Inside Rubber Issue 4 2022

True Leaders Focus on Igniting the Fire

from Within

It never ceases to amaze me what the power of the human will can accomplish. Being a long-time Indianapolis Colts fan, I have watched my fair share of “nailbiting” games. More times than not there is a large deficit at halftime, making many home fans a bit squeamish, but I feel there’s always hope. Then, typically, the Colts rally sometime in the second half reinforcing my optimism as they overcome the deficit. These games demonstrate the power of the will to win. It shows the power of a team of professionals striving for one objective, even when the odds were against them.

I tell this story because of its strong relevance to ARPM’s Annual Benchmarking and Best Practices Conference, recently held in Indianapolis. At the 17th consecutive event, over 550 industry executives came together to improve, create better business strategies and greater their chances of winning. The human will to advance knowledge, and discover innovative methods to further develop efficiencies was present at this conference like never before!

The games of life and business are much like football games – you win some, and you lose some. However, for extremely successful business professionals (those who win more than they lose), one important characteristic is extremely obvious.

Successful people tend to invest in themselves and the people that surround them. Ray Griffin, an inspiring minister, once said, “You can either light a fire underneath people, or you can light a fire within them!” For those executives attending the conference with their teams, the strategy was clear.

Since the benchmarking conference, the ARPM office has received dozens of emails and phone calls from attendees describing how the event positively impacted them. In fact, many attendees have already implemented substantial changes to improve how they lead, manage and grow their competitive advantages in the marketplace. To hold one another accountable for taking positive actions, a group of ARPM members has started an email exchange updating each other on the actions they have taken to improve their own companies.

What readers must understand is that owners, presidents and general managers have predominately not driven these actions, but by staff level professionals who have been ignited from within to make a substantial difference in the companies that employ them. The power of the human will; truly makes anything possible!

If you have taken the time to read my short message, I challenge you to examine your leadership responsibilities and test yourself on your management method. Are you lighting the fire from within or just putting more wood to burn under the feet of your employees? u

Vice President, Editorial: Dianna Brodine

Editor: Lindsey Munson

Vice President, Design: Becky Arensdorf Graphic Designer: Hailey Mann

Published by:

ARPM Board

Kirk Bowman, The Timken Company

Charlie Braun, Custom Rubber Corp.

Russ Burgert, Maplan Rubber Machinery

Joe Colletti, Marsh Bellofram

Randy Dobbs, Sperry & Rice

Doug Gilg, Continental ContiTech

Diya Garware Ibanez, Fulflex, Inc.

Dave Jentzsch, Blair Rubber

Seth Johnson, Zochem LLC

Donovan Lonsway, BRP

Jon Meigan, Lake Erie Rubber & Manufacturing

Mike Rainey, HBD Industries Inc.

Mike Recchio, Zeon Chemicals L.P.

Brandon Robards, Ace Extrusion

Mike Smith, Basic Rubber and Plastics

Joe Walker, Freudenberg-NOK Sealing Technologies

2150 SW Westport Dr., Suite 101 Topeka, KS 66614

Phone: 785.271.5801

ARPM Team

Executive Director

Troy Nix – tnix@arpminc.org

Managing Director

Letha Keslar – lkeslar@arpminc.org

Marketing Director

Marcella Kates – mkates@arpminc.org

Analytics Tony Robinson – trobinson@arpminc.org

Director of Publications

Susan Denzio – sdenzio@arpminc.org

Membership & Events Director

Kaitlyn Krol – kkrol@arpminc.org

Letha Keslar ARPM

ERP System Implementation: Real-World Stories

By Liz Stevens, writer, Inside Rubber

Enterprise resource planning systems help manufacturers manage their entire operations, offering a broad suite of business management modules that are integrated, and that feature a cohesive look and consistent functionality. Typical ERP systems include modules for sales, procurement, production, distribution, accounting, human resources, corporate performance and customer services.

Inside Rubber talked with three companies about their ERP system implementations, including two companies that have completed their projects and one company that is poised to implement a new ERP package. The companies included ARPM member Gregg Reinmann, plant manager at Blair Rubber Company in Seville, Ohio; ARPM member Stephanie Hulme, plant manager at Bruckman Rubber Company in Hastings, Nebraska; and Bruce Weaver, manager at Columbia Rubber Mills in Clackamas, Oregon. Blair Rubber manufactures rubber lining systems for storage and transport vessels, and the company is slated to begin the switchover to a new ERP system. Bruckman Rubber is a manufacturer of rubber compounds and parts and completed its first ERP system implementation a year ago. Columbia

Rubber specializes in producing rubber rollers, and recently completed the transition from one established ERP system to another.

Pick a Winner

Choosing the right ERP system is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. Each rubber manufacturing plant has its own operational needs and unique characteristics. Every company exists at a particular level of digital maturity and need-toautomate. And all ERP system vendors offer a slew of complete packages, modular packages and add-on options. So there is no slam dunk; no one can say just pick this vendor and easy success is guaranteed. The three manufacturers were at different stages with their business operations technologies and cited different criteria for choosing their ERP systems.

Stephanie Hulme stated that Bruckman Rubber took the ERP plunge for the first time and that the company considered several packages, including NetSuite and JobBOSS, before deciding upon Global Shop Solutions. “We chose Global Shop Solutions for a lot of different reasons,” said Hulme, “But the biggest factor was that their system was a really

good budget maximizer. We got a lot of different features for the right amount of money. When it comes to ERP systems, you can spend a fortune and get everything you could ever dream of, more than you could even use. We didn’t want to fall into that trap, and that is why Global Shop Solutions really fit for us.” The ERP system is a modular one, but it is delivered with all modules built-in; users can choose to enable additional modules at their discretion.

Bruce Weaver’s recent ERP system implementation at Columbia Rubber was a switch from Infor’s VISUAL system to ECi Software Solutions’ JobBOSS. Weaver made the move away from VISUAL for a couple of reasons and chose JobBOSS based on another criterion. He was unhappy with the upgrade experience and the support he had received from Infor for its VISUAL ERP, which is based on Microsoft’s SQLServer Database. “We could not get good support for VISUAL,” said Weaver. “With that system, we would never do an upgrade because when you do an upgrade, you have massive problems. So we just never upgraded.” Columbia Rubber chose JobBOSS, said Weaver, for its ease of use. “We looked at other ERP systems, including the newer VISUAL,” he said. “JobBOSS just seemed to be the most intuitive; if you thought it could do it, it would do it.”

At Blair Rubber, the impetus to move to a new ERP system came from the corporate owners. “The corporation,” said Gregg Reinmann, “owns quite a few businesses. Among its 20 manufacturing sites, there are many different accounting or business systems.” That disparity of data sources makes it a heavy lift to pull all of the operational data together to judge plant performance and to see an overall corporate picture. “At our plant,” said Reinmann, “we cannot see ‘live’ financial results to fully understand how we are doing. With today’s circumstances and our market, it is really important to be able to have that feedback.” The corporation chose to consolidate operations by moving all plants to Oracle’s JD Edwards ERP system. Reinmann’s plant will be moving away from a combination of an SDI database and ECi Software Solutions’ Macola ERP system. Reinmann has been through ERP implementations in the past and expects the JD Edwards system to be functionally equivalent to Blair Rubber’s current systems.

Make the Move

The move from one computerized system to another usually includes migrating working and historical data from the old system to the new one. In some cases, plants turn to the software vendor to handle the entire data migration project; in other cases, the plants will be responsible for surveying their old systems, extracting the data to be moved to the new system and getting that old data into the proper format for the new software package.

In Blair Rubber’s migration of Oracle and Macola data to an Oracle JD Edwards ERP system, the software vendor will have responsibility. “I don’t anticipate any problems with that,” said Reinmann. “We do have some extra complexity at our site. Our operation includes tracking lot control and shelf life for chemicals. Those two extra layers of management in the database are very important for our business. We are making sure that JD Edwards has the module complexity to handle our requirements.”

At Bruckman Rubber, Hulme and her colleagues handled the data extraction, consolidation and reformatting to move data from multiple sources to the new Global Shop Solutions system. “We did have a lot of database stuff,” said Hulme, “like our work instructions and our standard rates. The biggest part of the implementation was probably preparing that data and getting it into the right format and in tables to migrate it.” Hulme, however, got substantial support from her software vendor. “They had good support for that, to get the data migrated. We did a lot of testing. It was a matter of extract and convert the data, send it to the new ERP system, see what it looks like, identify what didn’t work, modify the converted data, remigrate and retest.” Hulme gives Global Shop Solutions big praise for their support. “Once we submitted a PO to get our ERP system purchase going, we got a whole implementation team to help get us through the process.”

