Prof. Dr. Frank Richter
Source: Altana

The specialty chemicals group Altana (Wesel, Germany) has a new chairman of the supervisory board. Prof. Dr. Frank Richter, who has been a member of the Supervisory Board of Altana since May 2020, has been elected to this position. The industrial engineer and managing director
SKion GmbH takes over from Dr. Matthias L. Wolfgruber, the former chairman of the management board of Altana. Dr. Wolfgruber, who has been a member of the supervisory board since March 2016 and its chairman since May 2020, stepped down due to reaching the age limit at the end of his term.

Mr. Ruud Joosten, who has been CEO of the Executive Board of Royal BAM Group since 2020, was newly elected to the Supervisory Board. Ulrich Gajewiak and Dr. Susanne Klatten continue in their roles as deputy chairpersons of the Supervisory Board.

A new automated resin management and blending system for new and existing operations with up to 10 machines and limited available space is showcased by Ampacet Liad Smart BlendSave Compact uses patented weighing and blending technology to manage the increasing number of resin and PCR materials and recipe change requirements demanded by today’s processors. This smaller system includes a compact, dust-tight Octobatch automated manifold for up to 1500 kg/hr or up to 3,300 lbs/hr total throughput.

BlendSave Compact weighs resin materials of up to 40 ingredients and distributes individual blends to any 10 machines for total flexibility, unmatched accuracy and automated blending of custom recipes. The compact model takes only 6ft x 6 ft (1.8m x 1.8m) of floor space and is 14ft (4.27m) high. BlendSave accurately weighs each ingredient individually and conveys a unique recipe through dedicated lines to a mixer on each molding machine or extruder, eliminating the risk of material contamination and segregation during conveying. Through ERP integration, the recipe selection function is managed automatically, virtually eliminating manual setup and daily operator interactions and enables true “lights-out” operations, a competitive advantage within the highly competitive plastics industry. A separate storage and weigh hopper for each raw material means there are no clean-outs required, no hoses to switch and no operator mistakes.

BlendSave’s total traceability and verification of raw materials in each batch formulation, real-time data management of all resin ingredients per run, per shift, for the entire operation through a centralized control and existing ERP systems assure adherence to Industry 4.0 objectives. 

While the company began in the automotive industry, Proto Tool had to expand into other end markets to cope with the fluctuations of the industry. They now produce parts for multiple industries, including this mold component for a marine part. Source: Proto Tool Company

Bruce Pankow founded Proto Tool Company in Detroit in 1980, the same year his son and current Proto Tool President Brian Pankow was born. The company began its life making gauges and machining features into assemblies and fixtures for the automotive industry. However, over the past 44 years the company has had to adapt both to new technologies and new industries to keep up with the changing expectations of customers.

I spoke with the Pankows about the advice they would give to machine shops aiming to stay in business as long as Proto Tool, and this is the advice they had.

1) Don’t Stay Married to One Market

The first and most important piece of advice they have? Be prepared to change to meet the needs of an ever-changing industry. “When I started, CNCs were kind of new, kind of specialized,” Bruce says. “Now, they’re the standard.” Brian agrees. “The industry changes, and you need to be able to adapt to technology. You have to keep up with it or be left behind.”And this philosophy goes beyond technology.

Proto Tool keeps a fleet of Haas VMCs and this Haas STL 40 for producing high-mix, low-volume work. While the company began in the automotive world, it has gravitated toward high-mix, low-volume work in a number of industries. Source: Proto Tool Company

When automotive work changed in the ‘90s, Bruce expanded to more markets. “The automotive industry just isn’t what it used to be, and no amount of hoping will change that,” says the elder Pankow. “It’s hard to stay competitive producing a handful of parts for a single industry. Hard for us, at least.” Currently, Proto Tool is ISO 9001-2015 certified and produces high-mix, low-volume work in multiple industries in addition to automotive, including municipal systems, agricultural and aerospace.

The change insulates it from shifts in market demand. “Sometimes, one half of the shop is busy, while the other is dead,” Brian says. “Other times, it’s reversed. The different industries are always in flux, and we have to be ready for any of them at any time.”

