At the start of the month, we sent around a brief list of questions to our esteemed pool of Gateway advertisers to see if they’d be willing to share some thoughts on how their respective business fared in 2021 compared to 2020 when we were struck with a global pandemic. We still hear constant reports on the news of supply chain issues and hardships related to keeping up with employment demands. There seems to be shortage of qualified candidates in nearly every industry at the moment. Huge thanks to those who took the time to assess where they’ve been and where they’re headed. The questions we posed were high level and included the following:
- As 2021 comes to a close, how did the year stack up compared the tumultuous nature of 2020?
- What were some successes? What were some challenges?
- Did you reassess your way of doing things at all?
- What are you hoping 2022 has in store as we turn to a new year?
Here are each of their responses:
HOWARD PRODUCTS
Worcester, Massachusetts
www.howardproducts.biz
Our strongest success for 2021 was our ability to maintain our supply chain. Through intentional scrutinization of ‘normal’ materials used in the course of fabrication and a bit of ‘ball parking’ for projected needs, considering the instability of the year, Howard Products did an excellent job of maintaining our ‘On Time’ Delivery Record. There were a couple of instances where we were ‘caught short’. However, in the main, Howard Product’s staff and suppliers worked very closely keeping an eye on material supplies and alternate sourcing (when necessary). There have been the rare occasions when needed materials simply ‘disappeared’. No supplies, no future delivery of supplies. That that case, a bit of Yankee ingenuity, the blessing of owning a fabrication shop, having great outside vendors, we were able to ‘redesign’ the needed part and source the part ourselves. Engineering, Production and Purchasing staff have done an outstanding job of TEAMWORK this year.
In instances when delivery dates just couldn’t be met, we were proactive with communication to all parties concerned. In almost every case, with a bit of compromise, we were able to arrive at ‘doable’ revised delivery dates. The key to the success of this strategy was timely, HONEST, communication and understand. Across industry, personnel understood the situation all were sharing. It was not as if customers could go elsewhere and source their part. NO ONE had supplies (or staff.) Had we ‘waited it out’ to see if we could make delivery; Had we ‘fudged’ the date and delivered late, had we not had close communication with our outside vendors, our delivery times could have gone badly sideways resulting in highly dissatisfied customers. Fortunately, we coped fairly well with our issues.
In as much as supply chain issues were challenging, staffing would have to be the single most challenging variable. While we had a ‘stable’ workforce, we required an individual with a specialized skill set: difficult to find as these skills are no longer taught. We were forced to find an individual who had innate talent as well as a willingness to learn a new skill. He was an ‘invaluable’ find. In another case we needed a worker to fit into our workforce. With some diligent work we were able to locate such an individual. These two workers have had quite a positive impact on our output.
Some might think that COVID was our single most ‘difficult’ factor. Not at all. COVID became more of a ‘variable’. Once a ‘process’ was developed to deal with the issue (cleansing, distancing, scrutiny of ‘ill’ employees, requiring testing to return to work, etc.) it just became another item on a checklist. While it required us to ‘monitor’ our workforce’s health more closely than we might, once everyone realized that practices were in place to protect everyone, there were few objections. Other than an outbreak 9 months ago, our facility remains COVID free, due in no small part to everyone’s cooperation.
Reassess: Not really. When we became ISO 9001-2015 Quality Mgt. registered, we instituted bimonthly staff meetings. A critical part of those meetings is ‘risk management’. By that I mean, the management team brainstorms possible risks to the company and assess their threat value. If deemed to be a serious threat, we project solutions and gauge the ‘success’ of those solutions. Weeks may go by with nothing assessed. Then one week may occur when an issue occurs to someone, and it is discussed. Keeping communication open and encouraging more ‘global’ thinking helps keep employees ‘fresh’ and motivated for ‘out of the box’ thinking. This past year we leaned on our history of risk management and embraced looking for ‘weak’ areas. Our history of risk assessment absolutely helped us.
We look for increased positivity in 2022. Currently, across the board, folks are worried. Customers are worried, suppliers are worried, employees are worried. This is leading to a negative environment of siloism and turf/job protection. Folks are too busy ‘protecting’ what’s theirs instead of anticipating what can be next in an encouraging way. We must move away from ‘what disease is next’ to how do we live in the world today. Risk is a fact of life. Nothing has ever been guaranteed. Once one accepts what is, one can move on to what ‘can be’.
We are a small company. Yet, we face the ‘same’ problems larger companies face. Because we are small there is less margin for ‘reaction’ time or errors. It is crucial we ‘get it right’ the first time. There is very little margin for error. Given our 70-year history. More often we are ‘on target’ than we miss the mark. Yet our size allows us to be nimble in our management and react perhaps more quickly than larger companies with more management layers.