For Columbia Rubber, the data migration from VISUAL to JobBOSS went well. “It wasn’t 100% flawless,” said Weaver. “We had to make some tweaks here and there, but we could put the data into in a spreadsheet and tweak it. And then, for the most part, the data was all there in the new system.”

Get Comfortable

Once a company makes the switch and the migration to a new ERP system, there is a period of getting to know the new system, finding its limitations and discovering its capabilities.

There were a few bumps in the road for Weaver as he and Columbia Rubber settled in with JobBOSS. “There was a little bit of a glitch in the accounting side,” said Weaver. “There were times when we said where did you get that number? That’s not what was in the old system.” Weaver also found some new report-oriented features that were helpful, but which were inconsistent. “When you run a report, you can click on an order number and automatically be shown order information. But it doesn’t happen on all of the reports, so it’s a little frustrating until you learn which reports have that feature and which ones don’t.”

For Bruckman Rubber, getting comfortable with their new Global Shop Solutions system yielded an unexpected benefit

that, at first, seemed mysterious and disconcerting. “We knew the reason we wanted an ERP system,” said Hulme, “We wanted to have a single source of data rather than multiple databases.” Consolidating those sources of data, however, offered different operational realities than Hulme and her crew had observed before the transition.

“For instance,” described Hulme, “last month the quality report came out from the Global Shop and it seemed higher than normal. We are pretty steady with a 3% reject rate across the board, but last month it was 5%. That was a big jump, and it seems to have been steadily increasing. Our assumption was that something was going on in production, that we are creating more scrap. But when we looked at the current data compared to what was available to us a year ago, the picture was different.” After some head-scratching, Hulme realized that the company’s prior reports were not accounting for all of the important factors. “With the new system,” she said, “things that we weren’t even tracking before are now included in the metric. We had to shift our thinking. Watching the reject rate climb felt uncomfortable but, really, we were finally seeing the whole picture. And now we know what to tackle to address the problem.”

For Reinmann, part of getting comfortable with a new ERP system will mean getting users knowledgeable about the data it contains and comfortable with extracting good data for decision-making. Reinmann compared approaching a new ERP system to opening up a new book. “When you open a book to page one, you can’t know what is in, for instance, chapter four. Unless someone tells you about the kinds of things you’ll find later in the book, you are left with only the impression you got from page one.”

“If someone is starting from zero with a team that is going to use this ERP system,” said Reinmann, “you have to show them how to get the information, how to display the information, and how to convert it into a valuable tool for decision making. You can throw all kinds of numbers and information inside of a database; it doesn’t help you do anything unless the user knows how to use that data.”

Reinmann reflected on a past scenario at his company with their Macola ERP system. “We had Macola for many years and very few people used the information that was there,” he said. “When we decided to go all in with lot control, barcoding, location and shelf life controls, some people jumped in and utilized the Macola tools that helped extract information; others quickly gave up on the project because they found it frustrating. They didn’t know what was on page 20 in chapter four of our ‘ERP book’; nobody had shown them that information.”

Reinmann described this as his company losing out on the capacity of its ERP. A software implementer had come in and installed the system, gave the users a .pdf with basic instructions, and then walked away. “That leaves the new users on page one,” said Reinmann, “without being told that there is a whole book here that’s full of valuable stuff.” According to Reinmann, it’s important to have software vendors provide enough training to introduce the new system’s capabilities and it’s equally important for new users to dive in and explore those new capabilities.

Branch Out

With some ERP systems, the vendor’s entire suite of business modules is available from the start. Other ERP systems are configured so that users pay for and add on new modules when ready to expand their use. At Columbia Rubber, Weaver may one day add a quality module to his JobBOSS system. A planning module is also available, but Weaver does not expect to add that to the system.

At Bruckman Rubber, Hulme is looking forward to making use of more of the company’s Global Shop Solutions ERP system. “We use the accounting and the manufacturing modules,” she said, “but we don’t really lean too much into the quality modules. I am excited to start focusing on that now that we have been using the system for a year.” Hulme explained that the team at Bruckman had learned enough about the system to get by for this first year, but now that people are comfortable with getting their basic work done, the plan is to focus on training and learning more about the different available features. “For instance,” said Hulme, “there is a scheduling piece but we haven’t really allowed the ERP to do much of the automated scheduling that it can do. My goal as plant manager is to get that going here in the

“CHOOSING THE RIGHT ERP SYSTEM IS NOT A ONESIZE-FITS-ALL PROPOSITION. EACH RUBBER MANUFACTURING PLANT HAS ITS OWN OPERATIONAL NEEDS AND UNIQUE CHARACTERISTICS.”

next year. I want to really start looking at how the supply and demand side of production affects our rates and let the ERP system manage more of that.”

Remember This

As for parting advice, Gregg Reinmann reiterated the importance of thoroughly understanding the data that is the foundation populating any company’s ERP investment, and the importance of doing more than scratching the surface of what an ERP system can do. “If you don’t open that book, then you’ll never know what’s on page two,” said Reinmann. “That would be my advice and what I would caution folks. You need to have a good overview of the system given to you. And I think the word explore as a verb is really important. You simply have got to go, get in there, and do it.”

In Hulme’s experience, ERP implementation success rests on two main pillars: Excellent vendor support and strong ERP buy-in from the plant. “The support was great at Global Shop Solutions; I cannot stress that enough,” said Hulme. Bruckman Rubber does not have an IT department and Hulme knew that the company would need a lot of support from an ERP vendor. And Global Shop Solutions delivered the goods. “We were assigned a team lead,” said Hulme, “and we also had

an operations consultant and a financial consultant.” To start, either the operations consultant or the financial consultant would visit Bruckman Rubber every couple of weeks, to walk through the migration-implementation process, or to help with general ledger and accounting setup in the new system. “At go live, we had the whole team here from Global Shop Solutions helping us.”

As for plant buy-in for an ERP system implementation, said Hulme, “I think our biggest struggle probably is still the buyin from Bruckman. We had a lot of key players who knew this was the right choice, that this is what we needed to do. But we had some employees – some operator level, some management level – who just weren’t completely bought into it, and I cannot stress enough how important it is to have buyin from all levels of the organization.”

Weaver offered some parting wisdom from Columbia Rubber. “Just take your time,” he said. “Don’t be in a hurry. If you can get a sample program, do it and see how it runs. Put some of your data in it so you know it all runs. But just don’t be in a hurry because you will regret it. If you think it is going to take you three months, take nine months instead.” u

Building Resilience Together at the Benchmarking & Best Practices Conference in Indianapolis!

By Lindsey Munson, editor, Inside Rubber

With over 550 rubber and plastics industry professionals in a room, the atmosphere was charged with electricity as processors and suppliers met with the same goals in mind – connect and network with the industry’s best, grow and be inspired by leading speakers and to break out of comfort zones to maximize the conference’s full potential.

From keynote speakers to BC LAB breakouts, attendees filled their toolboxes with valuable information and key takeaways to create a more impactful tomorrow in their businesses and the industry. With labor shortages at an all-

time high, industry peers sought out experts on the topics of recruitment and retention, company culture and the future of automation.

No matter the successes or failures, whether at the top of the ladder or preparing to take the first step, one can, in Troy Nix’s words, “Start running.” By leaning into each other, attendees found themselves developing new relationships and strengthening old ones, learning more about the industry and reaching beyond their everyday To Do list – and through those actions is when the game changes and a mind shift occurs. Together, the attendees were Building Resilience.

Photos courtesy of Cliff Ritchey, cliffritcheyart.com

TROY NIX

ARPM executive director

Throw One More Punch!

Taking the stage, Nix immediately lit the fuse at the start of the event with one word – resiliency. “I have a tendency to look at highly successful people as being highly resilient,” he said. “But resiliency is actually a skillset. You can improve your resiliency through self-awareness – knowing that others are watching and emulating behavior can positively impact your level of resiliency.” When resilience kicks in, the ability to adjust to any given situation allows leaders to gain knowledge and make positive decisions that then create an impact.

Drawing a comparison between business leaders and boxers, Nix asked, “Which fighter are you?” The scenario is the same whether it’s happening on a facility’s shop floor or in a boxing ring, he said. Punches are being thrown every day, “and the outcome depends on what leader you choose to be.” Are you a leader who backs into a corner and stops throwing punches or one who continuously throws hooks and punches with every ounce of energy?

Nix outlined research on resiliency that says leaders can put tools in their toolbox to better handle life’s curveballs. This begins with realizing that – even in the midst of failure – you actually are succeeding when you refuse to accept failure as the end. “It’s what you do ‘next’ that makes the difference,” he said. “And sometimes, the ‘next’ may be what you choose to STOP doing.”

As leaders, it is important, now more than ever, to understand this concept and apply it in the heat of battle. Dig deep, throw the left hook and punch with resilience.