To meet the needs of these varied industries, the shop had to pivot toward flexibility, with a small fleet of varied machines capable of producing a wide range of parts. The shop has three Haas VMCs — one VF-6, and two VF-5s — all capable of four- and five-axis positional work. For turning, it has a Haas STL 50, two Mori Seiki SL-250s, and a Webster & Bennet vertical lathe with an 80-inch diameter work envelope for large workpieces. Additionally, the shop has two large CNC boring mills, also for larger workpieces. Finally, it has a handful of manual mills and lathes for quick turnarounds and extra capacity.

2) Find the Value You Bring to the Table

Most shops cannot take on every job that comes their way. The fact is that every shop needs to identify the ideal class of parts it can produce cost-effectively. Proto Tool, for example, is great at machining complex features into larger workpieces.

This vertical lathe has an 72-inch work table with an 80-inch swing, which enables Proto Tool to tackle large parts. Finding areas of competitive advantage like machining complex features into large parts has been key to the company’s success.
Source: Proto Tool Company

The company’s bread and butter is machining features into large weldments, up to 200 inches along the X axis and 90 inches along the Y, according to Brian. This enables the company to take jobs with part sizes that other shops might not be able to handle. Machining these larger parts has enabled the shop to remain profitable even as high-volume work fell by the wayside — so much so that the shop is preparing to install another large multi-axis CNC boring mill.

Finding a niche also meant being picky about what work it takes on. “We want to dictate what work we take in rather than having work dictated to us,” Bruce says. “We can’t make profits on pins.” Instead, the company focuses on jobs that require machining complex features — this includes turning large parts with multiple features, the weldments discussed above, and producing shafts with complex features. “We always look for parts with more unique features because that increases the benefits we bring to the customer,” Brian says. “That’s where we find success.”

3) Bringing Your Experience to New Markets

Another important tip: recognize when your experience applies to other areas. “There are a lot of similarities between different parts,” Brian says. “A bushing is a bushing whether it’s going into a car or a large fluid pump.” Similarly, the shop’s years spent turning shafts for automotive parts translated easily into turning shafts for municipal pumps.

After the shop moved into machining features onto large automotive weldments, the capacity for turning and machining large parts opened the doors for other large parts. Currently, the shop is turning large ring-shaped components with a 73-inch diameter on a CNC vertical lathe. The components require both ID and OD turning, as well as boring operations.

Thankfully, the shop has already built the skills needed for machining these features into large parts. “You run into different jobs over the years and learn from making them,” Bruce says. “You carry these lessons forward, and hopefully you’ll find a profitable path.”

4) You Can’t Ignore Luck

The shop, currently located outside Detroit in Farmington Hills, Michigan, has stayed in business for over 40 years, but not every shop has. “I know plenty of guys who ran very good businesses, made parts on time, but aren’t around anymore,” Bruce says.

However, those lucky enough to stick around can be useful. “The old man comes in handy,” Brian says. “He knows the entire industry, so if you need something done, he knows the guy to talk to.” 

Hopefully, with some flexibility, ingenuity and a little luck, your shop can stick around, too.

Small mold inserts punched out of wire block. Images courtesy of Ernie Green Industries.

We live in unprecedented times, where as leaders, we need to find creative ways to maintain profitability and stability for our companies. Because of the current market conditions, capital spending has been reduced, and adding additional staff can be risky for both the company and the new staff member. As a result, companies are forced to find unique ways to increase efficiency.

In the spring of 2019, our team—a 28-man internal mold shop of Ernie Green Industries (EGI)—faced the considerable challenge of building 63 molds in less than one year, which required extensive, high-precision wire EDM machining. The primary focus of the team is precision medical molds for non-evasive surgical devices, and many of our wired inserts and wired holes are very small (0.015 inch x 0.040 inch x 0.500 inch) or have thin steel conditions of less than 0.010 inch. However, in our current state, the shop did not have the wire EDM time needed with its two GF Progressive VP2 machines. 

