50 out in the world,” she says. “It should reflect that in the workplace.”

The post Embracing Change: Vidir Solutions Brings More Women, Rural Workers to Manufacturing<p class="company">Vidir Solutions </p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

In Rancho Santa Margarita, California, just outside the Greater Los Angeles area, one company is overcoming automation issues through a wide and versatile product line and a customer-centric philosophy. ATS Systems offers all aspects of automation machining, from tools to support parts, as well as the ability to install and service anywhere in the United States.

ATS began from a simple need, like so many companies. In the early nineties, machinist Bill Murphy needed a collet chuck for his small machine shop, and unable to find one that met his delivery needs, he decided to make one. After learning of his success, his peers came to him for requests for similar collet chucks, and realizing the potential value of what he had made, Murphy acted quickly, and the fledgling company of ATS Workholding was soon born.

Starting with a small product offering, the company had big ideas. “We’re going to be the Nordstrom’s of collet chucks,” recalls President Ken Erkenbrack of those early days, referring to the popular U.S. department store. “Not only are we going to have the best product, but we’re also going to have the best service and customer experience.” Despite having a tiny phone-based sales team, ATS quickly gained new followers through its dependable and adaptable products.

The modern version of ATS was formally born in 2006 when the company acquired local machine tool accessory importer SMW systems, known for its power chucks, rotary tables and barfeeds. As Erkenbrack notes, it was for mutual benefit. “Where we were strong, they were a little bit weak, and where we were weak, they were a little bit stronger.”

With a rapidly expanding sales and service presence and product line, the company has enjoyed steady growth ever since, today managing its primary facility in California and an equally important CoolJet manufacturing facility outside Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Always up for a challenge, this dynamic company offers machine tool accessories, engineering and automation solutions that increase manufacturing productivity and throughput. Customers come to ATS to solve a number of challenges: whether they need help meeting their productivity goals; are facing profit-killing downtime; are struggling with throughput; are having trouble finding good workers; are seeking automation solutions; lack a reliable machine tool partner; or are simply finding it difficult to deal with other vendors, ATS’s solutions lead to profitable results for all its customers.

Indeed, because of its roots in machining, ATS has a unique perspective on machining and automation that sets it apart from its peers. “We’re a machine shop, but we also represent product,” Erkenbrack says. “We understand what the customer’s pain points are because we’re a manufacturer ourselves.” The company’s resulting business model is largely customer-dictated; customers list their needs, and ATS determines how best to fill them.

“We’re in shops all the time, and we listen,” he continues, explaining that this receptive philosophy allows clients to lay out their needs. “We’re constantly looking at that and reviewing the industry and what’s out there.” While this could be seen as a reactive rather than proactive business model, the staff prefers this client-driven approach. A pre-set product line may limit the company’s options to customers, so ATS has taken the opposite approach by creating, manufacturing, installing, and servicing highly adaptable machine tool accessories that suit a wide range of customer needs.

Having expanded far from its initial line of collet chucks, ATS now offers a wide and versatile range of adaptable automation solutions. These include bar feeders in multiple configurations that are capable of fitting up to four-inch-diameter bar stock; five-axis CNC automation systems, including tombstones, trunions, and four-axis and five-axis rotary indexing solutions, allowing clients to seamlessly add four-axis and five-axis machining capabilities without having to rely on doing complex cuts by hand; Accu-Rock Rotary Tables, with both four-axis and five-axis, and as the potential addition of rotary or dual helical cuts; and Xcelerate robotic arms, which are fully programmable and turn any small shop into a high-precision, high-volume operation.

The company remains true to its roots, offering a wide array of collet chucks, power chucks, and innovative four-jaw universal chucks capable of clamping round, rectangular, and geometrically irregular parts. Due to its products’ versatility and adaptability, ATS is poised to meet its clients’ specific and evolving needs.

Indeed, while ATS may pride itself on its automation tools, it offers all aspects of machine shop maintenance and servicing. “We don’t just do automation; we have solutions to make any machine more productive regardless of vintage,” Erkenbrack says, highlighting ATS’s high-pressure coolant and filtration systems that keep machines running in top shape, as well as replacement filters, chip and sludge removal systems, mist and smoke collection systems, and metalworking fluid chillers.

As a result, ATS can handle all aspects of a client’s automation model. “We’re able to combine all of our product lines into an automation project,” Erkenbrack says, whereas competitors might be farming out certain aspects to others. “We source all of that from our own products to come out with the solution we provide.” ATS offers a lot of value to its customers and has made machine shop owners a lot of money over time providing solutions that increase their productivity.