PATRICK NELSON Loyalty Point Leadership

Ignite Your Workforce

Nelson moved the attendees to the edge of their seats with a question: “Why are issues like engagement, effort and devotion – things the military doesn’t struggle with – such a challenge in the civilian sector?” He explained that despite the differences in training, it comes down to the actions and behaviors of the individual leader and that leader’s ability to feel truly connected and passionately serve others.

Nelson outlined three key points:

1. Embrace a Growth Mindset – Be seen as a coach and help others seek the heat. Where can they step outside of their comfort zones? They might meet a little failure, but they’re going to learn a lot.

2. Build Authentic Relationships – A leader should get to know their team members and their professional goals. Help them achieve those goals by being their biggest fan.

3. Develop a Forward-Looking Accountability Culture –It’s not about pointing the finger; it’s about pointing the thumb (back at oneself). Be intentional and show the team what accountability looks like.

LAURIE HARBOUR Harbour Results, Inc.

Managing the Chaos: State of the Plastics Industry

The industry has been in chaos – supply chain shortages, COVID-19, weather, labor shortages, Industry 4.0, recession, inflation… Picking up on the conference theme, Harbour asked the audience, “How do you drive resiliency? Flexibility is key.”

Flexibility is essential for companies as they navigate the next several months and into 2023. Harbour shared strategic areas leaders should focus on to give a flexible advantage in an already volatile environment of economic instability and recession.

1. Be opportunistic in understanding and taking advantage of the chaos.

2. Understand the marketplace, and revisit strategic plans as necessary

3. Be more predictive and gain insight into how customers are performing.

4. Drive flexibility throughout the organization.

PAUL KRISMER

Happiness Means Business

Topping the Great Resignation: Retaining and Recruiting Talent

Success and happiness are correlated; if you find success, you’ll find happiness. “The formula is actually quite opposite of what many expect – it’s happy first, then success,” Krismer said. Fundamental to workplace culture, employers are not responsible for “making” an employee happy, but rather for creating a culture of positivity, belonging, autonomy, appreciation and meaning.

Krismer elaborated on the cultural and emotional needs connecting the employee to the employer, showing the connection between forming the value-added emotional bond and the company’s retention rate. Being appreciated by management and being told, “Job well done,” is of emotional value for employees. A coaching conversation rather than a direct ‘how to do the job’ speech allows employees to be the experts in their roles, giving them self-gratification. Lastly, creating a bridge of meaning between the organization and employee offers a career, rather than just a job.

To top the great resignation, Krismer kept it simple: As leaders, we have the power to shift or alter the cultural balance and it starts with positive energizers, creating impactful events within a company. By doing this small but mighty task every day, resilience is built throughout the organization.

JASON HEWLETT Leadership expert and author

The Promise

Hewlett opened his speech belting songs from Elton John, Journey and REO Speedwagon. As music filled the room, attendees were mesmerized by his ability to mimic the icons. These are his gifts – his “signature moves” – the thing that makes Hewlett uniquely him. Denying these gifts to the world breaks a promise, he explained, and we each have a choice every day to bring it or hide it. In business, “that which you do consistently becomes a habit. That which you promote is a promise to the customer, the supplier, the OEM. If you can’t be trusted to keep your promise, you’re losing business.”

The Promise to Your Audience

Hewlett opened with a story about an airport shuttle driver named T.J.. He said her “signature move” was her specialty in customer service, showing up every day to deliver the promise she made to her passengers – the promise of delivering “Yee-Haw” moments. “If we make a promise every single day to show up to our performance, we will change the lives of the people we interact with,” he said. “ Think about the promise you’ve made to each of your customers. They are your audience, and that becomes your brand promise.”

The Promise to Your Family

The promises made to family directly influences company culture. Being a leader with clear intentions and a direct promise to employees (to family) will ignite them to find their signature move and put it into action. This then drives retention, business results and positive customer experiences. Following through on the promise creates a thriving culture that encourages teamwork, employee development and leadership.

The Promise to the One Hewlett said, “We keep promises to everyone else, but not to ourselves.” The promise one makes to him/ herself should showcase the gifts and talents that make each person uniquely who they are. A promise should be shared with the world.

RICKY KALMON Mindset Coach

Leverage Your Mindset: Reduce Stress, Adapt to Change and Ignite Your Potential

What would happen if we were more equipped to do better every single day? What would business be like if we had the tools necessary to perform? What would life look like through a different lens? “I can do better” is not a criticism – it’s an opportunity. It’s about celebrating small changes. The small things done today create change for tomorrow.

And, change starts with quiet, with peace, with reflection. The average person before the pandemic spent one hour and 20 minutes on mobile devices as a distraction. During the pandemic, it was roughly three hours and 30 minutes of facetime looking at devices. How often does a person truly relax and calm their mind? How much time does a person sit and do nothing but breathe? All too often, people think of those investments as not important. But the greatest investment a person will ever make is in themselves. According to Kalmon, “Relaxation is not a luxury, it’s a necessity.”

What would happen with better focus? When leaders put actions into proper perspective, there’s a greater ability to address the solution rather than the problem.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

AMBA

AMCO Polymers

Americhem Engineered Compounds

Aurora Plastics Bear Industrial Group Beaumont Technologies Inc. Benesch, Friedlander Coplan Aronoff

Captive Solutions & Options . Chase Plastic Colors for Plastics Inc Conair

CyFrame

DELMIAWorks

DME

Epicor Software

Federated Insurance

Foster

Frigel North America Globeius

Grainger

Harbour Results

Ice Miller LLP

iD Additives, Inc.

INCOE Corporation

JSW

LS Mtron M. Holland Mantle

MBS Advisors

MedAccred Management Recruiters of Tallahassee Noble Plastics PartnerShip

Paulson Training Programs Inc. PCS Company Plante Moran Plastics Business PolySource Precision Color Compounds, LLC

Progressive Components

Purgex Purging Compounds

Rapid Robotics

RJG, Inc.

Routsis Training SIGMASOFT® Virtual Molding Stout

Synventive Molding Solutions/ Thermoplay Tekscape Inc. Vive Marketing WayPoint Marketing Communications

Wipfli

Wittmann Yaskawa Yushin

Looking Ahead to 2023: Markets, Staffing and Investments

By Maggie Taylor, writer, Inside Rubber

Coming off three very unpredictable years, the rubber industry is gearing up to enter 2023. Sentiments range from hope to determination to trepidation as companies navigate the uncertain waters of hiring and forecasting.

Regan McHale, president of Eagle Elastomer Inc., shared a positive outlook: “Despite our issues with Covid, supply chain and labor, our sales have been up significantly for the past two years. We are investing in technologies. Although challenging, our company is having a good year.”

Akron Rubber Development Laboratories (ARDL), a rubber and plastics testing and consulting group, also reported an upward trajectory. “We’re growing,” said Bonnie Stuck, president of ARDL. “We’re moving to a new campus we purchased in Barberton, Ohio, that has about 130,000 sq. ft. on 11 acres. We’re building out individual laboratories inside the new building. It’s going to be a real showplace.”

Roughly 50% of ARDL’s staff have already moved to the new campus. But ARDL is taking an unhurried approach to the move, by both necessity and design. “We’re an A2LA lab. We have scopes,” said Stuck. “Any time you move a piece of equipment and a procedure, you have to take it off your scope and then bring it back up. That’s time-consuming. We don’t want to do it all at once. In the interim period, we don’t want to overextend ourselves. We’re going to move slowly as we have the time, the money and the contractors that can do the work. That was difficult coming out of Covid: Finding good contractors.”

For the past few years, many companies have struggled to find contractors and full-time employees. Both Stuck and McHale predicted that these ongoing hiring challenges will continue into 2023. “Entry-labor will be our biggest

challenge,” said McHale. “We are responding by investing in employee development and culture while ensuring salaries and benefits are appropriate.”

According to Stuck, competing with other major employers, such as Amazon, is a significant challenge. “The cost, especially at the low end, like technicians, is very difficult.”

Stuck also reported difficulties hiring for more specialized roles. “We have very unique positions to fill, even on the technician level, and the labor market is very tight in northeast Ohio. Replacing senior technical people that have a lifetime of knowledge in rubber, plastics and polymer fields is very difficult.”

This industry-wide challenge may present an opportunity for ARDL, which also has a robust consulting and training division. “A lot of people are having the same problem getting experienced scientists who know rubber and plastic. They can’t afford someone like that, so they come to us,” said Stuck. “That’s why we beefed up our technical advisory staff: We can offer to be their scientists. I can see that expanding.”

Like many companies, ARDL has made meaningful changes to its business in order to remain competitive. “We did everything we could to support parents with children. People who could work from home took their computers home and we set them up remotely. We moved hours around so people could take care of their children. We made sure nobody lost their healthcare, even if they were out.”

