Company News
Molded Plastic Spools and Reels
Packaging the product in a saleable size and shape has always been a
real challenge to manufactures. Manufacturing engineers tended to worry
more about the processes of production than about the package. Now some
industries have people whose job is package engineering. Presently,
the use of plastics as a means of packaging products in an ever-growing
application for that material in many shapes and sizes.
Back in the years 1967, Dustin Hoffman played the Graduate in the classic
movie of the same name. The one word "Plastics" was confidentially
given as the password to a promising career.
At that time, not all applications met with success. Some gave the material
a bad name. Continued progress in developing new compounds and techniques
of manufacture have changed that.
There are so many corners of the plastics industry. It is hard to imagine
that any one company could fill them all. The trick seems to be to find
a niche in the overall market and go for it.
We see in the Company Profile section of the July 2005 of this publication
that thirty years ago David and Dorothy Chiorgno started a company,
now two corporations - Pittsfield Plastics Engineering, Inc. (PPE) &
Precision Spools, Inc.
The location is Pittsfield, MA, USA. The profile says this city is known
as the "Plastics Capital of North American." That is reminiscent
of Detroit, MI, USA being the auto capital and Akron, OH, USA the rubber
(now polymer) capital.
Pittsfield has a high concentration of technology, resources and trained
employees. The niche that this husband and wife team of Dorothy and
David chose was the design and manufacture of injection molds for plastic.
Their company has grown with the industry. Success in one niche led
to moving into others. For customer's that have a product design they
wish to have injection molded, the talent at PPE can design and develop
the mold. This led to the need for an injection machine for tryout and
then to moving from prototype through final decoration, assembly and
packaging. Now, the company will delivery to meet its customers' needs
or their "zero inventory" (JIT) production schedules.
Then came the state-of-the-art-injection molding facility. So now there
is a full-service plastic injection moldng company. It provides high
capacity, fast turnaround production of injection molded plastic parts,
and custom designed molds.
In 1998, the Chiorgnos were ready to sell the business. They would stay
around a while to help in the transition to new owners. They still come
in.
Tom Walker, now President and some associates bought the business. He
has a team of talented people with extensive experience in the industry.
Included on the team is Peter Olsta, a man well known in the plastic
reel industry.
With all that talent and equipment, it is natural that the company has
developed product lines. These are made and marketed by Precision Spools,
Inc., and include plastic spools, bobbins, reels, dye tubes, tape cores
and covers. Wire and stranded material are thus packaged.
Peter Olsta says, "PPE can decorate your reels with your mark of
distinction. Think of the lesson of vodka marketing. Different brands
have similar taste, but the decoration on the package and bottle sets
them apart."
Despite the wide range of standard spools and reels produced by PPE,
the company has been alert to the suggestions of their customers and
have developed new designs that perform better.
Tom Walker says, "Our two new designs of standard wire reels came
from a re-engineering to address the market's concern for flange chipping
and breakage. We incorporated an extra row of ribs in the 11.75"
x 7" (300 x 180 mm) and added six more ribs to the 8" x 6"
(200 x 150 mm) to create a stronger flange in these HIPS (high impact
polystyrene) or ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) reel designs.
This has been proven to enhance both in-process and shipping reel performance
for our customers. Demand has been phenomenal."
A new niche for PPE is the Conduit Repair Kit. Two halves of plastic
tubing are cemented to leaking underground cables. A Boston lady's dog
wouldn't have had scorched paws when it stepped on a manhole cover that
was electrified if the leak had been repaired with such a kit.
Pittsfield Plastics show their extensive line of spools and reels
at the Chicago Wire Show, From left to right. Peter Olsta, Sam Parris
and Tom Walker
Customer Driven
Pittsfield Plastics making inroads in textile industry
By Devin Steele
Building on foundation
The company, under new ownership, has enjoyed early
success primarily because "we bought a very well-honed machine, Cooper
said.
"Because of the strength of the people who were
here already, Tom (Walker) has been able to focus on sales and I have
been able to work closely with the management team on ISO implementation,"
he added. "Growth has been enhanced by the team that was here."
Earning ISO-9002 certification in only a year is
testament to the fact that the company's roots were well planted, he
said.
"We accomplished something that most companies
can't accomplish in such a short period of time, McCuin said. "Our quality
control program, which is also part of ISO-9002, has improved 100 fold.
We had very, very few customer complaints before and we receive virtually
none. We're constantly on guard to make sure our quality is the best
it can be."
Cooper and Walker are part of the management team
involved in day-to-day operations. Cooper brings 10 years of engineering
and 10 years of banking experience to the enterprise, while Walker has
a background in manufacturing, product development, marketing and sales.
