Issue link: http://www.insightdigital.biz/i/389272
w w w . i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m O c t o b e r 2 0 14 • I NSIGH T | 17 THERE'S A LOT GOING ON IN manufacturing. It's good to have conversations with others to see the challenges of today. It's valuable to participate in Manufacturing First because you might learn something about how creatively somebody else is handling something that can apply to your own business. We started Nicolet Plastics in 1985 in a very humble garage. We make parts for many of Wisconsin's largest OEMs: Industrial components, testing equipment, safety, medical, recreational equipment, heating and cooking components, parts for the window industry. We started with four partners, three who were tool makers. ey made the molds that we use to make the plastic parts. ey had a real passion for building tools, so we built a lot of tools. It created great diversity for us because not all business segments were affected by the recession on an equal basis, and it helped us grow. But it also created some significant complexities. Although we saw a large decrease in sales — which resulted in a 22 percent cutback in our labor force — we were able to survive because we had that diversity. e way complexity is measured in the plastics industry is the number of presses times the number Bob MacIntosh on cutting 'white space' U P F R O N T FACE TIME P H O T O G R A P H B Y M I C H A E L L E S C H I S I N / I M A G E S T U D I O S , F O R I N S I G H T Bob MacIntosh, president and CEO of Nicolet Plastics, has embraced quick response manufacturing (QRM) at his custom injection molding company that employs 80 people in Oconto County. MacIntosh and Rajan Suri of UW-Madison will present the case for QRM at Manufacturing First Oct. 22 at the KI Center in Green Bay. He talked with Insight Editor Margaret LeBrun about how QRM has dramatically reduced the time it takes to create products. [continued ] »