ARDL has offered one popular benefit since well before the COVID-19 pandemic – tuition reimbursement. “A lot of other employers, such as Amazon, offer the same type of thing, but it’s not new for us,” said Stuck. “If someone wants to go to

college, we’ll work around their college schedule. We’ve had people in the past go and get their college degrees while they work as technicians. Our operations manager went all the way through to get his master’s. Usually, we keep those people. We do a really good job of keeping our staff, but it’s harder as the labor market is tighter.”

Charlie Braun, president of Custom Rubber Corp., did not report similar difficulties in hiring. “We took a different approach early in the pandemic. We raised wages a lot. That pretty much fixed our problem of attracting employees.”

According to Braun, “The biggest challenge [for Custom Rubber Corp.] is predicting revenue because it’s been such a wild ride the last few years. Whether your business boomed or busted during Covid, as we come out of the pandemic, it hasn’t been a straight landing or a soft landing.”

Custom Rubber Corp. experienced steady, predictable growth in 2017, 2018 and 2019. The company then saw a dramatic spike in sales and demand in 2020, 2021 and early 2022. Thanks to this “pandemic bubble,” Custom Rubber Corp. was on track to double in size in two years until recently, when several key sectors, including plumbing and consumer products, reported too much inventory in the supply chain. As a result, the company’s sales have dropped significantly in the past few months. “Lingering supply chain issues are making it harder to forecast. You don’t know what’s real demand versus supply chain hiccups,” said Braun.

Braun reported that the significant disparities between the company’s pre-pandemic revenue data and “pandemic bubble” data have made it virtually impossible to draw a straight line and make accurate predictions for 2023. Because sales forecasts are often used to determine organizational sizing, a murky future can lead to uncertainty when it comes to staffing. “When you don’t know the level of sales, it’s hard to understand how many people you need, what roles you need to fill, et cetera.”

But Braun believes those same ongoing supply chain issues will create opportunities for Custom Rubber Corp. “The supply chain is still pretty disrupted. I think there’s going to be continued interest and activity exploring reshoring options and dual-sourcing domestic and overseas. That’s going to be a big opportunity for us.”

According to Braun, the primary differentiator between COVID-related supply chain issues and past disruptions is longevity. “Purchasing departments have short memories,” he said, referring to a dock strike in Los Angeles several years ago. “I got tons of calls for reshoring for a month after that, and then everyone forgot because it went back to normal [in three weeks]. But the supply chain has not gone back to normal yet, and with swings in demand, there will be reshoring opportunities. We can help companies wanting to explore that.”

Braun is less hopeful about inflation rates in 2023. “I don’t know that interest rates are going to go back down. That’s one thing I’m not convinced will happen.”

Rising inflation rates – and ongoing supply chain disruption – have impacted ARDL as well. “Costs are going through the

roof,” said Stuck. “ARDL hasn’t wholesale increased prices since 2015. We’re trying to be competitive, price-wise, but there are some areas where we’ve had to increase prices. Our challenge is getting materials and supplies. We have partnered with a lot of different suppliers that are very good about getting us what we need, but it’s still challenging.”

Stuck is confident that the company’s move to the new facility is already helping ARDL address these challenges in 2023. “We’re meeting those by looking ahead. When we moved mixing, molding and compounding over [to the new facility] last summer, we completely redid inventory and got rid of old stuff. The new inventory is all done electronically. That has helped us be sharper on what we need. Our warehouse is much more organized now. We will continue to get ahead of the game and have the materials we use most often on site.”

ARDL also is looking forward to growth in several key sectors. “I think expansion in the health-related fields is naturally going to happen,” said Bonnie Stuck, president of ARDL. “Testing for health-related fields is usually very steady business. We’re looking to expand in those fields.”

page 20 u

RUBBER IN MOTION

The World’s first electric injection molding machine for elastomers!

Stuck also sees opportunities in sustainability and recycling. “We do a tremendous amount of work on those subjects, and that’s only going to increase.” According to Stuck, ARDL already has done ample research on soybean oil and the recyclability of carbon black, rubber and silica. Some of that work has been focused on another key area for ARDL – electric vehicles (EVs). “We do a lot of work developing compounds for EVs. That’s going to increase, not just with tire companies, but with suppliers of raw materials to the tire companies.”

Both Stuck and McHale shared that the challenges of the pandemic changed their companies for the better. “We improved more in the last two years than we did in the previous five,” said McHale. “Not that we weren’t improving, but as challenges arose, we pulled together and made faster decisions, which had positive results. We are capable of more.”

Stuck emphasized how the pandemic reinforced the importance of company culture – and how expectations have changed over the years. “I started working in the rubber

industry in 1977. There were very few women in technical positions, and it was difficult raising children. It was just a different culture back then. You can’t get away with that culture today; you’ll have turnover.”

Stuck believes strongly that culture is key to retention in 2023 and beyond. “We need to cherish our employees. That’s how you avoid people hopping for a higher salary. Salary is important, of course, but more so is the culture of the company. How the company works with families and balances the lives of families is very important. That’s how you avoid people hopping for a higher salary. We need to help our employees because we need to be thinking of them as family. We’ve learned that, and we will never turn back from that.” u

Maggie Taylor is a freelance writer specializing in the rubber, tire and automotive industries. She can be reached at maggie@maggie-taylor.com.

•

•

•

• Dynamic

• Mixing and Molding

• Failure Analysis

• Reverse Engineering/ Formula

•

• Microscopy

• PPE

• Pharmaceutical

• Prototyping

• Technical

• Consulting

Retention and Recruitment Ideas from the Trenches

By Dianna Brodine, vice president, editorial, Inside Rubber

At conference and plant tour events held over the last several months, manufacturing company leaders gathered together to share their biggest human resources challenges and hear solutions from other professionals sitting at the table. Why struggle to reinvent the wheel when industry professionals openly share what is working within their organizations? This list is a quick glimpse into the creative ideas being utilized today to solve one of the biggest problems facing the rubber processing industry.

Recruitment

Create recruiting cards in a business-card format that include a QR code linking to an employment application. Employees who hand out cards that result in interviews receive a bonus.

Print beverage coasters with job advertisements and information about the company. Ask local bars and restaurants to use them to generate interest from patrons.

Attract attention at sporting events by throwing company T-shirts into the crowd (or use one of those fun hotdog cannons!).

Build incentives around recruitment by offering additional paid time off (PTO) or travel vouchers for current employees who bring in new employees.

Run a radio advertising campaign targeting a variety of music genres, with ads scheduled during traditional shift change times.

Develop a co-op of businesses to share interviewees. An individual who might not be a fit for one business could be a fit for another.

Retention

Gamify the work environment. Choose measurable benchmarks (cycle time, changeovers, etc.) and designate teams that can participate in a friendly competition. Provide incentives to the winning team.

Provide bonus PTO hours for attendance, such as an additional four hours per month for working all assigned shifts.

Pay employees’ cell phone bills as part of their hiring benefits package.

Set up a rideshare program for employees from other areas to make it easier to get to work.

Rethink shift length – for instance, offer four 10-hour shifts rather than five 8-hour shifts – to offer flexibility.

Enter employees into prize raffles for AirPods, gift certificates or vacation retreats based on length of service.

Ask employees to submit ideas for freshening up the break room or another common space – and then implement the top suggestions immediately. Let them see that their input is valued and acted upon. u

ACE Unveils New Website and Announces Strategic Laboratory Expansion

ACE Laboratories, Ravenna, Ohio, an ISO/IEC 17025-accredited rubber laboratory service provider unveils a new, easier-to-navigate website. With more than 50 new testing methods expected to be added throughout 2022, the new website has rearranged the way these tests are indexed to provide an improved user experience vital to clients and prospects who rely on this service to meet compliance and regulatory requirements.

standard (D8471) covers raw materials, formulation and mixture procedures for evaluating and quality control of silica and related technologies, such as silanes and functionalized polymers, in a standardized rubber compound. Rubber manufacturers and testing laboratories will also use the new standard to prepare reference compounds for experiments, to confirm the day-to-day reliability of testing operations, for the evaluation of experimental compounds and for quality control of production compounds. For more imformation, visit www.astm.org.

Trelleborg

Purchases Minnesota

Rubber & Plastics

Additionally, ACE announced its strategic laboratory expansion to support the increasing demand from the construction industry for materials and products that meet necessary performance and safety criteria as well as account for the growing requirement for advanced sustainability credentials. All new testing and development services will follow ASTM International and other relevant standards. For more information, visit www.ace-laboratories.com.

ASTM International Honors Mike Warner and Approves New Standard to Aid Use of Silica Technology

ASTM International, West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, presented the Distinguished Service Award to Mike Warner for his contributions to committee D11 on rubber and rubberlike materials. The award is a prestigious honor offered by the ASTM committee, conferred for outstanding participation and dedication. Warner was recognized for his 26-plus years of distinguished service and maintenance of international standards for the rubber industry, as well as his subcommittee work.