The company also offers a nationwide service net, with software identifying ‘pockets’ of intense activity. While ATS’s service technicians obviously cannot be everywhere, they can be strategically positioned to perform installations and repairs as quickly and efficiently as possible. The company has had particular success in employing veterans; with previous mechanical or engineering training, these employees are suited to the arduous task of service calls across wide coverage areas. “It’s a great way to find good-quality technical service people,” Erkenbrack remarks. The company is now working to further strengthen its service network to allow same-day installation and servicing as needed.

ATS’s success is evident through its clients’ testimonials. Erkenbrack relates that, when a client was weighing options for an automation system, ATS could provide forty percent more capacity than its competitors. “We could load our system with more parts than the competition can do now.” The client can now run their automated system round-the-clock, without having to stop and unload finished parts and load in fresh raw material.

Similarly, a Texan business owner was having trouble finding qualified employees. But ATS was helped the owner completely automate his shop. “Now, he doesn’t have any employees anymore; he’s the only one,” he states. Though it was an admittedly heavy monetary investment, the business has continual throughput.

These success stories help bolster the company’s mission of removing the stigma from automation. Erkenbrack says that automated studies revealed how many business owners found the process intimidating, expensive, and unnecessary. More poignant was the fear of highly specialized automation systems. If anything in the business model changed, that system would no longer be useful.

This, he says, has helped ATS develop its model of highly programmable and reprogrammable parts. “They’re not overly customized to where, if the job goes away and they lose the job they were running, [the owner] can easily adapt them to any other job in their facility,” he says. “What we really try to push is getting customers to understand that automation really isn’t as scary as it appears.”

The company’s high-caliber service team has a wealth of real-world experience. “We have a handful of people who have actually installed automation systems throughout the world,” Erkenbrack says, adding that the company’s staff is equally as important as its products. “When I look at our business… you can’t leave out the people,” he says. “We have very skilled and very loyal ATS employees.”

This core staff enabled the company “a chance to step back,” as he puts it, during the worst of COVID-19 and focus on internal development without layoffs. Foreseeing upcoming shortages, the company invested in inventory accordingly and now is largely unaffected by the rising supply chain woes intensifying worldwide. “We invested in inventory and have had very little disruption with our supply chain at all.”

With business returning and the North American workforce continuing to change rapidly, ATS is ready to help machine shops automate partially or completely as their business models require. “We are always looking for potential add-ons and acquisitions,” Erkenbrack says. The company is currently experiencing successful ongoing partnerships with vendors for products such as those offered by Irvine-based KME CNC.

The trick moving forward, he continues, is trying to stay ahead of the ever-changing field of machine tool technology, capability and automation and deciding ATS’s best investment. “What product would help our customers compete, not only nationally but globally?” he asks. Whatever proves to be the answer, ATS Systems will be ready to provide it.

The post Custom-Made for Custom Production<p class="company">ATS Systems</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

With a North American lineage going back to Colorado-based Premier Oilfield Equipment, which Kaiser AG formally acquired in 2017, Kaiser Premier, three years on, is continuing to reinvent itself, manufacturing and distributing unique machinery to an equally unique North American market.

Kaiser Premier’s purpose-built vehicles are able to perform in all conditions. The power and simplicity of Kaiser Premier’s hydro excavators mean reliable results in even the harshest applications. The CV Series Hydro Excavator is a safer alternative to traditional shovel or backhoe excavation methods. Pressurized water (or air) is used to break up soil, earth, dirt, clay, or other materials. The excavated material is then vacuumed into the hydrovac’s debris tank.

Hydro excavation is an environmentally friendly excavation method that protects existing utilities, pipelines, and cables from being damaged by mechanical or destructive excavation equipment.

Currently, Kaiser is able to put ten new trucks into service every month.

Newest endeavors
But Kaiser’s newest endeavors are not in excavation but in sewer cleaning, also showcasing its expertise in water recycling technology.

The AquaStar Water Recycler is a Kaiser AG technology that was introduced in Europe in 1996. Its sewer cleaning technology is simple: A high-pressure jetting hose is fed through a sewer pipe to break up material in the line. The jetting action sends the debris and water back toward the AquaStar where a powerful suction hose vacuums the water and material out of the manhole and into the debris body of the truck. The AquaStar’s single-stage water filtration system filters out any particulates above 500 microns. The resulting filtered water is then recycled back to the high-pressure jetting system where it is used to continue cleaning the sewer pipe – hence the name “water recycler.”