During the quoting phase of the project, we laid out a timeline to see if the project was feasible and quickly found out we did not have enough wire EDM hours. Our average cut time was 126 hours per week or 6,300 hours per year. To accomplish this task, the team needed to react quickly.

The initial solution was what most shops do—buy two additional machines at the cost of $325 thousand per machine and hire the two to three additional staff required to run the new equipment. However, EGI’s consulting partner, Harbour Results, challenged the organization to find another way to accomplish the task without investing in machines or staff.  

What we have learned through this assignment is that a company should collaborate with its equipment suppliers to maximize its existing machines and to review all your processes to determine where efficiency improvements can be found, and invest in the training.

Identifying Two EDM Problems to Solve

The team started by looking at how to improve our current efficiency rate. Utilizing two machines, EGI had 38 hours available cut time at 80% efficiency; however, it was only achieving an average of 21 hours cut time per day, or 52% efficiency.

The first opportunity for improvement was to put multiple blocks in the machine. Our toolmaker had always put one block in the machine at one time in the same spot. He was trained to do it this way, 20 years ago. However, if we put multiple blocks in the machine, we could run for extended periods, including over the weekend.

Wire block for small mold inserts.

This leads us to our second issue of dropping inserts/slugs. Some shops will let the insert/slugs fall into the tank, but our inserts/slugs are so small, we could lose them in the tank, or if they got into the machine head, the insert could cause costly machine damage. The toolmaker still needed to catch each insert/slug that dropped. Initially, we decided to run our machines for extended periods, and then on the day shift, go back and drop each insert by hand. Doing so still took 5-10 minutes per insert, and there were thousands of inserts to wire EDM. Implementing these two steps improved cut-time efficiency to 75%, but the team knew there had to be another way to drop the inserts/slugs to increase efficiency further.

Challenging the team to look outside the norm, asking for support from our machine tool supplier and conducting more training on how to use our wire EDM and CAM system, EGI profitably completed the project requiring 63 high-precision molds and is considering additional wire EDM work because of open capacity.

Through research on our machine and learning how others in the industry dropped their inserts/slugs, we found a solution where the wire would weld the inserts back in place after passing the wire tab. This would work, but require new equipment, which was not an option for this project.

Then, when one of the EDM machines went down, the team reached out for support and, at the same time, asked the manufacturer how they recommended dropping slugs and inserts. The machine has a function, called Autofix, which goes back to each wire tab and reduces it so that the insert can be tapped out with a small punch after the block was removed from the machine. With additional support, we implemented this functionality within one day.

Autofix function goes back to each wire tab and reduces it so that the insert can be tapped out with a small punch after the block was removed from the machine. 

Using both the Autofix and running multiple blocks allowed us to achieve an efficiency of 90% or more and significantly increased available capacity. Additionally, the team discovered that EGI’s PEPS CAM system has a similar function to Autofix, which provides the company with multiple ways to achieve efficiency for wiring small, high-precision inserts and pockets.

Seeking Alternative Solutions

So, why did we not know about this function? First, the team was not challenged to look outside their typical solution set of adding equipment and people. Second, the appropriate level of training for the equipment was not required. Lastly, the toolmaker was not adequately trained in the use of the CAM system.

Discovering an Autofix function on one of EGI’s EDM machines and running multiple blocks helped the shop achieve 90% efficiency and increased available capacity.

Challenging the team to look outside the norm, asking for support from our machine tool supplier and conducting more training on how to use our wire EDM and CAM system, EGI profitably completed the project requiring 63 high-precision molds and is considering additional wire EDM work because of open capacity.

What we have learned through this assignment is that a company should collaborate with its equipment suppliers to maximize its existing machines, to review all your processes to determine where efficiency improvements can be found, and invest in the training. Companies should not wait until there is a challenge or an issue but do this proactively to improve capacity and profitability.

^{This episode is brought to you by ISCAR with New Ideas for Machining Intelligently.}

MoldMaking Technology has covered StackTeck a lot over the years (including being a two-time Leadtime Leader Honoree), but this conversation is an update on the company’s latest changes and innovations.