KKR, New York, New York, a leading global investment firm, announced the signing of an agreement to sell Minnesota Rubber & Plastics (MRP), Minneapolis, Minnesota, a leading provider of materials science-based elastomer and thermoplastic solutions, to Trelleborg Group (Trelleborg), Trelleborg, Sweden, a leader in engineered polymer solutions, in a transaction valued at approximately US$950 million. The MRP management team is expected to continue to run the business under Trelleborg’s ownership. Becoming part of a larger organization, which is a global leader in polymer solutions, will unlock new benefits for MRP customers and professional growth opportunities for MRP employees. For more information, visit www.mnrubber.com or www.trelleborg.com

Rahco Celebrates 50 Years

Rahco Rubber, Inc., Des Plaines, Illinois, celebrates its 50th anniversary that began in 1972 with Bill Anton at the helm, soon followed by his son Steve Anton in 1976, now president, and brothers, Jim and Jack Anton. Fifty years later, the Rahco facility is approximately 60,000 sq. ft., with nearly 70 presses, received ISO 9001 and 2015 certifications and has all of the technologies and services to support customer needs with just under 100 employees. For more information, visit www.rahco-rubber.com.

ASTM International’s rubber and rubber-like materials committee (D11) has approved a new standard that aids the use of silica technology in the production of rubber products and directly relates to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal No. 13 on climate action. The new

Carbon Wins 2022 Polyurethane Innovation Award

The Center for the Polyurethanes Industry (CPI) of the American Chemistry Council (ACC) announced Carbon’s EPU 44 has won the 2022 Polyurethane Innovation Award. This award was given at the Polyurethanes Technical Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. The Innovation Award is renowned throughout the polyurethane industry and recognizes companies and individuals whose visions and perseverance bring new innovative, life-enhancing products, technologies and initiatives to the marketplace. EPU 44 is a 40% bio-based productiongrade elastomeric 3D printing resin well-suited for lattices where high resiliency is needed. It has superior latticing performance, prints faster, uses less material and has higher green strength which protects delicate designs. For more information, visit www.carbon3d.com.

Ice Miller Named LCLB 2022 Top Performer and Compass Award Winner

Ice Miller, Indianapolis, Indiana, has been named a 2022 Top Performer and Compass Award winner by the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) for the firm’s continued commitment to cultivating a more diverse and inclusive legal profession. The Top Performer distinction is reserved for organizations that are in the top 20% for participation in LCLD programs and activities. The Compass Award recognizes individuals and organizations that fulfill all of the participation requirements across LCLD’s programs in a single calendar year. For more information, visit www.icemiller.com. u

Are you ready to

TAKE CONTROL largest expenses?

ARPM is combatting members’ rising insurance costs with tailored strategies that positively impact both your employees and your company.

Visit arpminc.com/captiv8 to learn more.

of one of your company’s

Introducing CAPTIV8, health insurance strategies created for rubber manufacturers.

Elastomers, Lattices and Additive Manufacturing

By Liz Stevens, writer, Inside Rubber

Additive manufacturing (AM), aka 3D printing, has taken hold and is expanding as a viable production method worldwide. While it has primarily been known as a manufacturing method for rigid plastic components, additive technology has applications for the production of elastomeric parts. The recent development and adoption of lattice structures for part design have introduced valuable new capabilities to additive manufacturing, especially for elastomers. With these advances come new opportunities for rubber products manufacturers to consider as they chart their future course of business.

While there is an array of AM hardware platforms, technologies and materials, three types of 3D printers and

a handful of materials are geared for use with elastomers. Material extrusion – the printing method that builds a part by extruding from a reel of filament, powder-based printers – including those that work via selective laser sintering technology, and vat polymerization – which uses light to solidify objects within a pool of resin, are the main platforms for elastomers. The materials include digital photopolymers, thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and thermoplastic vulcanizate/thermoplastic elastomer (TEP/TPV).

In 3D printing for elastomers and plastics, the concept of lattice structures is the newest idea on the block. Not just new but perhaps poised to be a game changer, lattices call for a fundamental rethink in AM, an adjustment on par with the big rethink that the advent of 3D printing caused in subtractive manufacturing.

In his blog post, “Lightweighting with Lattices,”(1) Timothy W. Simpson, a professor of engineering design and manufacturing at Pennsylvania State, lays out a clear description of lattices and their value in product design and manufacture. “Instead of building components as a solid,” writes Simpson, “building them as a network of unit cells may improve material utilization and performance.”

A lattice is simply a hollow structure with a frame that is made of repeated unit cells. “There are countless options for the size and shape of such a cell and for how it is repeated,” Simpson writes, “and there are a lot of examples of lattice structures being used to provide internal support, reduce the amount of material or improve the strength-to-weight ratio of an AM component.”

The lattice structure in a part can be uniform throughout the part, or the shape, size and spacing of the cells can be varied to provide features and capabilities. “An added benefit of lattice structures is they can be additively manufactured faster,” Simpson writes, “using less material and therefore requiring less build time than fully dense, solid components.”

Lattice structures are finding their way into products far and wide. Oechsler, a German polymer technology group, recently showed off a 3D-printed, lattice structured chair at the furniture fair Milan Design Week.(2) Researchers at UCLA have developed a method for 3D printing an entire minuscule robot in one pass, using lattice-like shapes that give the robot the ability to change its geometry and move in response to an electrical field.(3) The 3D design software firm General Lattice is making waves with its program for

Image, this page: Adidas footwear with midsoles made with Carbon’s EPU 44 elastomer material, a 40% bio-based resin.

creating complex lattice geometries, and the company has helped the US Army improve the shock absorption of helmets with 3D printing and lattice geometries.(4) Inspired by the 3D printed soles on some of adidas’ running shoes, designer Matt Barnum created the Squishy Mouse, a computer mouse that is 3D printed with lattice structures that conform to one’s hand.(5)

adidas and Carbon – An Example of 3D Elastomer Success

The distinctive midsoles of adidas’ Futurecraft 4D running shoes, which have inspired many a new product, were designed and built in collaboration with Carbon, Inc., a Redwood City, California, 3D printing technology company. The one-part midsole for the shoe, the latest adidas running shoe that utilizes Carbon technology, is made of a stiff elastomer – a blend of UV curable resin and polyurethane –printed in a lattice structure.(6)

Carbon is an industry pacesetter that offers a suite of additive manufacturing hardware, software, materials and training. The company entered the 3D printing business with an interest in leveraging some existing AM materials and processes to greatly expand their use.

“We asked how do we take additive manufacturing into production applications,” said Jason Rolland, Carbon’s SVP of materials, “and why is additive manufacturing not broadly used as a production technology? The main issues that we identified were printer speed and printer capability, along with materials challenges.” Rolland, a polymer scientist, explained that Carbon was interested in the type of materials used in liquid resin-based systems that operate with patterned UV light (vat polymerization) and the company saw that many of those chemistries were designed for plastics coating applications.

For creating its materials, Carbon focused on creating production-grade elastomer materials and targeted the footwear industry as its first industry sector. “We decided on a dual-cure approach,” Rolland said. “We built a platform of dual-cure chemistry by blending UV-curable chemistry into thermally-curable chemistry. That expanded the scope of materials we are able to use in the printer and expanded the range of properties that we can access with a given resin.”

“On the elastomer side,” Rolland explained, “we saw a huge business opportunity for 3D printing. We knew that if we could find a way to make polyurethane chemistries, we would be able to meet the properties required for these products. With our dual-cure approach, we can use high-performance polyurethane elastomers that are a great alternative to the polyurethane foam used in footwear.” The R&D effort helped Carbon land a partnership with adidas. “From there,” said Rolland, “we developed a category of elastomers that are useful for a variety of applications.”

Carbon’s elastomeric materials include EPU 40, a highly elastic, tear-resistant and energy damping material that is comparable to commercial TPUs; EPU 41, a highly elastic,

Performance release agents and mold protectors for rubber molding.

Let us help you stay lean and clean.

LE T US D O T H E DI RTY WORK S O YOU C AN QU I C K LY M OVE F O RWAR D.

Carbon multi-zone lattice design.

tear-resistant and energy-returning material (also comparable to commercial TPUs); and SIL 30, a soft, biocompatible and tear-resistant material that is comparable to SEBS TPE. Carbon’s newest elastomer material is EPU 44, which stands out by being 40% bio-based, as well as being highly resilient and tear-resistant.

Carbon offers a line of DLP 3D printers – the M1, M2, M3, M3 Max and L1 – all of which use the company’s high-speed Digital Light Synthesis™ printing process and Continuous Liquid Interface Production™. The printers offer a variety of build volumes, resolutions and print speeds. Carbon’s hardware and software are available on a subscription basis.