The AquaStar delivers water at volumes up to 132 gallons per minute, up to a pressure of 2,900 psi. With a hose reel capable of holding 55 feet of suction hose and 985 feet of jetting hose, additional suction hose extensions are largely unnecessary for most jobs.

Kaiser Premier introduced the AquaStar Water Recycler into North America in early 2018. With these products backed by a century of expertise, Kaiser Premier offers heavy-duty machinery that can accomplish the complete job with no extra equipment needed.

We first spoke with Kaiser Premier CEO Dan Weber in February of 2020, when he traced out not only the story of the company’s founding but its continuing reinvention. Now, in a greatly changed world, Vice President of Engineering Marcus Thomas explains how the company is continuing to expand and adapt.

A shifting world
Even before COVID-19 changed everything, Kaiser’s own world was beginning to gently shift on its axis due to a natural slowdown in the oil industry, which had been one of its main market sectors. “As a company, we had to make some adjustments,” Thomas recalls. He notes that the slowdown came just as COVID was beginning to affect Canada and the United States.

True to form, the Kaiser team changed gear smoothly, shifting focus to adapting proven Kaiser AG products for the North American market and engineering additional products of their own. Thomas says, “It’s given us a chance to focus much more on development work right now.”

As a measure of this broadening output, Kaiser Premier is introducing a line of new products to its sewer-cleaner and hydro excavation line-ups. Thomas says that it was a simple matter of diversification: “We were just looking for ways to branch out beyond oilfield equipment.”

“We were determined to bring a feature-rich build quality into a smaller trailer, and offer something new and easier to work with,” Thomas says.

Big results, less machinery
The company’s new TerraVac Xpose 800 is a trailer-mounted hydro excavator, capable of delivering results comparable to the heavy stuff but in a smaller footprint at a lower cost. Actually, with Kaiser Premier’s long expertise with heavy equipment, designing a smaller model able to deliver similar results was less of a challenge than expected.

“When the machine’s size comes down, its complexities come down – as do the costs,” Thomas says. With an estimated 3,000 small excavation trailers sold annually in the North American market, he expects that Kaiser Premier will have few problems bringing its high degree of professional expertise to this market.

The TerraVac has an 800-gallon debris tank in contrast to the 12.8 cubic-yard capacity of the CV Series Hydro Excavator. The trailer provides hydro excavation capabilities in a much smaller device, providing 4,000 psi of pressure at a rate of 4.5 gallons per minute, thanks to a 49-horse diesel engine. The blower can operate at 960 cubic feet per minute, and can deliver 15 inches of mercury and up to five positive psi.

Like Kaiser’s flagship offerings, the TerraVac offers additional equipment to help get any job done, including a 30-foot, three-inch diameter suction hose, as well as a six-foot lance for digging operations. By providing a scalpel rather than a sledgehammer, the TerraVac gets similar results for much less cost than bigger machinery.

Continuing to diversify
This move toward smaller machinery reflects Kaiser’s desire to market itself to a more diverse clientele. These new clients vary from startup companies to other experienced outfits looking to add a more diverse selection of equipment to their toolkits.

“That’s really helped us connect with more clients,” Thomas says, pointing out that companies can rent-to-own machines and apply a large percentage of the rental fees to the purchase price – often a really smart investment for fledgling companies. “This gives them an opportunity to start growing into that,” he says.

The rental option doesn’t only suit new businesses. It’s also optimal for mid-size companies which need additional equipment for the occasional large contract, or are looking to expand. All in all, Thomas says, “it’s brought a lot of stability for us in the long-term, and a lot of creative advantages as far as being able to support customers goes.”

Meanwhile, newly engineered features of the CV Series are being developed. This will debut, along with other new equipment solutions, in Q1 of 2021. “There’s a lot of activity related to pretty much everything we do here,” Thomas says. “It’s fun.”

This product development and redevelopment is a hallmark of Kaiser’s workplace environment, which, like its products, continues to evolve. Thomas notes how the company’s collaborative atmosphere and open communication leads to a strong and productive camaraderie.

“The best ideas come from group discussion,” he says. “It really helps to push development forward.” With no opinion left unheard and multiple perspectives explored, the end result is enhanced creativity and product reliability. “Coming to work isn’t something you dread,” Thomas says. “You’re coming up with new ideas and working on challenges.”

