VIBCO, Small RI company with a Big Global Market and A Lot of Attitude
Good news from another Made In The Americas (sm) company, this one in the Ocean State of Rhode Island, back from a quick trip to VIBCO, a small, privately-held producer of industrial equipment. Check out their website for a gorgeous panorama of places where VIBCO products are getting big tough jobs done, like a 360 degree view atop the Manhattan skyscraper at the corner of 36th St and Fifth Avenue, or underground at the site of the new 2nd Avenue subway.
VIBCO has been manufacturing industrial and construction vibrators for material flow, efficiency and safety since 1962. They are the originators of the Silent Pneumatic Turbine Vibrator and hold more than 25 U.S. Patents for vibrator designs. VIBCO delivers 100% Made in the USA vibrators without long lead times and they offer a unique free trial program.
Small company -- big attitude
They’re not perfect, but the charisma and outrageous courage of 2nd generation president Karl Wadensten has carried the company without hesitation into a new approach to production. Privately-held companies have the freedom - and responsibility - to innovate for their customers as well as their employees, and president Wadensten is deep into culture change that is reflected in every conversation with everyone I met on their shop floor, from Linda in the office, to the guys in engineering, assembly, machining, test, and shipping.
A couple years ago VIBCO got hit with the lean bug, and they’ve diligently pursued the basics – produced a different schedule, moved materials, changed work processes, and shifted big responsibility out to the production people. Recently they’ve been working on visual systems (http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/21467694) and trying to decide how and where to apply this very powerful approach to their current and future state, while they work on production flow and bottlenecks. It’s a challenge that many companies would kill to have, because in the midst of rethinking their processes, they continue to serve a hot market filled with great customers who love service but cannot live with old-style lead times.
100% Made in The USA
Under Wadensten’s leadership VIBCO has won numerous awards, including Best Places to Work in Rhode Island by the Providence Business News and Best Companies, the Progressive Manufacturing PM100 Award; VIBCOvis a past winner of a Providence Business News Business Excellence Award. The company is also the subject of a Harvard Business School case, “VIBCO Vibrators”, released in October 2012, and the feature of two lean training videos, "Vibration Nation: Learning to See" and “Change(over) is Good! Cut Costs & Increase Flexibility Through SetUp Reduction” produced and marketed by GBMP (Greater Boston Manufacturing Partnership.
This past week CMO Linda Kleineberg reported in one more milestone. “We finally reached a key machine shop milestone on Monday...,” said Kleinberg. “and it was the result of a lot of collaboration, experimentation and hard work. Our horizontal lathes are the key starting point for our machining processes and throughput and sequencing has been a challenge for a long, long time. Monday - for the first time in years, the lathes had fewer machining hours waiting than the vertical centers. And it's not due to a drop in demand... the lathes have finally caught up and can supply their customer - the vertical centers - what they want, when they want it, vs. the verticals waiting for the lathes to supply them with parts.”
Back in the 90s small companies like VIBCO would have automatically outsourced product to China – it was an easy, too easy, decision. The tougher road is to keep production here in The Americas, to decide which critical areas of the enterprise most benefit from immediate attention. It’s a constant high-level juggling act that president Wadensten is familiar with. I believe that with changes in manufacturing work center equipment placement and flows, coupled with review of the front end – engineering and supply chain, and product structuring, possible additional aftermarket initiatives, and a fresh look at IT - VIBCO could push another 20%, 30% - 40% product, with increased profits, through its Rhode Island plant. It’s worth looking at.
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