StackTeck is a global manufacturer of multi-cavity, high-volume production molds, known for mold technologies to improve efficiencies, lightweighting and automation in caps, closures, thin wall packaging, medical and PET preforms, and more.

Listen as Jordan Robertson, StackTeck’s VP of Business Development and Marketing reviews some of the company's challenges and notable projects over the years, as well as these six areas of current innovations.

1. 1. Automation
   2. Collapsing core technology
   3. Servo actuation for control and precision
   4. FastTrack
   5. TRIM lightweighting technology
   6. Patented Pi Cool technology for post-mold cooling

Last but not least, we talk about sustainability in and around StackTeck, including its IMPact initiative.

For the full quick chat, watch above, and for more MMT Chats, click here.

Rack Storage. Source | Globeius

Globeius sells and services a wide variety of machinery and equipment for the North and South American plastics industry. The company is exhibiting a range of molding solutions targeting the transport, storage and performance of injection molds.

Globeius is presenting its range of GT Cranes that are designed specifically for the injection molding industry. With a focus on making mold transport through the plant and mold changes simple and safe, the GT Cranes make a single-man operation possible.

They have up to 55,000-lb capacity and a horizontal, vertical, angled and rotating boom arm dexterity. Adjustable speed simplifies the placement of the mold in the injection molding machine, while the use of a remote control allows one operator to perform tasks that are usually done by several people. In addition, the overloading system is designed to block the operator from performing potentially unsafe activities.

Customers will also find Rack Storage injection molding racking and storage solutions at the Globeius booth. A heavy-duty modular mold racking system can hold shelf loads from 4,400-22,000 lb with an electric actuator. In addition, the Rack Storage options reduce floor space cost by up to 50%; reduce forklift time and costs; improve safety; and more. The modular design options include rear panels, side panels, covers, doors, etc.

Customers can also learn about the latest Flosense mold control from MouldPro, which is designed to optimize mold cooling to help injection molders improve part quality and maximize productivity. The Flosense IQ-One interfaces with a dedicated TCU/mold heater and controls the pump speed and temperature, which Globeius says will reduce energy consumption significantly and optimize the thermal process.

Experienced polishers share best practices every day with polishing apprentices to provide the optimal results for demanding customers. Photo Credit: Alliance Specialties and Laser Sales

Many mold manufacturers build a network of specialty shops to whom they outsource steps of a project to help meet required deadlines and stay on budget. These relationships demand communication at every step to ensure a quality mold on schedule. This means that before a job hits the floor of that specialty service provider, the mold builder and service shop managers must communicate expectations and requirements.

For example, preventative maintenance (PM) is essential when it comes to improving mold performance, so working with your maintenance provider to schedule downtime will save time and money in the long run. When scheduling maintenance, the mold builder must be open and honest about their availability, so the maintenance provider can prioritize the job before it even arrives at the shop.  

The same goes for mold finishing services, although with this process comes a bit of subjectivity which must be discussed upfront to alleviate miscommunication. For example, an A2 finish can mean very different things to different people. Plus, polishing is an art and not a step to rush. Providing as much time as possible to adequately prepare and ensure a service provider has open team members to work on a hot job is critical.

Skilled TIG and laser welding specialists are continually trained on the latest technology and processes.

Laser welding and laser engraving services also require ample attention to detail and optimal foresight to determine which process or combination of processes to use. For example, understanding when to prep a weld before doing a chrome buildup, and understanding the depth of the engraving itself, not the depth of the plastic.

These services may encounter unexpected issues, which may require added cost for the mold builder, so prompt communication is key. It is never wise to send an updated bill with added labor and additional costs. Instead, include a paper trail of the details with every job—photos, emails, phone calls, last shots, marked-up parts and contact information. These simple steps provide accountability for both parties.