Challenge of bouncing back
The largest of these challenges is, naturally, bouncing back from COVID-19. Like many other companies, Kaiser was forced to furlough employees. Even now it’s working at a reduced capacity, though, as Thomas points out, the company is a large machine manufacturer, so many employees are inherently socially distanced from the way the factory is laid out.

The company is also now taking this opportunity to implement a new ERP software to promote internal efficiencies, which presents “a momentous task all on its own,” and will carry this focus, and other internal developments, through into 2021. Kaiser is also working to make its vehicles more efficient; using less fuel, less water and longer-lasting parts to reduce both operating costs and environmental footprint.

As Kaiser Premier looks to 2021, the company is continuing to reinvent itself. But it remains focused on its founding mission: to continue innovating in the realm of heavy machinery, and to build strong relationships with its customers.

While the parent company maintains an international presence, Kaiser Premier is moving toward manufacturing more of its products in North America. As Kaiser investigates a potential new world of trailer-mounted products for urban environments, a new market of customers is sure to follow.

This development, Thomas tells us, is in keeping with the company’s overarching goals, and Kaiser will continue to evolve and develop. “The company has always had a flair for simple, innovative and productive methods of industrial cleaning,” he says.

The post Leaner Machines for a Changed World<p class="company">Kaiser Premier</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Named after founder August Claas in 1913, the company has expanded its reach globally to more than 160 countries across five continents. But while the group’s harvesters first reached North America in the 1950s, the CLAAS of America sales unit was formally organized in 1979. Today, there are two operational units in the U.S.; CLAAS Of America Inc. handles sales, while CLAAS Omaha Inc. manages the production of combines for the North American market.

We spoke with CLAAS of America President and General Manager, Eric Raby, in March 2018. More than three years later, it is a very different world but still one that requires agribusiness. Raby and CLAAS Omaha’s new President, Matthias Ristow, laid out the company’s groundwork moving forward. Ristow, who has more than seven years of experience with CLAAS, has recently taken over responsibility at CLAAS Omaha and is supervising the company’s production of new cutting-edge line of combine harvesters.

Now in their second year of production, the company’s LEXION 8000-7000 Series harvesters boast the highest capacity in their class combined with unprecedented fuel efficiency. The machines harvest an average of 20.3 acres per hour, which the company calculates to as much as 31 percent higher than other harvesters. This is largely due to its patented APS SYNFLOW HYBRID threshing and separation system. Pre-separating up to thirty percent of the grain before it even reaches the threshing units and twin separation rotors, the unique system provides higher output using less fuel while not damaging the crop itself. “This is a completely new range of combines, from top to bottom,” Raby remarks. “You never think that combines can any get more capacity or more efficient, but we find ways to do it.”

In addition to its harvesting efficiency, the LEXION DYNAMIC POWER system helps farmers reduce fuel costs by being up to thirty percent more fuel-efficient than competitors. This helps the machine harvest up to 7,240 bu/hr and unload more than five bushels per second. Finally, a DYNAMIC COOLING system and central lubrication system help keep the engine and all moving parts running smoothly, reducing maintenance and downtime.

The new LEXION is merely the newest addition to CLAAS’s extensive product line, which extends from combine harvesters, forage harvesters and tractors to mowers, tedders, rakes, and square and round balers. The new harvesters also sport the company’s seed-green color. Raby hopes this will reinforce the company brand beyond traditional marketing.

As Raby described, the company is in the midst of a transition that began before the pandemic. For the past five years, he estimates, CLAAS has been increasing its distribution network. The result, he says, is more cohesive; far from increasing complexity by adding more vendors and products, the practice actually helps simplify the distribution network—in defiance of traditional logic. “It’s really easy to make things complex,” he says. “It’s more difficult to make things simple.”

By diversifying the distributor network, the company offers a closer relationship with its dealers and end-users, superior to a simple transactional relationship. Raby says the results have been positive, with no signs of abating. “We’ve seen good growth in the past few years, and it looks like the current trajectory, especially with current trends in the market, will continue to propel us forward.”

This growth may well help CLAAS continue to diversify its product line. Raby points out that, while CLAAS of America’s product line is extensive, it does not yet supply equipment for planting, tillage or spraying—all vital components of the farming process. Yet he and the leadership team hope that, by expanding its distribution network, the company’s suppliers may be more amenable to this development.

“Over time, not only do they become more dependent on us, but we become dependent on them,” he says, developing a relationship that is more than a mere convenience of transaction. “We partner with dealers on the basis of promoting that business together,” he continues. “When we’re dependent on each other, it becomes a relationship that seems to be much more synergistic.”

