Issue link: http://www.insightdigital.biz/i/180153
in focus { s m a l l b u s i n e s s } By S haron Ve rbete n Bringing ideas to life photographs by Sharon Verbe ten Wisconsin Plastics embraces innovation, expansions WPI President Jim Christensen shows one of the injection molding machines at the company's Ashwaubenon plant. He holds an item WPI is making for the medical industry. P lastics. That word may have gained notoriety when it was reverently uttered in the 1967 film "The Graduate." But for Wisconsin Plastics Inc. (WPI), the word – and the entire plastics industry – holds just such reverence. That niche focus, coupled with an intense "engineering culture," has made the Ashwaubenon firm a leader in the industry, measuring incremental revenue growth. And, according to WPI President Jim Christensen, the way to do that is to bring customers' product ideas to life using innovative new technologies. Being able to 48 | Insight • O c t o b e r 2 013 determine just what that idea is, he says, is through careful listening and connecting with potential clients. "It's not unusual for businesses to come to us with an idea on a napkin and ask if we can help them make it happen," says Christensen, a secondgeneration executive at the company. His father, James Christensen, started the company in 1972 as a steel fabricating company. Today, the family-owned company has 260 employees in five divisions, offering services in prototyping, injection molding, electronic assembly and custom fabrication. Other services include labeling, metal stamping and WPI President Jim Christensen, right, looks on as Vice President of Operations Bruce Wendt tracks productivity at the plant. package design. WPI produces parts and products in the medical, consumer products, furniture and OEM industries, among others. Christensen knows that being in business for 40 years means doing more than just making a pretty and functional end product. "It's all about relationships … not being a vendor but an extension of the business," he says. "As much as (prospective clients) are interviewing us, we're interviewing them. We're looking for customers that have a steady stream of product (to be made). "We've just had really good partners to work with." One such partner is Sennco Solutions of Plainfield, Ill., which manufactures retail security systems. Jim Groth, Sennco's vice president of operations, was not only happy in w w w. i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m