Here are critical questions a mold builder should ask before sending a mold out for service:

Polishing

• How much material did you leave?
• Where are you finishing?
• What is the required finish and what does that finish mean to you?
• What areas have some leeway (e.g., do all cutter marks need to be removed)?
• What is the part making?
• Are parting lines finished?
• Does everything need to be sharp?
• What are the critical dimensions?
• What is more important: finish or size?

Seasoned professionals work together with next-generation workers to meet customer deadlines and quality requirements like for this hot runner repair job.

Hot Runner

• Does the job require the entire hot half or hot half components only (manifolds, drops, plates)?
• Are there any flow channel blockages?
• Is the system flooded or leaked? Is this routine maintenance?
• What is the resin and process temperature?
• Are all the heaters working properly?
• Are there any problems with temperature control?
• Will the manifold or drop heaters require rewiring?
• Will you need new thermocouples?
• Are any parts/components damaged?
• Do you want components replaced?
• Do you have spare parts?

Mold Maintenance

• What is the size of the mold?
• How many cavities are having an issue?
• When will the tool be ready to go out?
• When do you need it back?
• Do you have any pictures of the tool and/or the damaged area?
• Do you have any last shots or piece parts?
• Do you have drawings, prints or files?

Laser Welding

• How much weld do you need finished when you can’t see the physical damage and you need to build up a shutoff surface?
• What is the base material?
• Does the order need to be picked up or is it being shipped?
• Was a direct contact provided for the person responsible for answering questions?
• What amount of buildup is needed when finished machining?
• What location needs welding?
• Is blending and polishing to remove the weld needed?

Laser Engraving

• What material is it?
• Do you have a file?
• What is the depth of engraving (is it critical)?
• Will additional stock be removed?
• Do we need to go deeper than the print calls?

Teamwork is vital to getting a job done right. Here, Founder John Demakis gets hands-on when a job requires his experience.

When looking for that service provider to add to your network, consider a team of experienced polishers, mold builders, laser welders, hot runner manifold technicians and laser engravers who can share their knowledge and skillset under one roof to provide assistance with any job.

In the evolving landscape of technology, company culture remains a decisive factor dictating the pace of organizational adaptation and competitiveness. The simplest measures of a vibrant organizational culture are sustained profitability and a committed workforce. That said, cultural transformation, whether positive or negative, unfolds gradually.

Therefore, it is vital to monitor the direction and pace of cultural change. Tools available to measure change include employee surveys, focus groups, employee referrals, employee retention, exit surveys and so on. However, these lagging indicators often aren’t effective to assess which direction the organizational culture is heading.

Furthermore, it’s imperative to identify improvement actions with the potential for the most significant positive impact on culture. Critical cultural elements that can be noticed in the daily behavior of employees in a healthy work environment include executing to plan, focused efforts, employees asking questions during meetings, low employee turnover and consistent financial growth. These are signs pointing toward a positive “yes” culture.

Conversely, common attributes of a culture descending into dysfunction include:

A culture of “no.” Company culture starts at the top. Senior management’s attitude toward growth-related discussions might consistently skew negative as their long exposure to certain situations such as a particular plant’s suffering revenue can lead them to a biased mindset. This impedes the growth across the entire organization, as pessimistic attitudes swiftly permeate through lower management, solidifying into a culture of stagnation.

For any new initiative, a common excuse revolves around lack of resources. Employees are portrayed as too busy for any new activity and management is preoccupied in lengthy meetings. Management meetings tend to lack focus and try to address too many topics in 30 minutes while meeting participants feel they’ve squandered valuable time discussing reasons for uncompleted tasks.

Unveiling the root causes behind inefficiency and lackluster productivity could bring eye-opening insights. Oftentimes, the workforce can be seen wasting time waiting, walking and searching. Employees exhibit demotivation, simply aiming to complete their shifts without any sense of enthusiasm or engagement. A common perception among the employees prevails: “No one can alter this environment and management doesn’t understand the real issues in the business.”

Production scheduling challenges. Ideally, a weekly production schedule ought to be finalized at least a couple of days in advance and remain unalterable except under exceptional circumstances. In an unstable environment, the production schedule changes every day creating workforce stress.

