Advanced manufacturing: South Bend’s new breed of industry

The finest in American manufacturing thrives in South Bend.

Specifically, these firms specialize in “advanced manufacturing,” which means they are able to innovate their own techniques in lean manufacturing, information technology, work-flow solutions and advanced communications, and they often possess highly specialized in-house engineering and testing capabilities.

Following is a look at some of South Bend’s most successful advanced manufacturing companies.

Plastic Solutions Inc.

In a break room at Plastic Solutions Inc., workers studiously watch a big-screen TV that plays video footage of an auto-assembly plant in Mexico.

“Our people come in here on break and point out how our wiring harnesses are handled in the plant’s assembly process,” CEO Bob Tennyson says. “This helps our customer in Mexico reduce part failures and problems.”

Plastic Solutions control panel

Pointing at the TV screen, he says, “See how they are stuffing the parts into that small bin? One of our people pointed that out as a reason for parts failure.”

Thanks to feedback and counsel from Plastic Solutions, the practice of stuffing bins has now been modified on the Mexican plant’s assembly line, resulting in reduced parts failure.

This careful attention to detail and dedication to a team culture is all part of the formula for success at Plastic Solutions, which manufactures injection-molded prototype and component parts for automotive, plumbing, RV, electrical consumer, bicycle accessory and other markets.

Founded in 1991, Plastic Solutions is tucked away in an AM General assembly works on Chippewa Avenue in South Bend.

“Four of us started the company with a couple of premises,” Tennyson says. “We all had been involved in large injection-molding companies. The first premise was that we would not take any business from the companies we were leaving — so we started fresh. The second was we only wanted to work with people we really wanted to work with — maybe not the best in the field — but the type of people we want to be involved with.”

The company grew fast, and was nominated for the INC. Magazine and Ernst & Whinney Entrepreneur of the Year award in 1995. In 1997, Plastic Solutions received the Growth 100 Award from the Indiana University School of Business.

“It’s all about the right people, the right attitudes, and taking care of customers,” Tennyson says. “And, it’s more about steady, controlled growth today. That’s the way we want to do it.”

After a humble beginning with just four employees, Plastic Solutions now has 111. And as Tennyson points out, his workforce is stable.

“Our average employee has been with us for eight years,” Tennyson says. “We have very little turnover, and we also have a long probationary period so we get a good look at people, and they get a good look at us.”

One thing is for sure: Change is constant at Plastic Solutions.

“In 2004, we decided to reinvent ourselves,” Tennyson says. “The core of our business focus is now on the Japanese transplants, so our largest customers are Subaru, Honda, Toyota, Nissan and Mitsubishi. We did this because these companies are very demanding. We think that is good because it makes us better. But they are also very loyal. So our relationships with these customers are very long-term.”

Plastics Solutions is one of a select few U.S. companies who supply parts to the Lexus and Acura plants in Japan.

It incorporates the most advanced process-optimization and statistical techniques into every phase of manufacturing. This includes constantly videotaping production cells in-house to sort out mistakes and find new efficiencies.

“From a technology and quality standpoint, we have procedures that just don’t exist in other manufacturers,” Tennyson says. “These are homegrown systems we’ve developed over time. Our customers will not put up with one bad part. We must have the systems to produce zero bad parts to remain competitive.”

Value Tool & Engineering Inc.

When you walk the floor at Value Tool & Engineering Inc., it becomes quickly apparent that a full range of services is key to the company’s success.

From manufacturing modules with high-volume parts production for military vehicles, to R&D cells producing one-off prototype parts, to highly specialized work for the aerospace industry, the success of this small (yet mighty) shop is in its diversification.

Founded in January 1998, Value Tool & Engineering opened with just two employees. Recently, the company just hired its 51st employee.

“Since our inception, we have grown 30 percent per year,” says Steve Hartz, founder and president of the firm. “In the next five years, we expect at least 20 percent growth per year.”

Hartz says that about 75 percent of his business consists of aerospace work for companies like Honeywell, Delphi and Woodward. Another significant portion of his business is dedicated to commercial and military equipment. The company also provides research and development for medical-equipment companies.

“We realized a long time ago that in a global marketplace with continuous change, you just cannot be a machine shop anymore,” Hartz says. “Smaller machine shops, mold shops and tool-and-die shops have gone out of business over the last 10 years. The way we got around that was to expand our horizons to become a full-service company.”

The company’s main business segments are Value Tool, providing research and development in tooling and prototype work, and Value Production, for short- and high-volume run production machining. These segments benefit from the recent addition of in-house engineering, design, electronic control development, repair and calibration, testing and sub-assembly — all added in just the past five years.

“Most of our global customers are looking at reductions in their in-house workforces, and also reductions in their supplier bases, so we fit well into this business model by offering more services at a higher value,” Hartz says. “Five years ago, we were probably 98 percent machine shop and 2 percent service. Today, we are 70 percent machining and 30 percent service.”

