Given one word to describe this year's Inside Business Manny Award
winners, it would have to be 'ingenuity.' As a group and as individual manufacturing
companies, this year's honorees stand out for their creative solutions to challenges
ranging from the need for better-trained manufacturing employees to a call for
life-saving sports helmets.
These innovations are particularly notable for their success against the backdrop of a nationwide economic slowdown. Canton-based Hendrickson International, for example, persevered in the development of a new enclosed camshaft for heavy-duty-truck trailers, despite that its business dropped more than 40 percent during the crucial product-development period.
Indeed, economic doldrums have not slowed the efforts of any of the 2002 Manny winners. Jergens Inc. in Cleveland has ramped up its Tooling U e-learning program over the last two years, and now has about 400 students enrolled in its Web-based courses. This spring, winner Ericson Manufacturing Co. of Willoughby radically changed the industry standard for safety with its new line of temporary power- distribution centers. And Warrensville Heights-based Pile Dynamics Inc. introduced a remote foundation-testing device for civil engineers in 1999 that has significantly boosted the company's sales.
Strong convictions of company founders and executives have also played a role in the success of this year's honorees. Over the last decade, Roger Sustar, president of Fredon Corp. in Mentor, has enlisted the help of his company's employees to create a noteworthy program to pique high school students' interest in manufacturing careers.
The most poignant of this year's Manny stories is that of Team Wendy LLC, a company formed by the Moore family to manufacture sports safety helmets following the death of their daughter/sister in a skiing accident. Turning their grief into action, the Moores researched materials and designs that resulted in ingenious, market-altering headgear.
Northeast Ohio manufacturing ingenuity springs from many motivations and a
variety of sources. We salute them all.
Oscar Winner
If you're going to innovate, you might as well make your company the leader
in your industry. That's what Ericson Manufacturing Co. in Willoughby did recently
with its new line of temporary power- distribution centers for a variety of
construction and industrial applications.
In the two years since the company had introduced its last new product, the Underwriter Laboratories (UL) industry standards for safety dictated that all power-distribution boxes be updated to meet more stringent code requirements. So Ericson's engineering-design team, led by Phil Bearden, set out to radically improve the industry standard for safety.
'As far as the design and the features of this product, we really put Ericson above the rest,' boasts Bearden, who joined the company last May, having left his previous job in search of a company that would commit to new design ideas.
He found the right place. Sensing a strong opportunity to provide a product that customers would demand, Ericson, an 83-employee, $10 million corporation, committed all of its development resources to the new power box. Last year, the company even negotiated a new line of credit with Huntington National Bank.
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Honorable Mentions
Advanced Technology Corp.
Geneva-based Advanced Technology Corp. (ATC), a metal-stamping, fabricating
and assembly operation for the manufacture of vehicular lighting components,
set a lofty goal for itself when it set out to pass its ISO 14001 certification
on the first try. The 100-employee company reached its goal — while preserving
jobs and increasing employee morale. ATC was a 2002 Inside Business
NEO Success Award recipient.
Beckett Air Inc.
Beckett Air Inc., a 140-employee North Ridgeville company that makes
small air-blower wheels for the HVAC market, saw dramatic results when
it redesigned an attachment. The previous attachment for hubs and blower
wheels dated back to the 1950s. The new part, the 'Key Riveted Design,'
earned Beckett three U.S. patents last year, reduced the cost of the part
59 percent and decreased hub-manufacturing cycle time to about four seconds
per unit vs. 30 seconds with the previous design.
Morrison Products Inc.
The 180-employee, Cleveland-based manufacturer of fans and blowers for
HVAC systems and elevators embarked on an ambitious enterprise-resource-planning
(ERP) project in late 1998 and early 1999. Despite the complexity of installing
the ERP system in four plants in four states, and that each plant makes
products for end customers as well as parts for other Morrison facilities,
the project was completed in nine months and on budget.
OM Group Inc.
Safety is a way of life at Cleveland-based OM Group Inc. — from top
executives to the plant floor. A global producer/marketer of value-added,
metal-based specialty chemicals and related materials, the company maintains
a safety program that's followed by some 4,700 employees worldwide. Its
monthly safety meetings at each of its more than 40 plants have produced
impressive results. For instance, OM Group's Johnstown, Pa., plant is
three years injury-free.