Employees often unwillingly accommodate the changes to avoid confrontation with management. A daily “hot jobs” list is created for the orders that could not be completed on time, resulting in major disruption to efficient production. Frequent changes breed chaos, ineffective processes and productivity losses for both machinery and people. Consequently, it erodes the mutual respect between shopfloor employees and management.

Frequent changes in priorities. Due to the prevailing stress within the organization, management constantly fights with initiatives prioritization. Project A is a top priority on Monday and Project B becomes the highest priority on Wednesday. This indicates that the organization is attempting to juggle too many tasks simultaneously without a meticulously crafted plan. Consequently, tasks suffer from a lack of focus, teams waste valuable time and, ultimately, distrust festers between shopfloor employees and management.

Employees who don’t raise their hands during meetings. In a dysfunctional culture, employees exhibit a lack of eagerness to take on additional responsibilities. At the same time, they fear asking questions because the question might turn against them and result in added workload and/or their questions will yield no tangible changes. While feedback sessions might seem fruitful, employees often withhold the truth fearing that management lacks the capacity to accept harsh realities.

A stressful month-end. In a dysfunctional culture, workload imbalance is a common theme whereby a significant part of the monthly output is delivered to customers in the last few days of the month. Considerable production overtime is used during the last week to achieve monthly financial goals. Such an imbalance of load across weeks results in enormous inefficiency across the plant.

The higher the prevalence of these issues in the workplace, the faster the culture goes south. Embracing this observational approach offers a crucial advantage: management can pinpoint and prioritize areas for improvement with the greatest potential to transform a deteriorating culture to one that’s thriving and supportive.

About the Author

Manoj Mohta

­Manoj Mohta is a certified Six Sigma Master Black Belt and continuous improvement director at Avalign Technologies. He has total experience of more than 23 years,including roles in manufacturing and assembly operations, warehousing, quality, sales and customer service.

Some inherited equipment problems and wastewater treatment issues that the previous company left behind were only a couple obstacles Adam Anderson, president of Miller Plating, faced. Because he began the business right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, he was also confronted with the shutdown while attempting to contact the city for permits and other businesses he relied on to help open his shop.  

“We were operating a very small outfit with no sales whatsoever for basically almost a year,” Anderson says. “And, a lot of the equipment we inherited was in rough shape. So, there was strategy that went into just getting things moving.”

And, because of the shutdown, he, and a team of three former Medina Plating employees who he chose to hire, had ample time to get organized and prepare for a grand opening. “The team needed to build brand recognition for the new company and leave the past behind.”

Miller Plating’s rack line is capable of handling parts up to 11 ft. in length, for both zinc and zinc-nickel plating. Source for all photos: Miller Plating

Establishing a separate brand

As the team set out in hopes of distancing itself from the former brand, ultimately Anderson knew the company needed to reevaluate the services it offered. Therefore, the new team decided to refocus the shop’s efforts from zinc-iron plating to mostly zinc-nickel plating for parts ranging from small fasteners and brackets up to 11 feet long. It also established a specialization in rack plating, which Anderson says is a unique offering compared to some other light-volume plating shops.

“Then, we decided ‘let’s go out and get the quick turnaround time, let’s get the quality, let’s make sure our customers don’t have problems’,” he adds. “Let’s build processes that are going to exceed the corrosion standard, not just meet the corrosion standard.”

By creating a positive reputation, not only has the shop been successful in winning back some of the former company’s business but also has attracted new customers. The company is delivering more quality parts since implementing newer technologies and formulations into its two functioning plating lines. These chemistries provide better adhesion and corrosion protection, Anderson explains.

Miller Plating focused its initial efforts on operationalizing the plant’s rack plating line.

When the shop acquired the location, it built a new, fully manual plating line that runs 24 hours a day, five days a week and can accommodate a variety of parts. On its second line, which was inherited from the previous plater and is fully automatic, the Miller Plating team changed the line’s process from zinc plating to zinc-nickel plating.