This reflects CLAAS’s desire to develop close relationships not merely with suppliers but with end-user farmers as well. The company has a history of staying in touch with vendors and customers long after agricultural shows. On a smaller scale, the company goes directly to the source. In ‘customer clinics,’ company sales representatives and product specialists meet with dealers and customers to discuss harvesting practices and harvesting issues, and to collect performance feedback from customers.

As an essential business related to food production, CLAAS of America was largely unaffected by COVID shutdown measures; indeed, Raby relates that, though many employees worked remotely, the company more than rose to the challenge. “Despite the adversity that the pandemic brought, we were still able to deliver our best fiscal year ever.”

Yet, so much of CLAAS’s business model remains face-to-face. It is difficult to demonstrate a combine harvester virtually, after all, and the company is looking forward to resuming in-person farm shows throughout the country.

Thanks to successful pre-pandemic planning and CLAAS’s role in an essential industry, its goals remain steady and ambitious. “Our goal, over the next five years, was to double the size of our business in North America,” Raby recalls of the 2019 decision. “That’s a pretty tall order.” Yet bold new developments are keeping the company on schedule to achieve this.

It recently opened a trailblazing new tractor factory in Le Mans, France. The product of three years of development and €40 million in investment, this ‘Future Factory’ will utilize the latest digital technologies such as virtual reality throughout all stages of assembly. Additionally, new automated guided vehicles (AGVs) move tractors around the facility and are capable of moving up to twenty tons of material at a time. The result is unprecedented production totals. When fully up to speed, CLAAS predicts the factory will produce up to 13,000 tractors annually.

The company’s move into automated vehicles is further reflected in its new minority shareholding stake in Dutch start-up AgXeed, which is working to advance automated farm machinery. Raby describes this, like its customer relationship, as symbiotic. “This gives us an opportunity to start to leverage the technology that they have…with some of the tractor savvy that we have. So that’s very exciting.”

But closer to home may be where CLAAS’s most effective development is taking shape. The company’s new training academy, 20,000 square feet of space in Omaha that is the product of two years of development, heralds a bold new chapter in the company’s labor recruitment, workforce development and dealer training. The academy hosts the company’s new apprenticeship program, mirrored on the same system, which has built and maintained the German economy for centuries.

Apprentices work at CLAAS in a laboratory setting, learning the intricacies of agricultural machinery. The second half of the program, partnered with Omaha’s own Metropolitan Community College, provides further academic and practical training. After three years, apprentices take an exam administered by the German American Chamber of Commerce of the Midwest. The program is globally respected and provides candidates with accreditation that opens doors to employment anywhere in the world. Ristow says that this particular apprenticeship program, while new to North America, will help provide a steady supply of skilled labor. “It’s pretty much the backbone of the German economy, a continuous supply of qualified employees,” he says.

This global reciprocity that makes the apprenticeship program powerful, as Ristow notes that CLAAS operates similar programs in Russia and Hungary as well. “Everyone who has that certificate is known to have a certain level of knowledge,” he says. Finally, while the program is designed to move employees into CLAAS’s production side, they can easily move to service as well. “They have the training; they have the know-how,” Ristow says, “and they should be of interest to our service team as well.”

With these developments and despite increases in steel and fuel prices, CLAAS’s team is confident about the future. The company earned the Equipment Dealers Association’s dealer choice award just before this writing, its third such award in four years, demonstrating its strong customer service prowess. Yet new product developments are on the horizon, and the company is already increasing its production capacity to accommodate them. Despite the cyclical nature of agriculture, CLAAS remains a constant. As it looks ahead to future decades of service, the company will always be outstanding in its field—in every sense of the phrase.

The post Farming For the Future: New Developments, Facilities and Labor Practices<p class="company">CLAAS of America</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Located 120 miles (195 km) southeast of Minneapolis, the company’s stellar track record shows it’s able to provide precision grinding machines to meet virtually any need.

Founded in 1974 by entrepreneurs Dan Rukavina and Dave Arnold, DCM Tech began as a designer and manufacturer of specialized machine tools for the automotive aftermarket.

Enjoying early success in the auto aftermarket industry manufacturing various types of equipment, the company quickly gained a reputation for quality machine tools and customer satisfaction.