Sonic Chain LLC with Parker Hannifin Corp.
Two years ago, a startup that develops and implements supply-chain-management
systems teamed with a multibillion-dollar maker of precision-engineered
products for aerospace and related markets. Based on Parker Hannifin's
Par-Zap barcode-scanning system, Cleveland-based Sonic Chain's product
line enables users to efficiently and accurately reorder materials directly
from multiple vendors — via an Internet-based transaction platform. Cleveland-based
Parker Hannifin was a 2001 Manny Award recipient.
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'We've invested heavily into this product line without hesitation because we want to make it successful,' says Jeffrey Kristofeld, Ericson's controller, secretary and treasurer. 'The results have given this organization great hope for this year and next.'
Those results include three distinguishing features that have generated a buzz in the power-distribution industry about the 22-by-15-inch box, which weighs about 25 pounds and contains eight power outlets.
The first attraction for potential users is the product's flexibility of design. 'The competition is very static in what they offer, but we offer many different options so we can customize it to the client's needs,' Bearden explains.
Second and third, the temporary power sources feature two 'electronic-thinking modules' that Bearden's project team designed to protect both the user and the equipment. The Input Power Diagnostic Module (IPDM), which previously had not been offered on this type of product, indicates when the correct power level enters the box and that the safety ground is operating to protect whoever plugs equipment into the unit. The Voltage Monitor Module (VMM) monitors the power flow; if the voltage varies from the normal level, it shuts down that part of the box to prevent equipment damage.
'Construction sites today operate a lot of expensive, computer-based tools,' Bearden says. 'So we wanted to help the customer take care of his equipment as well as his personnel.' He adds that the product is also rainproof, and it passed both UL and Electrical Testing Laboratories (ETL) safety tests on the first try with no modifications.
'We're going to make a significant statement [in the industry] with these boxes,' says Joseph Tarulli, marketing manager for Ericson. He notes that there is limited competition in temporary power-distribution centers.
To give the temporary-power boxes a distinctive identity, Ericson devised an easily identifiable icon, Oscar the Octopus, whose eight legs represent the eight power outlets. The character appears on everything related to the new line, from the product lid to all collateral materials. There are even stickers for hard hats. Oscar's own hard hat displays the American flag to reinforce that the product is made in the United States.
Even though the company fully rolled out the new product recently, Ericson has established a new assembly line in its plant, with four employees trained specifically to make the temporary-power boxes. The anticipated boost in sales, which Kristofeld estimates could reach $2 million to $5 million, should fund a 30,000-square-foot expansion that will increase production capacity for more growth in this line.
'We've had a lot of success selling [the boxes] in our area already,' says Greg Reynolds, president of Flynn & Reynolds Agency, a sales-representation firm in Boston. So far, Reynolds has recorded Ericson's largest sale of the product to the new convention center being built in Boston.
Ericson plans to expand the product line to accommodate other applications
with larger equipment. But a prudent, methodical approach will prevail. 'What
we're trying to do with this product line is think big, start small and scale
fast,' Tarulli says.
Manufacturing Mentor
In the fall of 1991, Roger J. Sustar declared war on the decreasing availability
of qualified skilled machinists by rolling out the Cannons of Fredon program.
Recognizing a diminishing interest in manufacturing as a career, Sustar, president
of Fredon Corp., a $6.2 million Mentor-based manufacturer of precision machined
parts, partnered with the Boy Scouts of America's Explorer program to initiate
his innovative apprenticeship training for local high school and vocational
school students. Next, he enlisted the help of several key employees, including
Richard Ditto, Joseph Savoca, Ed Kunas, and his son, Chris Sustar, to implement
the program.
Their goal? To encourage students to complete their high school studies, then
possibly select a career in manufacturing, perhaps even in Fredon's shop.
'We can't convince everyone that this is a great career, but we can introduce
them to manufacturing as a viable business, which can help in other careers,'
says Sustar, who purchased the company in 1969 with his brother-in-law, who
left the business in 1985.