In partnering with adidas, Carbon delved deeply into the chemistry of elastomeric materials, the dual-cure process of using UV light and thermal ovens, and the unique capability in AM to create complex lattice structures. Carbon has used this material-lattice-technology combo to create midsoles for advanced running shoes, bicycle saddles, backpack components, baseball gloves, and football and hockey helmets for leading sports manufacturers. Lattice structures were key to the success of each of the new products. “Lattice structures are great,” said Rolland, “and you can only make them with additive manufacturing. This is a super exciting area; by using lattices, we are able to make parts that people haven’t been able to make before.”

In a white paper on the partnership with adidas(7), Carbon describes some of the key benefits of lattice structures that can be designed and produced with the company’s technologies. “Carbon’s ability to create varying lattice structures within the same part or component results in unmatched design. Previously, engineers had to combine multiple components to create different properties within a final part. This complexity requires additional design, tooling and assembly resources

and often results in quality issues.” Integrating lattices into parts can simplify the design process, open up performance possibilities, dramatically lighten the weight of a part and yield results that, until recently, were impossible to produce.

In the white paper, Carbon also cites breathability as a key benefit. “Carbon lattice innovation and resulting open-cell structure enables customers to create final products with improved thermal characteristics. In applications such as seats, armrests, headsets, crutch-pads and orthopedic supports for the back and neck, this breathability is especially useful in maintaining a comfortable temperature. Thermal control in these applications is essential for ideal end-user experiences, and heat dissipation via open-cell structures helps with that.”

And, as compared to foam, elastomeric lattice structures outperform in cleanliness. “Cleaning materials such as foam is cumbersome. Additionally, water retention and slow drying with foam are not desirable. In contrast, applications using Carbon’s lattice structures are easy to clean, do not retain water and can be utilized post-wash almost instantaneously.”

There have been many advances and improvements in additive manufacturing. New chemistries are being created for elastomeric materials for 3D printing, and there is growing adoption of AM products and components in industrial production and the consumer marketplace. Elastomers and 3D printing are proving to be a viable and innovative combination. Rubber product manufacturers that have not yet gotten on board would be wise to start looking at how this type of production might benefit them and their customers. u

Carbon’s Design Engine lattice demo. Patentpending technology to seamlessly blend zones, producing attractive, functional lattices ready to use in real-world applications.

“ELASTOMERS AND 3D PRINTING ARE PROVING TO BE A VIABLE AND INNOVATIVE COMBINATION. RUBBER PRODUCT MANUFACTURERS THAT HAVE NOT YET GOTTEN ON BOARD WOULD BE WISE TO START LOOKING... ”

References

1. Simpson, Timothy W. “Lightweight with Lattices,” Modern Machine Shop. January 20, 2018. https://www.mmsonline.com/ blog/post/lightweighting-with-lattices

2. Sher, Davide. “Some great examples of 3D printed furniture seen at Milan Design Week.” 3dprintingmedia.network. June 11, 2022. https://www.3dprintingmedia.network/some-greatexamples-of-3d-printed-furniture-seen-at-milan-design-week/

3. Sertoglu, Kubi. “UCLA researchers 3D print entire microrobots in a single pass.” 3dprintingindustry.com. June 19, 2022. https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/ucla-researchers-3dprint-entire-microrobots-in-a-single-pass-211026/

4. Hanaphy, Paul. “General Lattice to ‘facilitate the widespread adoption of AM’ after raising $1M.” 3dprintingindustry.com. September 29, 2021. https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/ ucla-researchers-3d-print-entire-microrobots-in-a-singlepass-211026/

5. Sheth, Sarang. “Inspired by Adidas, this wireless mouse is redefining ergonomics with its soft 3D printed mesh design.” yankodesign.com. December 30, 2021. https://www. yankodesign.com/2021/12/30/inspired-by-adidas-this-mouseis-redefining-ergonomics-with-its-soft-3d-printed-meshdesign/

6. Adidas. “From Futurecraft to 4DFWD and Beyond: The History of adidas 4D,” adidas.com. August 2021. https://www. adidas.com/us/blog/737899-from-futurecraft-to-4dfwd-andbeyond-the-history-of-adidas-4d.

7. “Carbon Lattice Innovation — The adidas Story.” Carbon3D. com. https://www.carbon3d.com/resources/whitepaper/theadidas-story

BARWELL

Obstacles to Growth and How Businesses Can Overcome Them

By Kirk W. McLaren, author

With 2023 fast approaching, it could be time for business owners and CEOs to decide whether to accelerate the growth plans for their businesses in the coming year.

Growth doesn’t just happen, though, and ambitious businesses typically face five obstacles that can thwart their efforts: Winning new customers, keeping existing customers, gaining access to capital, overcoming low financial performance and having the right people and capacity to deliver.

All five of those obstacles are connected, and the two involving customers are especially intertwined.

Winning new customers.

There are effective ways to attract new customers and notso-effective ways. Unfortunately, businesses often pour time and resources into things that have little value, so scrutinize efforts carefully to see if they are paying off.

An example: My firm once analyzed an inside-sales call center to see how efficient it was at getting new customers on board, as opposed to allowing customers to sign-up themselves online. What was discovered was that the additional step of calling someone was a deterrent. Because of this finding, the company improved its web-based technology, making it even more efficient for customers to sign-up themselves.

Keeping existing customers.

Although businesses need to bring in new customers to grow, they can risk alienating their most loyal customers if they take

them for granted. This is where the 80/20 rule could help. That rule essentially states that 80% of a company’s revenue comes from 20% of its customers. It’s critical to identify that 20% and focus retention efforts there because not all revenue or all customers are equally worth chasing.

Proactively gaining access to working capital.

Dealing with increased demand brought on by growth often requires gaining access to working capital. This is where positive cash flow can be crucial. The better a company’s financial picture, the more likely a lender is to evaluate it favorably.

But how does a business that’s on wobbly financial ground establish positive cash flow? A good first step is making a 12-week cash forecast, listing every payment that’s expected to come in and go out. If more is going out than is coming in, then it’s time to take action. One option might be to put off taking on new expenses. Another could be to control the payment of invoices; that is, where possible, delay paying bills until closer to their due date – or as long as possible.

If a business can find ways to tweak cash flow, it also may be able to avoid borrowing money or at least borrow less. When cash gaps are forecasted, the best practice is to proactively source lines of credit, term loans and/or investment funding.

Overcoming low financial performance.

Many CEOs tend to focus on topline revenue and fail to pay sufficient attention to net profit or loss. In a way, who

LEADERSHIP

can blame them? It’s easy to get excited by soaring sales numbers, but that joy isn’t justified if expenses are soaring even more. Clarity about financial performance is always important strategically, and this is especially so when a CEO is seeking a bank loan, doing succession planning or considering a merger or acquisition from the buyer side.

One way to measure whether a business is performing well is to compare it to others in its industry using benchmarks. Are sales weak for everyone right now, or is this particular business an outlier?

Having the right people and capacity.

As a business increases its customer base, it faces a new challenge: Does it have the staff and the capacity to serve everyone well? After all, it does little good to snag new contracts if the workload is more than the team and equipment can handle.

Unfortunately, many businesses fail to make wise decisions on managing capacity. The data and analysis that could help the CEO forecast demand are either nonexistent, erroneous, delayed or lost in the daily whirlwind. It’s important to have a good handle on capacity so that the business can plan what staffing, equipment, software, vehicles or other resources will be needed. Without the proper planning of a forwardthinking chief financial officer, the CEO, key employees and everyone else could become overwhelmed.

Although these obstacles are not insurmountable either individually or as a group, businesses intent on growing in 2023 should start working now to overcome them so that nothing impedes them from achieving their ambitious goals. u

advantage

Practice Advice for the Rubber Industry

Ice Miller focuses on meeting the needs of our clients quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively. Ice Miller attorneys with rubber industry experience can assist with your greatest legal challenges. Contact Josef Keglewitsch at 614-462-2279 or josef.keglewitsch@icemiller.com for more information. icemiller.com

300+ lawyers in Columbus and other offices

Kirk W. McLaren, author of The Growth CFO Void: The Guide to What’s Holding You Back From Being a 2% CEO, is the CEO of Foresight CFO and a graduate studies lecturer at Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies. McLaren’s team at Foresight CFO develops selected financial talent into Growth CFOs who work side by side with CEOs across the full business journey, from foundation to succession options. McLaren and his wife, Nayarit, have two sons. He served in the US Army as a behavioral scientist during the first Gulf War. McLaren holds an MBA with a finance and accounting concentration, an MA in international relations and economics from Johns Hopkins SAIS, a graduate certificate in international business from Georgetown University and a BS from the University of Maryland University College. McLaren is a licensed certified public accountant (CPA) and a certified treasury professional (CTP). He also earned his impact financial management (IFM) certification.