Over the following decades, DCM would expand to offer different models of flywheel grinders, belt resurfacers, seat and guide machines, head and block surfacers, and magnetic particle inspection machines. Constant product development like this still happens today and the company continues evolving its product line, while still maintaining close customer relationships.

Dave’s son Dan Arnold is now company president. He continues his father’s work of providing industry-leading precision grinding machinery.

As DCM has responded to changing market trends, specifically a decline in the automotive rebuilding industry, the company has transitioned into a line of rotary surface grinders that meet a wide variety of customer needs. This line boasts rotary tables from 12 to 48 inches (30 to 122 cm), and variable-speed grinding spindle motors from 5 to 50 horsepower.

Internal air mist collection and coolant flow systems ensure a clean and consistent grind with minimal disruption to the work environment. Digital handwheels allow custom Z-axis control, giving unprecedented accuracy, and an internal memory allows operators to save custom grind recipes, ensuring rapid switchovers when needed.

With ceramics grinding, DCM Tech’s machines are notably efficient and precise, encouraging shops to remain focused on more big-picture items while the machines handle the details. Arnold estimates that 30 percent of the company’s business is in aerospace and similar markets, which has resulted in extensive experience with grinding ceramics, glass and specialty materials.

The company’s machines provide a positioning resolution of 0.0001”, to better conform to the tight specifications required in industries like ceramics and glass manufacturing. Speed is also an asset: thanks to additional advances in abrasives and feedrates, DCM Tech’s machines have been shown to reduce or even eliminate the need for finishing processes such as polishing and lapping.

But beyond the outstanding abilities of DCM Tech’s machines, it is the company’s experienced engineering and customer service team that lifts it above its competition. “We provide a product we can optimize, with features and options that specifically meet the customers need and confirm it before we ship,” Arnold says.

Marketing Director Ashley Johnson contributes to this theme, remarking how many companies mass-produce machines designed for a single purpose. “We work directly with each and every customer based on their application, so the machine matches them, not the other way around,” she says.

DCM Tech operates a comprehensive approach to its sales, working with each customer to individually design, test and ship a machine custom-made to fit the customer’s unique specs. While the company doesn’t quite have everything it needs to manufacture everything at its shop – such as a foundry – thanks to its local focus it can easily source high-grade components from local suppliers. Of all machine work, 80 to 90 percent is performed in-house, greatly reducing lead times.

To personalize the sales process, a single DCM technical specialist works with clients each step of the way, forging a strong working relationship and answering every question a client might have. Clients see a familiar and friendly face as they navigate the critical task of machine selection. Each specialist works with the client through the sale, installing the machine, training their operators, and handling any service or maintenance questions for the life of the machine.

“That’s another benefit of being small and family-owned, and it sets DCM apart a lot,” Arnold remarks. As a part of this comprehensive relationship, DCM uses its existing machines to provide ground samples to clients, ensuring clients see the finished result before moving forward.

In addition to grinders, DCM Tech’s product line includes a wide range of added features and individualized components to accommodate truly precise jobs.

Abrasive grinding wheels are available from 3 to 48 inches in diameter (approximately 8 to 30 cm) in conventional materials, diamond or CBN.

Coolant units specially designed for DCM machines provide 25 to 50 gallons of coolant, with added filters to prevent even the finest of particles from entering. This circulation and filtration of the coolant aids in the consistency and repeatability of the grinding processes performed.

Finally, DCM carries an inventory of consumable supplies and replacement parts from machine lubricants to electrical components, ensuring clients have access to the necessary items to keep their machines running smoothly and minimize maintenance downtime.

Beyond DCM Tech’s product offerings, the company’s small size helps it focus on customer relationships, rather than a simple bottom-line profit. Arnold remarks how this ‘small-company’ feel helps its staff better interface with its customers. Additionally, it has decades of experience on its side.

“Many of our coworkers have been employed with DCM for over 25 years,” he says. “This allows us to have so much knowledge when helping our customers.” It’s not uncommon, he continues, for veteran employees to assist with unusual service calls – which rarely happens in larger companies.

As Arnold explains, a direct sales model helps DCM Tech understand the exact nature of its customers’ needs and encourages a symbiotic relationship. “Let’s understand your problem,” he says. “How can we improve it? What can we do in our machine design to better solve a specific customer’s problem? Every application we have, we learn something.”

Ashley Johnson notes that these customer relationships have decisively influenced ongoing machine design. “When we think about our future plans, they really are based on what we hear from our customers.”