Today, more than 150 students have completed the program, which entails meeting
for one hour each Saturday in Fredon's shop from October through May. There,
the company's best machinists teach the kids fundamentals of milling, turning,
forming and assembling, and how to behave on the job. By the end of the program,
students have machined and constructed a one-tenth-scale, 25-pound model of
a Napoleonic-era field cannon to take home.
Sharon Lohan, director of the Boy Scouts Learning for Life program in Mentor,
says that Fredon's program offers everything the organization specifies — career
opportunities, life skills, service learning, character education and leadership
experience — and more.
'They provide mentors who are people with positive experience,' she says.
Of course, it's also a great opportunity for Sustar's 50 employees to teach
the next generation of machinists what the old-timers once taught them.
'It's fun to share with the kids what we do every day and give them a taste
of what they could be doing someday as their career,' says Scott Rebec, a Fredon
machinist who has assisted with the program for the last six years.
Ultimately, Sustar hopes the program keeps a fresh flow of new, enthusiastic
candidates pouring into the manufacturing field, which he says is misunderstood
and unfairly maligned in the age of technology. His worst fear, he says, is
that all American manufacturing eventually will occur offshore. He wants recognition
for the role manufacturing plays in every sector, from aerospace to medical
to robotics.
Cannons of Fredon already has contributed significantly to accomplishing that
objective, sometimes to Fredon's loss. Competitors and other manufacturers that
lack skilled-trades workers love to recruit program graduates. However, Fredon
averages one hire per year from the Cannons program, which helps rejuvenate
its work force.
One of those hires, Mike Mele, completed the program while he was a junior
at Mentor High School in 1998-'99. Fredon hired him as an intern that summer,
then he worked part time at the shop his senior year and started full time shortly
after graduating in 2000.
'I was considering a career along these lines, but I wasn't sure what it was
like,' Mele says. 'The program gave me a real eye-opening opportunity to get
a lot of hands-on experience, and I had a good time doing it.'
Mele continues to enjoy the program, now as an instructor. With Fredon's help,
he is pursuing a manufacturing-engineer degree at Lakeland Community College.
In addition to the apprenticeship-training program, Sustar has helped establish
vocational educational programs for the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, the Tech
Prep program in the Mentor schools and the Machine Tool Technology program at
Lakeland.
But his pride and joy is Cannons of Fredon. Although it costs Fredon about
$20,000 a year, Sustar says it's worth it when parents thank him each May at
graduation, where students receive their cannon along with proclamations from
local, state and national governmental leaders. In March 2001, in fact, 29 high
school students graduated from the program, the largest class in its history.
'If every company would do what we do, there would be absolutely no shortage
of skilled trades,' Sustar says. 'There would be absolutely nothing wrong about
going into the manufacturing field in this country.'
Remote Possibilities
Five years ago, Carl-John Gravare often would drive hundreds of miles to perform
a job that took him only one hour to complete. A civil engineer who tests foundations
for buildings and bridges, Gravare might drive four hours from his office in
Gothenberg in southwest Sweden, do a quick test at a construction site, then
drive four hours back.
His testing equipment, the Pile Driving Analyzer manufactured by Warrensville
Heights-based Pile Dynamics Inc., was highly efficient. But Gravare couldn't
justify the travel time. So he called Pile Dynamics with an idea: Why not build
a tester that can transmit its data via cellular phone?
Six months later, Gravare received the pilot version of a remote tester.
Today, Gravare can stay in his office and send the tester (model PAL-R) out
with construction crews, who install motion sensors to the foundation and connect
them to the PAL-R. Gravare controls the PAL-R's operation via his cell-phone
connection to the construction site. Windows-based software in his office computer
uses signals from the PAL-R to calculate pile capacity and quality.
This all gives him a competitive edge, because he doesn't bill for travel
time anymore. 'We get more work from all over Sweden,' Gravare says. To keep
up, two of his competitors have also bought Pile Dynamics remotes.
'When one of your best clients makes a very reasonable suggestion that you
see would result in a benefit, you really should be listening,' says Pile Dynamics
president Garland Likins.
Likins and two other engineers from Case Western Reserve University founded
Pile Dynamics 30 years ago after inventing a more efficient foundation tester.
Until Likins, G.G. Goble and Frank Rausche came along, engineers could only
test foundations by loading heavier and heavier weights on them (known as 'static'
testing). Such tests lasted days.