He sees the day soon when there will be a 50-50 ratio of service to production. One of Value Tool & Engineering’s main strengths is that it helps clients control the production process.

“Instead of using a prototype firm, a qualification firm and production-and-testing firms, we provide all the processes, from conception to production, with more control and an improved outcome at a lower cost,” he says.

But where Value Tool & Engineering really shines is its use of information-flow technology, involving networks and computers to control the production process. His firm has no quality control inspectors or plant managers. Quality control is built right into the system.

“Everything we do is online — it’s our bloodline,” Hartz says. “We can connect to the network and tell you the productivity of each machine. Our quoting goes to the customer online, invoicing, purchase orders — everything. Therefore we control what we do during the process instead of using an inspection-based system with inspectors qualifying the parts after the fact.

“As a result of using real-time process-based monitoring, our scrap rates have significantly dropped, and our rejects are almost to zero.”

With quality results like that, it’s no wonder that Value Tool & Engineering has such a successful track record.

Mack Tool & Engineering

Steve Hartz, president of Value Tool & Engineering Inc.

Mack Tool & Engineering provides world-class manufacturing for medical instruments, orthopedic implants, aerospace components and any part that involves precision machining. It has the ability to work with a variety of raw materials, including aluminum, stainless steel, titanium, beryllium copper, plastics, and many others from both bar and round stock. But the firm’s real element of success is its people.

For an in-depth look at Mack Tool & Engineering, read this company profile in this issue of South Bend ON.

General Sheet Metal Works

General Sheet Metal Works is a leading provider of manufacturing solutions to original equipment manufacturers worldwide. Customers include leading players in the solar power, agricultural equipment, lawn and garden and specialty vehicle industries. The company was founded in 1922 and has continually evolved to meet a growing need for rapid response time and seamless supply-chain integration.

Today, General Sheet Metal is a “prototype-through-production” solution provider for its customers, with in-house engineering, flatbed and tube lasers, precision press brakes (a sophisticated tooling technology), coil-fed stamping and robotic and manual welding as the bread and butter of the firm’s success. In addition to its South Bend location, General Sheet Metal Works also offers a full complement of production services at its facility in Tomah, Wis.

Value Tool & Engineering's state-of-the-art machining equipment is networked.

The company’s technology includes a fully automated tube laser that will take tubes of metal up to six inches in diameter and up to 21 feet long, load them, and machine them into components with remarkable precision, down to a few thousandths of an inch.

This high-tech, automated process is obviously light years ahead of the old tube machining methods, involving various processes of punching, drilling and sawing – often on different production lines.

Information technology is paramount to staying ahead of the curve, says John Axelberg, president of General Sheet Metal Works.

“We are embarking on a project to automatically schedule and program all of our lasers,” Axelberg says. “Right now we have a programmer who runs part files through a piece of nesting software that optimizes the material yield. Then he pushes groups of jobs, or nests, out to the various machines six to twelve hours before they are scheduled to run. Unfortunately, because our customers’ needs are so dynamic, many of the nests end up being re-programmed to catch drop-in demand.”

To solve this problem, the company will rely upon a custom-built software solution which enables their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, an integrated computer-based system used to manage internal and external resources, to communicate directly with the nesting software. All the laser programs will be generated at the last possible minute, with no human intervention required.

“The machines will then report the production of parts back to the ERP system,” Axelberg says. “So operators will no longer have to worry about entering production quantities. This eliminates a lot of clerical and scheduling functions. Only a handful of shops across the country are doing this. When it’s done it will be incredible!”

Axelberg is proud of South Bend’s growing advanced manufacturing sector.

“We are continually advancing our capabilities, the skills of our workforce and our operational effectiveness,” he says. “Advanced manufacturing, in the minds of many people locally, may one day come out of the nanotechnology research at Notre Dame. But for us, we are part of an old-line industry that is continually reaching forward, trying new processes and experimenting to find better solutions for our customers.”

What are the latest advanced manufacturing trends in South Bend?

“The transformation that I have seen is the trend toward more flexible manufacturing,” Axelberg says. “CNC [computer numeric controlled] lasers and programmable, precision press brakes are the biggest areas of growth for us. We still see growth in the traditional stamping area, but the big change is the requirement and demand for speed from our customers, and the ability to prototype new products very quickly. That’s where flexibility comes in.”

Like his counterparts at Mack Tool and Engineering, Plastic Solutions and Value Tool and Engineering, Axelberg has a deep passion for the field of advanced manufacturing.

“Advanced manufacturing allows people to do what people do best, which is to think creatively,” he says. “We are trying to take away much of the routine, mind-numbing, repetitive stuff involved in running a manufacturing operation. Advanced manufacturing allows our people the freedom to create, innovate and solve problems.”