Martha Hawley
V/P Business Development
MUSHIELD
Londonderry, New Hampshire
www.mushield.com
As 2021 comes to a close, how did the year stack up compared to the tumultuous nature of 2020?
The momentum for a busy manufacturing year started in 2020 and continued into 2021 even with COVID on the forefront of our minds every day. We continue to be busier than ever and 2022 doesn’t look like it’ll slow down at all.
What were some successes?
Being able to continue business as usual was a success considering all of the other sectors that may face challenges with COVID outbreaks, limited working staff and/or supply chain breakdown.
We experienced each of the obstacles within some capacity, but ultimately, were able to come in each day and produce sensitive magnetic shields for our customers that were in dire need of them. Lead times increased a bit, but I think the biggest win for MuShield was that our lead times increased by days and not months like many other vendors.
What were some challenges?
The biggest challenge was trying to get people to come to work! No, not our loyal employees, but new hires. With all the additional work going through our shop the past 18 months, we have had trouble keeping up and there wasn’t much to pick out of from the unemployment pool. We have learned that many have chosen to start up their own business at home (similar to www.cardsczar.com) as opposed to going back to work. We applaud the entrepreneurial spirit of these folks, but it would be great if we could convince some of those people to come work for us too!
Did you reassess your way of doing things?
Not particularly. Other than Zoom or Teams calls, we carried on business as usual as we always have.
What are you hoping 2022 has in store as we turn to a new year?
I’m hoping that the anxiety surrounding all things COVID all but disappears and the economy continues to remain strong.
Luke Grilli
Vice President of Sales and Marketing
ABLE MACHINE TOOL SALES
Agawam, Massachusetts
www.howardproducts.biz
As 2021 comes to a close, how did the year stack up compared to the tumultuous nature of 2020?
2021 actually turned out better than I anticipated. We were better prepared to uphold new a set of rules for doing business, sales were up, and people started to move again.
What were some successes?
We were very fortunate not to have any Covid disruption. Customers have started to visit us again for machinery demos and engineering consultations. We had our 35th Year Celebration and Open House, which was attend by over 300 customers. We had the showroom well ventilated for everyone’s benefit, and the weather was perfect for open doors. It just gave a sense of the old normal to the year.
What were some challenges?
The pandemic still hangs like a sword above all our heads. People are not sure whether to get the vaccine or not. Rules of entry at customer facilities for our sales and service personnel change weekly, so we have to stay on top of these changes. Not to mention the ongoing supply chain disruption, which makes scheduling a challenge, as we can never be 100 percent sure a repair part or component will ship on schedule. Regardless, we try to think and plan to stay ahead of the curve. My staff handles both issues very well, and they have kept our customers up and running. So, while we have had challenges, we have had many more successful customer interactions than our industry might have expected. In fact, a couple weeks ago, we received a prominent award for service from one of our OEMs, Doosan Machine Tools America. Given the time, we are very proud of that.
Did you reassess your way of doing things?
Absolutely. To start, our parts inventory was heavily scrutinized to ensure critical items are always kept in stock at manageable levels and to avoid delivery delays. For safety, we implemented every reasonable recommended measure to insure our employee’s safety. For example, our Field Service Technicians will rope off their work area with caution tape should social distancing become an issue again. Masks and sanitizer are standard employee issue, a part of everyday life and available to any employee who wants them. We have found video conferencing very useful and will continue to use it where it makes sense for our customers, staff, and suppliers. It works for meetings, and a customer can even take a cell phone out to a machine and, if not send a photo, show us live what is happening. This is good.
What are you hoping 2022 has in store as we turn to a new year?
As 2021 provided some relief from the lockdown of 2020. I sincerely hope we can continue to move toward “normal” living and working conditions. Also, our customers are pretty focused on automated machines that offer more capability, efficiency, flexibility, and autonomy. I am certain this will continue to grow throughout the next year and beyond. If I can put in a plug for ABLE, we represent eight equipment lines and provide service, parts, tech support and training. We can help.
Alan Lockery,
President
There you have it. We appreciate the insight very much and hope that it’s useful to all of our readers as we collectively (and individually) look to turn the page on 2021 and hope for a prosperous 2022! By propping each other up and lending a helping hand where it makes sense, we’ll only be stronger as an industry and as a regional powerhouse within the manufacturing world. If you have any stories to share at any time, we’d love to hear from you. Share any and all things on your mind to chris@thegatewaymag.com.
