Insight on Business

June 2018

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w w w . i n s i g h t o n b u s i n e s s . c o m J u n e 2 0 1 8 • I NSIGH T | 27 J u n e 2 0 1 8 • I NSIGH T | 27 EDUCATING CUSTOMERS hile it's said you can't outdo yourself, Nicolet Plastics certainly has given it a try with its companion customer education program, affectionately known as Nicolet Plastics University. Designed for client buyers and engineers, the program brings those folks to Nicolet's production facility for an up-close primer on plastic injection molding, from conceptualization to mold design to materials and finally, the manufacturing process itself. By providing knowledge and transparency of the process, Nicolet has created informed customers. While those customers could take that knowledge to order with another vendor, they have instead become loyal and use that knowledge and relationship to get their components produced faster and with greater quality. "Our job is to educate them on everything from the tooling to the materials to our process. It's been really well-received," says Doug Baril, vice president of engineering services for Nicolet. "We bring them right into the plant. In the end, it's that human interaction and understanding that is important. We have a really high close rate with folks once we get them in." About 300 engineers, buyers and others from more than 30 companies have experienced NPU, including some who have taken it a second time as a refresher course to keep their skills and knowledge up-to-date. e employee training programs and NPU are perhaps the best-known pieces of a broad portfolio of programs and practices Nicolet uses to maintain quality and to continually improve its performance. Some of the others are quite simple, but no less effective. e storyboard, for example. While the concept might be more readily understood in terms of illustrating a commercial, movie or ad campaign, Nicolet uses a storyboard to tell the story of every part it makes for a client. e boards show what the part should look like at each step of the process and include problem areas to watch for. With one quick glance, operators on the floor can immediately judge if there are problems with a run and take corrective action. It's also a crucial step in Nicolet's management of the shop floor. With all its presses largely automated, Nicolet can run a smaller crew of cross-trained and empowered employees to keep its lines running at maximum capacity. e company has harnessed big data and the internet of things to create digital dashboards showing each press' status, where it's at in the run and if any problems are developing. Operators can manage multiple lines, and the maintenance team can intervene in a timely fashion. Of course, for each challenge resolved, a new one presents itself. For Nicolet, the new challenge is how to accommodate increased demand and growth. Ogorek and his team have been wrestling with that issue and have engaged an outside consultant to help them examine issues such as building a new facility or expanding the existing building and what that could mean for production and the workforce. A decision is coming soon, Ogorek says. "We are just out of room," he says. "It's a good problem to have, I know, but we just want to make sure we do it right, so we can keep our momentum going." A committed practitioner of lean manufacturing processes, Nicolet Plastics builds waste reduction into its practices. What little scrap remains after a project is complete is then ground up and recycled for future projects.

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