“Geoff Forester photograph, courtesy of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund”.

Go Big or Go Home. This was the title of an article by machine tool builder Mori Seiki about one of their customer’s decisions to buy some large pieces of equipment to give them a competitive advantage. The concept relates to much more than machine tool size.

In manufacturing, continuous improvement is a mantra of the Lean Manufacturing crowd. Small, steady steps in improving your day to day activities can lead to increased productivity, elimination of waste, and improved profitability. However, making a decision to employ these concepts in your company is not a small step. It is a big decision. It is a major cultural  transformation and a multi-year, if not a permanent commitment to a new operating philosophy. Going Lean is going big. The same could be said about committing to an ISO 9001 quality system. Or employing Theory of Constraints. Or adopting Quick Response Manufacturing.

Going big also relates to capital investments, new facilities, acquisitions, developing new products, or entering new markets. Although business people are  characterized as conservative by nature, making big decisions often requires bold risk taking and an audaciousness not present in the ranks of most corporate managers. Business dynasties aren’t created by just crunching numbers and analyzing data.  Mixing number crunching with guts and vision is what it takes to  make things happen. To paraphrase New Hampshire native son, newspaper editor Horace Greeley, “Go big, young man, go big”.

“Geoff Forester photograph, courtesy of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund”.

Graphicast just closed the books on the incredible month of November 2011. Our shipments were among the five best months in the last 10 years, and our bookings exceeded our previous best month by over 35%! Our backlog is at its highest level in five years and we’re running 7 days per week. We’re planning a plant expansion, and we can’t get equipment in fast enough as far as we’re concerned.

We’re hearing similar stories from other companies in the state. Although unemployment remains high and the overall economy is slowing growing, there is a major expansion underway in some parallel economy that’s not showing up in the normal data. One explanation is that the manufacturing economy is driven by global economics, not national economics. As there are parts of the world nicely expanding, those of us in manufacturing are expanding as well. I wonder what things would be like if the US economy really took off?

“Geoff Forester photograph, courtesy of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund”.

We have the Tea Partiers occupying Congress (or at least a part of it) to protest intrusive government. We also have the 99 Percenters occupying Wall Street to protest an intrusive banking and financial services industry.  Although some of us in manufacturing may sympathize with these other protest movements, if we formed a coalition unique to small manufacturing, what would we protest? Government regulations? Government gridlock? Ineffective public education? Predatory banking? Labor unions? Red tape at all levels of government? Globalization? Is there one issue we could all rally around that would help us, or are we too regionalized and diverse to have a common gripe? I certainly don’t have the answer, but you may. Let’s hear from you.

Please stop by and say hello.  We would enjoy seeing you to discuss our process or any project requirements you have.

This is our last show of 2011 and is right in our backyard, giving us the opportunity to get the real pulse of what is happening in New England.

“Geoff Forester photograph, courtesy of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund”.

We just successfully completed our Stage 2 ISO 9001:2008 certification audit . Our auditor’s findings will next go through a technical review by other auditors, and we should receive our registration information within four to six weeks. We managed to complete the entire process in just under a year, which is a credit to Dave Gregory, our quality manager, and the entire Graphicast team. Our employees embraced the process and the concepts of a formalized quality system from the start. Now that we’ve reached this point, the challenge of maintaining and improving the system remains in front of us. We’re looking forward to this next phase of the ISO 9001 journey.

 It could be another ride on the economic recovery roller coaster, but it was refreshing to meet a number of visitors to our booth who are working on new part designs with a casting process in mind. Two of the visitors stated that their companies have made a decision to move manufacturing back to the USA from China.  The rising cost to manufacture there, coupled with the high scrap rate and supply chain management costs, triggered the move. 

Many of the small business exhibitors expressed a continuing lack of confidence in a sustained economic recovery. Even with this caution, the consensus was that things are clearly better.  The activity at this trade show certainly supports this.

“Geoff Forester photograph, courtesy of the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund”.

While Graphicast has always maintained a reputation for quality products, we did not have a lot of market pressure to become an ISO-9001 registered supplier. Our customers were happy with our quality system and we regularly passed quality audits. That is, until the recession hit us square in the face. We found very quickly that in response to the recession, many companies were actively strengthening their supply chains. Besides ensuring that their suppliers were financially viable, they were also trying to eliminate internal costs associated with working with those suppliers. One way to reduce costs was to reduce vendor audits and any vendor uncertainty. This put the pressure on us to be able to succeed in this environment. So began our ISO 9001-2008 registration and certification journey.

With a good production quality system in place. our efforts were aimed at the documentation and control aspects of the ISO quality system. We’ve made a lot of progress in the past nine months and just completed our certification stage 1 audit. Based on the results of that audit, we have our registration audit scheduled for the end of July.  If all goes well, we will have completed the first part of the ISO journey, getting our ISO 9001-2008 certification. Then the challenge of maintaining and improving the system begins. We’re looking forward to it!