Employers struggle with too few orders and too many employees or too many orders and too few employees. Customer demand and manufacturing capacity resonate in perfect harmony only occasionally and briefly. Owners are pressured to protect margins by investing in technology, by implementing lean methods, by improving skills, by finding new customers. One shop owner expressed his frustration when he stated, “The burden of running a business and making a profit is overwhelming.” It’s not quite so overwhelming for the owner who reaches out peers and to professional help through association participation.

Members of the Tooling & Manufacturing Association are Illinois manufacturers and suppliers. TMA was established in 1925 and is best known for workforce and management education, employee benefits, marketing support, advocacy, and information and consulting services. The following are a few examples showing how TMA members have become “better by association.”

WORKFORCE

Embarking on a company-wide Lean initiative, continuous hinge manufacturer S & S Hinge Co. in Bloomingdale, IL, realized its multi-die press operators were not trained for optimal utilization.

The solution: create a systematic method for recruiting, training, and evaluating.

TMA consultant Karla Dobbeck met with S & S President Chris Stevenson to learn how the association might help. S & S vice president Richard Sade was assigned to work with TMA to develop a Lean based HR transformation plan. The plan needed to address the language barrier, be repeatable and include rewards for performance.

The TMA team developed procedures for recruiting including the initial ad, job specific screening and interview questions, knowledge-based assessments and an evaluation tool to allow the hiring manager to select the best qualified candidate.

For the training portion of the project, Dan Kiraly, TMA Director of Education and Dobbeck worked with Sade and S & S subject matter experts. Kiraly created pictorials of each process in each line breaking the language barrier. Dobbeck took the information provided by subject matter experts to write weekly training plans and evaluations.

According to Sade, before implementing the project two years ago, only one shopfloor associate was qualified to operate all multi-die production cells. S & S has seen a marked improvement and today, 12 shop associates are fully trained in all cells.

This HR project was just as important in their Lean Program as any other elements of continuous improvement. It has strengthened the company and employees, and has allowed them to provide world-class service to customers. The team created a working environment in which candidates want to work for S & S Hinge. The investment with TMA was the right decision.

MARKETING SUPPORT

Panek Precision in Northbrook, IL excels at precision machining and fabricating. They engaged the TMA Commercial & Marketing Services (CMS) program to expand their customer base. First step was reworking the ten year-old website. Next, CMS helped Panek to determine target markets by pairing down the suspect list to 30 potential customers. Each of the 30 was phoned to determine if they outsource machining and to obtain the name of the decision maker; 20 were reached. A metal part was machined to about the size of a baseball, chromed and completed with the Panek logo and website. The part was mailed along with a simple letter. Panek made phone calls and proposals; resulting business equaled $360,000. This cost effective process can take up to six months and provides ample opportunity to educate the marketplace.

Today’s ultra-competitive market requires a focused approach to reaching potential new business. Diagrind, Inc. in Orland Park, IL turned to TMA and the CMS program. Diagrind updated its website with keywords, causing higher registration with web browser searches. The result was immediate with increased traffic to the company’s website, catalog requests and online orders. Diagrind further utilized TMA marketing database support by using NAICS lists of existing customers to find other companies with similar processes, or tooling needs, creating a targeted audience for advertising purposes. The value of CMS can be summed up in one word, “perspective.” With this perspective Diagrind has continued a progressive marketing program of its own.

ADVOCACY

Through a combination of plant tours and lobby visits, TMA advocates for pro-manufacturing legislation at the national, state, and local levels. During the summer of 2008, Illinois Senators and Representatives toured over 30 TMA member facilities to learn about the competitive challenges Illinois manufactures face. For many it was their first visit to a manufacturing facility. These visits educate policy makers who have a direct impact on such costs of doing business as workers compensation insurance rates, healthcare mandates, and tax rates. Illinois elected representatives will also decide this year whether the state will continue to fund the successful Employee Training Initiative Program, which offsets 50 percent of training costs.

TMA has achieved major legislative victories for manufacturers in the last two sessions of the Illinois General Assembly. Effective January 1, 2006, TMA successfully passed the Tool and Die [and Mold] Lien Act that gives the toolmaker the right to place a lien when payment is delinquent. David Long of Pro

Mold & Die in Roselle used the lien law twice in 2006 to collect from delinquent customers and estimates it has saved his company over $45,000.

That success was followed up by TMA in 2007 with the passage of the special sales tax credit equal to 5 percent of qualifying purchases for Illinois manufactures. TMA estimates that companies choosing to apply for the credit will receive $100 or more per production employee. The credit is a one year pilot by the state to gage its effect. TMA continues to work toward its goal of expanding and simplify the Manufacturing Machinery & Equipment Exemption from sales tax.

Whether burdened with the need for sales, skills, information, or a unified voice, the best way to deal with challenges is to share the burden. A community of employers working together for common purposes can change what needs to be changed and improve what needs to be improved. Associations are well suited for manufacturers to do together what they find difficult or impossible to do alone.

 

Contact: Bruce Braker, 847-825-1120, bbraker@tmanet.com |tmanet.com