The result is self-evident. DCM Tech works with OEMs across multiple sectors, including optics, aerospace, additive machining and defense. Capable of working with materials beyond ceramics including glass, steel, silicon carbide and more, the company’s products are more than capable of handling grinding and precision machining.

As an example of the machines’ efficiency, Arnold tells how a customer previously had fourteen reciprocating grinders, with seven operators, on their floor. “They purchased one of our machines, and then got rid of the other fourteen,” he chuckles. “It was a 14-times productivity improvement for that customer and that application.”

Right now, the company is squarely facing the fact that many of its most experienced are approaching retirement age. To address this potential issue, the company is working closely with local technical schools to help educate incoming students about manufacturing, and has four employees that are enrolled in a continuing education program centered on manufacturing.

DCM Tech also works intensively with local colleges to showcase its operations to machining and engineering students. As an important part of this, the company is working to polish the image of its industry – the very word ‘grind’ conjuring images of grit and dust in a ‘dirty job.’ But thanks to the company’s fully enclosed machines, such stereotypes will be a thing of the past.

DCM Tech’s latest machines also require far less training than earlier models. Simple LCD touchscreen controls – a far cry from the many analog switches and dials of yesteryear – allow operators to understand how to use the machine in a matter of minutes. This, Johnson says, is key to the company’s future strategy to attract both new customers and new employees: “It’s really important to our customers today to have a machine that’s easier to understand and use,” she says.

This increasing focus on ease-of-use, coupled with advances in automation, will help drive the company forward – although Arnold is quick to dispel any notions of five- or ten-year plans. “We’re opportunity-driven,” he says.

But as the company maintains its focus on customer service, driven by its family-owned nature and “smaller business” agility, DCM Tech looks like it will continue producing machines that provide unique capabilities in a unique way for a long, long time to come.

The post Finding the Perfect Precision Grinding Machine Needn’t Be a Grind<p class="company">DCM Tech</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Argent International has over forty years of history, having expanded from a single die-cutter to today’s team of 125 full-time employees. The company’s 100,000-square-foot facility can produce more than twenty million parts per month, and its long history has earned it a place with original equipment manufacturers and Tier One automotive clients such as Ford, GMC, BMW, and many others.

In addition to its mass production, the engineering team at Argent International works closely with clients large and small to design and fabricate custom parts. With its infrastructure able to provide just-in-time delivery, the company is in a prime position to supply the occasionally volatile automobile industry. Its track record, machinery, and history as a 3M Preferred Converter give Argent International the flexibility to weather industrial changes. When the automotive industry slowed to a crawl as a result of COVID-related health measures, the company switched to manufacturing face shields.

For its part, Argent Tape & Label provides environmentally-friendly labels and adhesives for a variety of industries. The company is celebrating over twenty-five years in business and a new lease on life after a narrow brush with insolvency in 2010. Argent Tape & Label offers flexographic and digital printing, as well as process and spot printing and thermal transfers. Like Argent International, the company is also well-versed in custom jobs and can accommodate any material, printing, or stock tag options for a client. This has allowed it to branch out to the food & beverage and medical & pharmaceutical sectors, showcasing its versatility.

Today, Argent International and Argent Tape & Label are working more closely than ever before, though the two are just unique enough to prevent a merger. ATL, having been woman-owned since 2010, remains an active member of the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), and closer to home, the Great Lakes Women’s Business Council (WBC). Argent International, newly woman-owned as of last year, hopes to be WBENC certified by the beginning of next year.

Lynn Perenic, Chief Executive Officer of Argent Tape & Label and President of Argent International, sees it as a chance for greater business representation for women, rather than just a growth opportunity. “I think that, frankly, there are not a lot of women in manufacturing, and there are even fewer women-owned businesses that are die-cutters.” She believes that this move will pave the way for more women-owned businesses in the automotive industry. “I think women tend to look at problems in a different way and solve problems in a different way than male leadership.”

The two companies’ recent cooperation and Argent Tape & Label’s continued prosperity, owe a great deal to Perenic. She recently took over leadership of the latter from its founder, her husband Fred Perenic, but her main objective remains Argent Tape & Label, which she formally took over in 2010. Though new to business, Perenic believed she had the right background for such an ambitious foray. “I’m a special [education] teacher, and I decided I could try to save this little label company,” she says. “So I took it on, and we turned it around.”