Why Can’t We Be Like Cars?

By Will Hinshaw, partner/founder, Captive Solutions & Options

What if submitting a receipt for an oil change to the car insurance company for reimbursement was possible? Unfortunately, it is not allowed because routine maintenance is not covered under a car insurance policy. Insurance, by definition, is a contract represented by a policy in which an individual or an entity receives financial protection and/or reimbursement against losses from an insurance company. It intends to limit the liability of the policyholder in the worst-case scenarios. Why then does the US healthcare system operate differently – where routine medical maintenance procedures (well care, such as immunizations, mammograms, colonoscopies, etc.) are covered or reimbursed by the health insurance company? The answer is risk.

Risk management is the identification, evaluation and prioritization of threats to an organization. With health insurance costs, managing risk and the potential exposure to a company often is achieved by being a part of a large [risk] pool with little control or transparency or through a standalone program that offers greater control and transparency, along with an increased level of risk. There is a strategy (see sidebar) that offers the best of both worlds – the strength of aggregation with the control and transparency of individual plans – where the approach is to provide accessible coverage for when things go bad.

Whether it’s a group as small as three or as large as three thousand, the very purpose of insurance, a mechanism to

protect against unforeseen costs, is needed to protect the human capital asset – employees and dependents – from the risk associated with medical conditions. To create a large enough financial reserve to protect against the $1 million pre-mature birth, the $25,000 a month prescription or the $500,000 cancer diagnosis, most companies pool the risk through a fully insured health plan. While this method protects against loss by capping the company’s overall financial liability, it limits data transparency and the ability to pinpoint costs and develop courses of action to remedy them.

Additionally, the fully insured model prepays for bills that might occur, not what actually has occurred. For this reason, the fully insured methodology can accurately be categorized as risk avoidance, not risk management.

To actively engage in managing risk and receive reimbursement, an employer must participate in what is commonly referred to as a partially self-funded program. In this model, the employer covers the costs of medical procedures up to a specific financial limit for each individual while also limiting financial liability for the sum of all medical expenditures via third-party insurance. The insurance entity provides reimbursement to the employer for medical claims that exceed either the individual specific limit or the overall company expenditure value.

Under this platform, employers are provided clear data about their medical claims and are given greater choice in

determining the service providers and structure of their health benefits plan. These choices are predicated on the overarching goals and objectives of the employer’s own risk management strategy.

While the partially self-funded plan is better, its policy – just like the fully insured offering – is based on a premium that is collected by a third-party insurance entity. The premiums are repurposed by the insurance company to cover the reimbursements or expenses incurred through submitted claims. Should the funds associated with the premiums need to be utilized, insurance companies will charge for spending the money received as premiums. Therefore, it is best to avoid this whenever possible. With car insurance, this easily is achieved. The balance between the affordability for a repair – the deductible – is balanced with the costs associated with certain repairs. The estimate or quote to repair the damaged bumper may exceed the deductible.

MANAGEMENT

However, the difference in cost over the deductible might still be more cost-efficient than the long-term impact of higher premium rates from filing the claim to have the repair covered via insurance. In this situation, the availability of the cost data makes this decision much easier.

Unfortunately, with healthcare, the costs of medical services and prescription drugs (and/or the lack of transparency for the associated costs) are not as apparent. Only in the US healthcare delivery system do we blend the elements of insurance and service payment. Appropriately, this was done to address the opaque nature of the service fees and possibly the high-cost health care services associated with individual plan member risk. u

Will Hinshaw has dedicated over 25 years to leading organizations in numerous industries, including CAPTIV8, AMBA’s new funding strategy for members. For more information on pharmaceutical cost-containment strategies, or to learn more about CAPTIV8, contact Susan Denzio at sdenzio@firstresourceinc.com

The CAPTIV8 Strategy for when things go bad

The paradigm is shifting as CAPTIV8 is changing the way insurance premium dollars can better serve its members by leveraging the fully insured methodology of pooling with the control and transparency of a self-insured model. This program utilizes a unique contracting approach by putting employer premiums to work for its members, specifically during bad times. The CAPTIV8 program facilitates multiple partially self-funded employers aggregating a majority of the premium for one sole purpose – to be utilized by its members. In the event it is utilized for claims, because it is member premium supporting other members’ needs, the insurance entity (the captive) does not need to recoup the premium as aggressively at renewal. In fact, given the captive premium is going to be returned to the members through either expense reimbursements or profit distributions, there is no need to charge for its use. Instead, the increase associated with the utilization of these premium dollars is directly linked to the forward-looking projection of risk for the individual or group of individuals who generated the claims –not a penalty for using the premium. By sharing the premium, members are insulated from market factors and the pricing of commercial insurance.

Recently, a CAPTIV8 member was the direct beneficiary of this shared premium model which sustains the captive members and not the insurance companies. After a particularly bad claims year, where reimbursements exceeded premium deposits by more than 300%, the member’s renewal was 15% below the market. The benefit of aggregated premium contributions, in combination with the fact that other member withdrawals did not exceed contributions, allowed this member to renew at a lower cost. While the member’s premium alone was not enough, in a model that encourages the spending of the member premium, it was more than enough. u

More information: sdenzio@firstresourceinc.com.

“RISK

IS THE IDENTIFICATION, EVALUATION AND PRIORITIZATION OF THREATS TO AN ORGANIZATION.”

Conference Thank You

The 2022 Benchmarking and Best Practices Conference was held October 5-7, in Indianapolis, Indiana. The ARPM staff is grateful to the presenters, attendees, sponsors and vendors that made this event possible. The Benchmarking and Best Practices Conference is the best in the industry because of the leaders that continue to show up and work to make themselves and their teams better. If you did not join us this year, we hope to see you next year October, 4-6, 2023.

ARPM Annual Membership Meeting

ARPM will hold its annual membership meeting December 15, 2022. For more information about this year’s meeting and a schedule of events, visit www.arpminc.com/events

Finance and Accounting Forum

ARPM is excited to host a brand-new functional area forum, the Finance and Accounting Forum, November 17-18. ARPM strives to offer events and networking opportunities for every person in our member organizations, and this 2-day virtual event will allow finance and accounting colleagues in the manufacturing industry to get together and address current benchmarks, best practices and challenges facing the industry today.

This event will include presentations by experienced industry professionals, facilitated panels and peer-to-peer networking opportunities on topics such as negotiating supplier agreements, tax policy updates, financial benchmarks in the manufacturing industry, inventory management, cybersecurity and more. The agenda and registration are available at www.arpminc.com.

2023 Outlook

After wrapping up another great year of events in 2022, ARPM is excited to start scheduling plant tours, peer networking opportunities, functional area forums and many more events in 2023. One of the most valued events that ARPM facilitates is member plant tours, and ARPM looks forward to bringing plant tours back in person. Plant tours offer ARPM members the opportunity to visit other best-inclass manufacturing facilities across the country. These one-

day events allow members to witness firsthand how others are approaching challenges and finding innovative solutions. At the end of the tour, the host company and each attendee are able to take implementable ideas to improve operations back to their facilities.

ARPM is still looking for plant tour hosts for 2023 and spots are very limited. If you are interested in hosting or learning more, please contact Kaitlyn Krol at kkrol@arpminc.org or 317.863.4072.

ARPM State of the Rubber Industry Survey Launches November 28

ARPM’s leadership team strongly believes that information is power and has positioned ARPM as the information hub for the rubber processing industry. With this role, ARPM developed the annual State of the Rubber Industry to allow business leaders to stay in tune with the state of their industry, better understand current industry conditions, plan for the future and validate the status of their operations.

ARPM members who participate in this survey receive the final report at no cost, and non-members that participate will receive the member discount. The 2022 State of the Rubber Industry Survey will hit your inbox on Nov. 28 and the ARPM leadership team looks forward to hearing your firsthand feedback on what our industry is looking for in 2023.

ARPM Welcomes New Members!

Richwood Industries, Inc Ocean Star Industrial, Inc u

Addressing the Unreliable Events of Rubber Bonding

By Greg Vassmer, technical coordinator, ARPM

While finished rubber products are sometimes simply standalone molded rubber shapes, most are part of an assembly where the rubber component or its assembly is attached, bonded or molded into additional components. Consider a radial lip seal. This important mechanical component is used to prevent lubricant from leaking between a stationary housing (like an engine block) and a rotating shaft (like the crankshaft). The modern incarnation of lip seals most likely have the rubber “lip” chemically bonded to a rigid case. The bonding happens in the mold while the rubber is flowing into the part-shaped mold cavity. The expectation is for the bond to be complete and permanent once the press is opened. In some cases, the rubber is molded in such a way that it covers the outer diameter of the seal as well. Rubber in this area is meant to provide a static seal so when the seal is pressed into the gearbox, engine or other housing, the rubber will seal any imperfections in the housing and protect against those leaks.

testing is built into OS-13 which does its best to standardize the procedure. There one can find several types of pliers to use, both for grabbable geometry like a seal lip and hardto-grab rubber seal coatings. How the rubber is grabbed is important and avoid cutting the rubber with the tool while pulling.