In the 1960s, the three invented the Pile Driving Analyzer, which tests a
foundation only once while the pile driver packs it down. Sensors record the
effects of the pile driver's impact, and a computer uses the data to measure
the pile's strength.
Today, construction engineers worldwide use a mix of the 'dynamic' tests the
company pioneered and traditional static tests. Pile Dynamics has sold about
750 dynamic testers since its inception and controls 90 percent of the worldwide
market in them, Likins estimates.
Likins and Rausche still run the 25-employee company (Goble is retired). Their
second business, the engineering consulting firm Goble Rausche Likins and Associates,
uses Pile Dynamics equipment on construction projects across the United States.
In his consulting work, Likins experienced a foundation tester's grueling
travel schedule firsthand. So when Gravare suggested creating a remote tester,
Pile Dynamics — which had debuted the PAL, a small, portable tester, a few years
earlier — put its engineers to work. Their biggest challenge was to transmit
data via the 'primitive' cell phones of five years ago, including unfamiliar
overseas phone systems, says Pile Dynamics engineer Paul Brinkerhoff.
Without digital connections, the engineers had to convert test results from
digital to analog to digital again without introducing mistakes. To make the
remotes workable everywhere, the company recruited its foreign customers to
try out early versions of the invention.
In 1999, Pile Dynamics took the PAL-R to market. PAL sales have quadrupled
from 1998 to last year. The introduction of the remote tester spurred most of
the growth, Likins says.
Pile Dynamics hopes to persuade more American engineers to upgrade to the
remote tester. Many still say, 'I need to be there, need to see what's happened,'
says Brinkerhoff. But Likins fully expects the remote's efficiency to get their
attention.
Overseas customers, who account for about half of the company's sales, rave
about the tester. 'It's saved me a lot of driving around and flying around,'
says Jon Cannon, a foundation tester in Melbourne, Australia. Cannon used to
take many long, dangerous road trips through the outback.
These days, Cannon stays in Melbourne half the week but takes on more work.
'Today, I was doing testing in Perth, while I'm actually in Melbourne' — 1,500
miles away.
Extreme Innovation
Cleveland artist and photographer Wendy Moore loved extreme sports. She loved
life. In 1997, at age 29, her life ended as a result of head injuries sustained
in a skiing accident. But her legacy saves the lives of others who love action
sports as much as she did.
Wendy, an expert skier who was known to yodel gleefully down the slopes, wasn't
wearing a protective helmet the day she tumbled 350 feet down icy cliffs on
California's Mammoth Mountain. During her 70 days in a coma at The Cleveland
Clinic, her family agonized and pondered how some good might come from so much
grief.
'As a family of artists and businesspeople, we really wanted to do something
that would change things,' says Dan Moore, Wendy's father and CEO of The Dan
T. Moore Company Inc., Soundwich Inc. and Flow Polymers Inc., all in Cleveland.
'So we got to thinking, What can we do to prevent this from happening to other
people?' '
Statistics show that helmets can reduce the risk of action-sports head injuries
by 88 percent. Believing that Wendy might still be alive had she worn one, sisters
Halley, 30, and Heather, 33, teamed with their father to found Team Wendy LLC,
an East Cleveland company that designs, manufactures and markets a protective
helmet for skiers, snowboarders, bikers, skateboarders and in-line skaters.
'The emotional aspect behind the idea for the company was a slam dunk,' says
Hayden 'Chip' Leon, 34, Team Wendy's president and CEO. Leon, who has spearheaded
brand marketing for clients such as Oscar Mayer, Disney and Kellogg's, was Wendy's
friend since they attended Hawken School in Gates Mills.
Months after founding the company in Wendy's honor on May 17, 1997, the family
introduced its first generation of sturdy but fashionable plastic helmets, dubbed
'The Ripley,' after Wendy's dog.
'That helmet was adjustable from the shell down, so it could fit to your head
perfectly,' says Halley, emphasizing that without proper fit, the wearer sacrifices
maximum protection, vision, hearing and comfort. 'That was a big selling point,
but it also came in cool colors, everything from kablooey blue to mad-dog maroon
and lime green.'