The early days were, predictably, an uphill battle; Perenic recalls that, on her first day as CEO, she was informed Argent Tape & Label owed $400,000 in receivables. “From the second the company started, it was underwater,” says Deborah Sellis, who Perenic brought on as Chief Operations Officer in 2016 and who has recently become COO and General Counsel to both companies. However, ten years later, just before COVID, Argent Tape & Label was on track to make $10 million in sales. “What we make costs customers fractions of pennies. That’s a lot of labels and a lot of work,” Sellis notes.

This extraordinary turnaround, which Perenic and Sellis are seeking to bring to Argent International, is a testament to Argent Tape & Label’s open-book management style. This approach focuses on clear communication and accountability across all company sectors, and provides employees with a stake in the game where they too share in the financial success that follows.

While the style is admittedly easier to implement at a smaller company like Argent Tape & Label, the company’s leadership is working to remodel Argent International to this system as well. As the company emerges from COVID restrictions, Sellis states that the company has already implemented open-book practices in daily operations. “It’s not unusual to have your floor-level operator in a meeting with myself or anybody else if it’s a problem that directly impacts them,” she says. “That was part of the culture before COVID, it’s part of the culture with COVID, and now, it’s part of the new normal.”

Indeed, this practice has helped the companies adapt to health restrictions and industrial shutdowns. Argent International and Argent Tape & Label at the height of the pandemic were able to shift from mostly automotive production to PPE and other healthcare equipment. As a vital supplier to an equally vital sector, the companies stayed on-mission for as long as possible, until shutdown orders arrived. “That’s all well and good unless you’re a key supplier and you can’t shut down,” Sellis says. “You have to have the skeleton crew and manage them that way.” But with open communication, remote work policies, and a stringent set of internal health practices, both companies managed to keep employees safe.

A hallmark of Open Book Management is the Mini-game, which is strategically implemented to encourage team-building, continual improvement, and desirable output or cost-saving results. Setting goals and having employees compete with themselves and each other are part of what leads to a robust system within the Argent families. The latest idea is to implement a Mini-game that “improves everybody’s production efficiencies over a certain period of time,” Sellis explains.

Moving forward, Argent International and Argent Tape & Label are continuing to press open-book management as a way of better retaining employees and gaining ideas from unexpected sources. “We have had several… press operators come to us with very viable ideas that, I think, in a closed culture, they would not have brought up,” Perenic says. She tells us how one employee, who also was a member of a band, was shopping for a new drum and noticed a new type of foam in a prospective purchase.

Noticing a sales opportunity, as drum packaging requires both foam and double-sided tape, he brought it to the attention of one of Argent’s sales professionals, who reached out to the drum manufacturer to begin a mutually beneficial partnership. Perenic believes that a typical manufacturing setting, lacking the collaboration between floor employees and sales staff, would not have seen this happen.

Due to such programs, employee retention is not an issue—a relative rarity in manufacturing jobs these days. Thanks to competitive wages, Argent International boasts turnover so low that the company gives prizes for ten, twenty, and thirty years of service. This is normally a trip to Hawaii, but with COVID, “we’re still working on that portion,” Perenic says with a chuckle. Work-life balance is also a large driver of company retention. She relates the story of one employee who left Argent International but returned after the birth of his second child to take advantage of the company’s working atmosphere.

As Argent International and Argent Tape & Label move forward, the companies have endured the crucible of the pandemic. “We had to really reinvent ourselves in a number of ways,” she admits. “We backslid but we’re right back in the game.” Comprehensive business plans will help the two avoid future troubles. Perenic jokes that she is “creatively paranoid,” and applies this to business plans. “I always like to pretend that thirty percent of our business is going to go away, and it did with the pandemic,” she says. Future safeguards, she believes, should help keep both companies running.

As Argent International and Argent Tape & Label move forward, the two companies demonstrate the alliance needed to move forward in automotive. The hybrid and electric vehicle market is still a growing sector for the companies, particularly Argent International’s solutions to deal with vehicle noise, vibration, and harshness. “When you have the quiet motor of an electric vehicle, all sorts of new sounds become audible since the over-riding noise of the combustion engine has been eliminated,” Perenic points out.

The two companies intend to attend Michigan’ Adhesives and Bonding Expo, planned as an in-person event as vaccinations have increased. After more than a year of virtual exhibitions, Argent’s leadership says it is the right time to return to live events. “People want to get back. They need to, we need to, and we want to,” Sellis remarks. “I think once it amps up—once a few people break the ice—then it’ll move pretty quickly.” As Argent leads the charge at such expositions, new business development is sure to follow.

The post The Best of Both Worlds<p class="company">Argent International and Argent Tape & Label</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.