Because Anderson believes there is an increasing market share of zinc-nickel plating, he was ready to invest in the process. Zinc-nickel plating, which he says resists corrosion longer than its counterpart plating processes, is especially effective for parts in the automotive, agriculture and construction vehicle industries that are exposed to outdoor elements/contaminants such as road de-icing salts or fertilizers.  

Adam Anderson, president, refocused the plant’s capabilities to zinc and zinc-nickel plating.  

Wastewater discharge was another concern that Anderson addressed upon opening the new company. Knowing that there was an issue with this process when he moved into the facility, he had to hire a company to drop a sampling port into the outside sampling manhole. “Water used to run through a pipe all the way to discharge,” he explains. “Now, it runs into a crock that we can put a sampler in to check the water.” This investment was worthwhile, especially to prove that the new shop was dedicated to making necessary improvements, he adds.

Moving toward Top Shop status

After removing the waste left behind from its predecessor, the original team could finally move forward with its own, unique vision without the busy work that was initially weighing down the shop.

To start, the men contemplated the intended workflow and restructured the facility’s shelving accordingly. By the end of 2020, Anderson had quickly hired essential employees including a maintenance specialist and plant manager. Today, there are about 31 Miller Plating employees striving to satisfy the shop’s 50 or so diverse customers.

Behind every solid business is an efficient ERP system, and the Miller Plating team is proud of its ERP system that it designed from start to finish. Anderson says this was a substantial benefit of opening a new shop. Not only could he structure the software to his liking, but there was no data to transfer, like there is for an established shop.

“We chose a system that was cloud based; we can be sitting at home and look at the same data that I’m looking at here,” he says. “And it’s valuable to our partners to be able to see their data as well.” This system has played a large role in building the shop’s reputation as well as building customer relationships.

Anderson’s principle focus in 2024 is to fill capacity on the plant’s refurbished, fully-automated zinc-nickel plating line.

Timely and personal communication with customers is another characteristic of the shop that Anderson has prioritized. “We’ve been praised for how powerful our communication is and that it is easy working with our team,” he explains. “If customers reach out to us, it doesn’t take us hours to respond.”

Fast turnaround time for jobs is also important to Miller Plating. Anderson believes this is one reason the business has earned Products Finishing’s Top Shops status along with growth acceleration. Unlike long-time, well-established platers, he says his shop always has the capacity to take on new business, so it is continually growing. It runs three shifts and has two lab technicians who cover 13 hours out of a workday.

Benchmarking benefits

Like many finishing shops that participate in the Top Shops benchmarking survey, Miller Plating finds many advantages in doing so. Anderson says the survey was instrumental in comparing his shop to similar shops by identifying areas where it does well but also the areas which need improvement.

For example, he says his company’s quoting times were behind other shops surveyed. As a result, he realized the need to free up a larger block of time

Upon reopening in 2019, the Medina plating facility was renamed Miller Plating.

daily to focus only on quoting. However, he was pleased to see that the company ranked high in turnaround and sales. Also, the survey has proven that the shop has benefited from being a niche within the plating industry because business remains stable, Anderson says.

“When there were problems with the availability of salts needed for more common plating processes, Miller Plating did not have the same supply shortages,” he explains.

Looking ahead

In 2023, the company focused on a preventive maintenance program to prepare for the eventual operation of both of its working lines running 24/5. Anderson says this year, he is concentrating on doing just that: filling the capacity of both lines. Then in 2025, the third plating line, which needs repair, will be the focus. 

Also on the horizon is expansion via acquisition. The private equity group that owns Miller Plating is looking to grow to different locations as well, which could mean moving outside of the county or state. “We want to be within a five-to-six-hour drive for customers, which opens up quite a bit of opportunity,” Anderson says. “I can see within three to five years we will have another facility.” Although he doesn’t know what Miller Plating’s offerings might look like in a new location, the company will make an educated decision based on customer needs and what makes the most business sense.

While Anderson and the Miller Plating team understand the challenges of successfully executing on their vision, they are optimistic about the future and are excited to maintain their status as a Top Shop.