After two years of extensive R&D, Team Wendy's designers, engineers, physicists
and polymer scientists developed Zorbium Foam — the most significant technological
advancement in helmet safety in three decades, according to the company, and
the hallmark of Team Wendy's W Helmets, released last year.
'We found out that the amount of impact a helmet producer allows you to receive
is dramatically higher than the amount of impact an automobile manufacturer
allows you to receive,' says Dan Moore, 62, who rallied Cleveland Clinic specialists
for Team Wendy's R&D end-eavors. 'The helmet industry based that specification
on the materials that were available back then, not around how great an impact
the brain can handle.'
Zorbium Foam actually rebounds after taking an impact, as opposed to other
helmet foams that break upon impact, says Moore, who had founded nine Cleveland
manufacturing firms prior to Team Wendy.
Incorporating suggestions of professional athletes, Team Wendy also designed
a 'Dialit System,' a feature that allows the wearer to reach behind the helmet
and adjust a dial to achieve a more secure fit. For climate control, a cold-weather
'CozyGuard' provides ear and neck warmth (but can be removed when the temperature
rises), and a 'Slider' opens and closes the helmet vents.
W Helmets meet or exceed the ASTM F2040-00 standard specification for helmets
used for skiing, snowboarding, and other nonmotorized alpine sports, and the
ASTM F-1447 standard for bicycling headgear. This year, W Helmets became the
official headgear of two major skiing and snowboarding competitions: Paul Mitchell
X-Qualifiers and Ultracross.
Along with its mission to publicize and promote helmet safety, Team Wendy
works with The Cleveland Clinic Foundation and other health-care organizations
to further brain-trauma-surgery research. For each W Helmet sold, the company
donates $1 to a Small Business Invention Research grant for head-trauma research.
'You want to try to make something good grow out of loss, otherwise it's too
painful to look at the loss,' says Halley, who's since resumed her fiction-writing
career in New York City. 'I'm glad good things are happening.'
Wired into Learning
During his lunch hour, Shannon Bickel goes back to school at Tooling University.
He logs on to his desktop computer and listens to the narration of a lesson
on metal cutting, while viewing an accompanying video, illustration or photo.
He takes notes on his laptop computer, emailing questions to an instructor.
Then Bickel returns to work as an inside-sales representative at Jergens Inc.,
a Cleveland-based tooling-component manufacturer. Although Bickel has worked
in the tool-and-die industry for 30 years, he admits he didn't know much about
cutting tools before he began his Tooling U course work.
'What Tooling U does is show you how a product actually functions,' Bickel
observes.
Tooling U was developed two years ago by Jack H. Schron Jr., president of
250-employee Jergens Inc., and his son, Chad Schron, a senior Web developer
at the company. The Schrons identified a need in manufacturing for e-learning,
a growing trend in education and training whereby students take Internet-based
courses. While Jergens offered manufacturing training through traditional methods
such as books, CDs, videos and seminars, it had no Web-based programs.
What's more, says Jack Schron, there are fewer vocational and apprenticeship
programs to help manufacturers train new workers and improve the skills of veterans.
He registered Tooling U as a Web domain name and established it as a business
venture of Jergens, while Chad worked on a software program to provide the content.
Today, Tooling U is an eight-employee unit of Jergens and remains the only
Web-based learning medium specifically aimed at training plant workers, sales
reps and distributors in the manufacturing industry. Since Tooling U opened
its cyber campus at www.toolingu.com last spring, it has attracted 400 students
from a variety of companies. Industrial giants such as General Motors Corp.,
Ford Motor Co., Boeing Co. and Raytheon Co. are running pilot programs with
company-specific content through Tooling U. And large trade associations such
as the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) and the Industrial Distribution
Association offer Tooling U courses to their members worldwide.
'There are a lot of e-learning companies that can teach you how to use Microsoft
Word,' says Chad Schron. 'But there is nobody out there focusing directly on
the people on the shop floor. We're teaching the get-your-hands-dirty manufacturing
subjects. And that's what makes Tooling U different from all of the other e-learning
companies.'
Tooling U offers more than 40 courses, which literally may be taken on the
plant floor. Students can use their CNC (computer numerical control) machine
tool to take a course, or even a wireless Palm-type computer. Classes are available
24 hours a day, seven days a week, and students can start and stop as their
schedule and learning pace dictate.