Greg Vassmer ARPM Technical Coordinator

Bonding can be a remarkably unreliable event, if the metal is oily, has a layer of rust, or, if the rubber moves by so fast during injection that it scrapes the adhesive off the metal case completely. So how does one know when the bond is poor and non-functional and how should it be checked? Well, to check is the same way anyone checks to see if something is glued adequately enough – pull on it. In fact, methods used to “pull on it” are important enough that ARPM developed OS13, a guideline and standard describing how to pull, and then how to gauge whether the result has adequate bond strength.

It is easy to detect when rubber is completely unbonded. An operator simply pulls the rubber portion, and it peels away from the substrate cleanly. Almost no effort is required. In most other cases though the operator will find it difficult to impossible to separate the rubber from the substrate by pulling by hand. So, the next level of effort unusually involves a pair of pliers and a twisting sort of yank on the exposed rubber bit. Does this sound like a scientifically reproducible test? It does not and is not, but a surprising number of people still do it. This method is so popular that pliers-based operator sample

Ok, so now the rubber has been torn away. Is the bond good? A general rule of thumb, codified in OS-13, is if the rubber tears before it pulls away from the substrate, the bond is adequate. Essentially the bond is stronger than the rubber material itself. The ultimate. What if the test shows the rubber partially tearing and some exposed metal of a failed bond? An unfortunately common event. Judgment on this count will be a bit of negotiation between customer and supplier. Normally between 85% of the torn area needs to be rubber with the remaining allowed to be exposed metal. If the calculation of the percentage is in doubt there are optical systems that can help estimate the coverage to eliminate this variable.

If a more controlled and reproducible test is needed (which fortunately is the case for more critical applications) the standard recommends using a tensile test stand that can pull uniformly and in a stable direction while measuring the force. To further ensure uniformity of the test, ARPM has worked with Instron (a test stand provider) to manufacture gripper jaws that fit inside the small volume in a seal and work with their stand. (For their #2712-04x gripper specify the CP133475 jaw.)

Sometimes a simpler material, like a latex-based coating, is used as a sealant for the outer diameter of a seal. It needs to be well bonded too, for all the reasons mentioned about rubber bonding. Since there is nothing to grab on these coatings a different test is used called a scratch test. In ARPM’s OS-14, the methods used to uniformly evaluate the bond of these can be found.

Both ARPM OS-13 and OS-14 have been significantly updated and issued standards in 2022. If one finds themselves still relying on uncontrolled pliers testing it is probably a good idea to have a look. u

Employees are the Top Line of a Business: Making a Case for Leadership Investment

By Steve Sewell, owner, Steven Sewell Building Bridges of Hope

Ashley was surprised, to say the least, that her boss had good news and invited her to stop by his office for a few minutes before she left her shift. As she stepped around the corner to his station, he said that he had a good report. As he began to share what was going on, Ashley quickly began to sense what he was talking about. The company wanted to support her education to help her finish her degree in electrical engineering. Ashley was floored. Her boss gave her a form to fill out and instructions on how to turn in her receipts for tuition, books/supplies and fees. As she reached for her phone to text her husband the good news, she thought to herself, “This is the first time a company has ever wanted to help me like this.”

Will had received an email from his company’s HR/Benefits department that he had hit his one-year anniversary. Company swag, a form letter and a new work shirt were what he was expecting, but as he read on through the email, he was pleasantly surprised that the company was willing to send him to one of the leading trade conferences in his industry, which would lead him to become an apprentice. Within five years, he could double his pay rate, gain incredible skills and experience and be able to be established as a lead technician.

I hear stories like these when I visit companies around the country. They illustrate a principle called Leadership Investment.

When a company reaches into its own pocket to benefit its employees, the company reaps a harvest as well.

Various complexities of the daily grind and operating a business, supervising a team or managing a project can be a burden. Everything from timeliness, budget restrictions to safety and employee retention can make it feel like investing in others as much as they would like is not realistic. It’s easy to think this way too. After all, many are recovering from the pandemic and trying to rethink employment, the critical mass of orders and a lack of supplies. Be careful with this mindset, it might just be a failing point for your company.

The excessive cost of employee turnover

It’s common knowledge that replacing team members is pricy (and dicey). Some can spend up to double the amount each year on hiring and onboarding that could have been spent on product management or networking and marketing.

Talent misdirection

Imagine employee efforts hampered and production lines being shortened because good employee assessments, training material and other

Why should a company invest in its employees?

onboarding measures are not in place. It’s happening all around the world; companies are misdirecting team members throughout their organization with a lot of collateral damage. It’s wasting company resources.

A lack of loyalty

Employees under the age of 29 are willing to accept a lower rate of pay if the values of the organization closely mirror their own. A company that invests in the growth of others seeks to understand its team members and incorporates their values into the organization. This type of leadership behavior fosters loyalty and commitment.

Talent attraction and acquisition

When companies invest in the growth of their employees, these individuals will share the benefits with their friend groups and professional networking platforms. LinkedIn boasts of the hiring trends for companies that support leadership investment. The proof is in the pudding.

Companies that retain employees have high regard for motivation

In some cases, companies have seen a huge percentage hike in their employee erosion simply because they have a hard time keeping their employees motivated and moving forward on their mission. Collaboration, problemsolving, open communication, teamwork and employee happiness are exchanged for a top-down leadership strategy that strangulates team members. Companies that don’t invest in others usually lead to micromanagement or worse, selfmanaging tactics.

Increased teamwork and successful camaraderie

When company leaders invest in building one another up and having an enjoyable work experience (yes, when they have fun) work productivity goes up. Why not invest in meeting at the country club for an old-fashioned game of Bunco while having snacks? Is it time to celebrate a long overdue achievement? Why not throw a party during the conference many of your team members will be attending? If you build a better team environment and make space for fun, success will make its way into your group.

Effective customer service

The principle of a successful customer service experience is still the same after all these years: positive representation, listening and engagement, authentic self and any amount of advertising. By investing in employees and opening the door to learning these skills, the result is more satisfied customers.

Creating a strategic plan for investing in personal and professional development is essential for success.

Making a positive impact makes room for promotable employees. Here are some suggestions:

• Provide a set of revised vocational trainings that work for the team.

• Invite a motivational speaker to a series of staff meetings to share stories and principles of invigoration and influence at home and work that will translate into a better work-life balance.

• Promote from within by bringing in a personal mentor/ coach work to encourage management skills.

• Invite team members to share openly in a staff meeting, a time of listening for company leaders to hear stories about what’s happening in the field, on the manufacturing floor and in the ideation labs.

• Create a plan to come alongside one to three team members each year in accomplishing a personal goal. A few examples include helping a family become debt-free by providing assistance for a graduate degree tuition, sending a couple to a marriage retreat, starting a company-wide fund for adoption assistance or purchasing a series of counseling appointments for individuals.

• Purchase a leadership book for every team member and invite them to a volunteer study group, that after completing, they receive a special award. (This idea works great if looking to discover untapped talent already in the company.)

As team members experience (top line) personal growth and professional advancement, the results will always be increased company sales, innovation of new ideas and elevated employees – and that’s good for the bottom line. u

Steven Sewell has served as a non-profit executive director, chaplain and speaker for over 30 years and spends most of his time equipping and encouraging leadership and strengthening teams during times of change, adversity and loss. Sewell’s mission is to assist others to transition well after crisis and change. For more information, visit www.stevensewell.me

When companies invest in the people they have already hired, they catalyze change for the personal and professional trajectory of these individuals.

ACE Laboratories 17 www.ace-laboratories.com

Akron Rubber Development Laboratory, Inc. (ARDL) 20 www.ardl.com

ARPM Leaders of Character Program 29 www.arpminc.com/events

ARPM Membership 39 www.arpminc.com

ARPM Publications 18 www.arpminc.com

Barwell Global USA 27 www.barwellusa.com

Blair Rubber Company 9 www.blairrubber.com

CanCarb 5 www.cancarb.com

CAPTIV8 .................................................................. 23 www.arpminc.com/captiv8

Chardon Custom Polymers ...................................... 10 www.chardoncp.com

ChemTrend............................................................... 25 www.chemtrend.com

Grainger...................................................................... 2 www.grainger.com

IceMiller

Sigmasoft

www.sigmasoftvm.com