Jack Schron says he believes the Tooling U method can improve employee productivity
and reduce costs for employers who otherwise would have to send workers off-site
for training. 'We think the online training fits nicely into manufacturing,
because when you pull someone off the line, production stops and your $200,000
machine is sitting idle,' he observes. Base price for a Tooling U course is
$299 per employee.
Richard Siyufy, manager of continuing education for SME, says Tooling U's
complete shop-floor curriculum is unique. 'They've really done a good job understanding
the target audience, structuring the material to match that and going to the
right level of detail,' he says.
To develop course content, Tooling U partnered with industry experts, companies
and schools such as A.M. Castle & Co., Valenite Inc. and Cuyahoga Community
College, says W. Wesley Howard III, managing director of Tooling U.
Employees learn by reading large-print text or by listening to the instruction
on their computers. Instructors are available to answer students' questions
via email or message boards. Each course lasts about two to three hours, and
students must take a test to certify that they've learned the material. Tooling
U also includes a section where managers can review progress, document training
achievements and even customize course work.
Jack Schron foresees Tooling U becoming an important part of the company's
business, as demand for enhanced manufacturing skills grows. 'I really believe
training is going to be an important employee benefit, because it can help with
career growth and provide more job security,' he says. 'I think [online training]
will grow tenfold.'
New-product Payoff
Like many manufacturers, Hendrickson International was hit hard by the recent
economic downturn. In fact, the Canton-based producer of OEM and replacement
suspension-axle-brake systems for heavy-duty trucks saw its business decline
40 percent to 50 percent from the second quarter of 2000 to the fourth quarter
of 2001.
With that kind of drop-off, many companies would have halted new-product development.
But Hendrickson pressed on with the introduction of an enclosure for its trailer
camshaft systems that prevents damage from road dirt and debris. Now Hendrickson
is positioned to reap the rewards of increased sales, market share and customer
satisfaction. In fact, in less than a year, the company has increased its suspension-systems
market share 3 percent.
Hendrickson's new Cam Tube System, patent pending, marks a fundamental change
in the market. 'In the heavy-duty-trailer market, there has been a system in
the last 30 years of bushings, seals and camshafts, and while those systems
were good 30 years ago, they didn't keep up with the times as far as cost ...
or performance,' says Chris Redgrave, Hendrickson's principal design engineer
for brakes. 'There were a lot of problems with contamination, a lot of problems
with the premature wear of these components because of the amount of dirt and
debris they were exposed to.'
Transportation companies that own fleets of trucks needed to replace camshafts
every year or two. In Canada, some trucking firms were making replacements every
six months. In the summer of 1999, Redgrave and Jay White, Hendrickson's manager
of components engineering, jointly developed the idea of enclosing the camshaft
and its components in a lightweight steel tube to prevent contamination.
Redgrave and White made the first prototype of the Cam Tube System in February
2000. To help in the design and construction of process-assembly equipment,
Hendrickson contracted with CAMP Inc., which 'proposed a good machine concept
at a competitive price,' says Peter Savoy, manager of Hendrickson's division
of manufacturing engineering and operations excellence.
After successful field-testing, production began in spring 2001. Despite Hendrickson's
precipitous drop in sales, it introduced the new product because it believed
in its long-term prospects.
Among the Cam Tube System's attractions for customers is an improved warranty
for Hendrickson's suspension-axle-brake systems of three years or 300,000 miles,
compared with the previous warranty of one year or 100,000 miles.
'This design is good enough that potentially the new product can go substantially
longer than that,' Redgrave says. 'There really is no reason why, with reasonable
maintenance and care, an operator would have to replace the system for seven
or eight years.'
Remarkably, Hendrickson made major improvements to its suspension-system design
without raising prices. 'We added value to the product at no cost to the customer,'
says Savoy. 'We felt that it would give us a competitive edge in the marketplace.'
So how did Hendrickson make its new product without passing the costs of research
and development, as well as manufacturing, onto its customers?
'The way that the older systems were designed was not necessarily the most
cost-effective solution,' says Redgrave, who served as the program manager for
the Cam Tube System project. 'We looked at this as an opportunity to make design
changes so that the product would be more cost-effective.'
Hendrickson enlisted CAMP to help boost production ef