Holmes, who lives in Sarasota, FL, serves as chairman
of the board of USCO Distribution Services, a company he has steered
to quadruple sales.
"Tom Holmes was the lightning rod, "Cooper said."
In order to buy a business, you need an expert in that business and
we found Tom."
Another plus: Pittsfield is able to use Holmes'
warehouses in strategic areas of the South as it expands its textile
business there.
Pittsfield Plastics features a state-of-the-art injection
molding operation.
Textile expansion
The company has gone full-bore in its expansion
into textiles. "We're taking existing products and making them better,"
Walker said.
And results are being produced. For instance, Pittsfield
has tripled sales of its 32-ounce king bobbins used in thread and embroidery
applications, he said. Everyone's going for a bigger package," Walker
said. "We have revamped our whole line with new molds."
The company also is enhancing its dye and take-up
spools, he added.
What's driving improvement in textile-related products
is customers, Walker said.
"We've taken on a lot of additional products, but
we listened to our customers and we reengineered them basically," he
said. "We made our products stronger. There are higher demands today
for high-speed winding and bigger packages.
"We can respond so quickly to our customers, it's
unbelievable. We had a company in California that wanted a thinner bobbin
and we had them one in a week."
Pittsfield's principals use a term called "whiplash
turnaround," meaning they can rapidly turn around customer orders
.
Bob Mulvey operates a computer-controlled turning center.
Walker credited the company's responsiveness,
and ultimately its growth, to the tooling operation. The principals
have invested heavily in that area by upgrading machines or adding new
ones in order to better serve customers' needs. In two years, the department
has grown from 14 machines and 49 molds to 18 machines and 70 molds.
The company also offers customization services
for customers who want, say, tubes of varying colors or their name or
a motto imprinted on bobbins.
Dennis Melle works in the
tooling area.
In addition, many customers' inventories are warehoused for quick delivery.
"We call our Just In Time system "Just In Case, " Walker, laughing,
said of the warehouse.
"One of the things that has made us successful
and will make us successful in the South is our policy on shipments,"
Cooper said. What I mean by that is a lot of our customers don't' have
big warehouses where the can take 53-foot tractor-trailers, so they
need JIT delivery. And that's what we're building in our response times.
That's what we're carrying down South. We're going to use our partner's
(USCO's) warehousing to deliver JIT until we have a plant down there.
So we help our customers manage their inventory."
Customers come first
Customers, Pittsfield's principals and employees
use the word frequently - but not lightly. Cooper speaks philosophically
on the subject.
"There's a business model in a book called In Search
of Excellence by (Tom) Peters. In that book the basic philosophy is
everybody has got to have customer responsibility, all the way from
the top dog to the bottom dog and that's the basic philosophy here,"
he said. "Our customers are encouraged to come to our plant and see
our employees working on their product. When our employees put a face
on that customer, all of a sudden that stuff they're putting into that
box means a lot to the employees."
Keeping in contact with customers is important,
added McCuin. "No matter how small or how big our customers are, seeing
them once every three years doesn't work," he said. "You've got to see
them frequently, you've got to shake their hands, you've got to say
howdy. They need the personal contact."
Understanding customers' needs is also critical,
said McCuin, whose vast experience in the textile industry prior to
joining Pittsfield in 1991 has made him something of an expert in the
field.
"They've come up with the 2-for1 twisters that
are extremely fast," he said. "There are so many of the high-speed machines
our there now - automatic, semiautomatic. The funny thing is, you go
into a plant and next to a $25,000 spindle machine is an old 50 winder
or an old Atwood 1958 machine that's still running. You have to know
both machines.
"We're constantly trying to develop better products
through experimenting with different materials and there's a lot of
new stuff coming out on the market today. You have to keep up with it."
The company's No. 1 rule: "If you don't take care
of your customers," Walker said, as Cooper and McCuin chimed in unison,
"somebody else will." He then added: "Sometimes we jump through hoops
trying to make a delivery, trying to help people out. All you have to
do is help people out. All you have to do is help people once and you've
got a friend for life."
Call it being customer driven.
For Immediate Release
Pittsfield Plastics Continues
to Raise the Standards in Standard Wire Reels.
(Pittsfield,
MA)
The Standard Wire Reel product
line at Pittsfield Plastics Engineering has continued to grow…literally.
The newest SKU added to their offering is the new 6"x3 ½"x3 ½" model
and its barrel wall thickness is a whopping 33% greater than the competition.
Other reels of the same size in the market have a wall thickness of
.066 and the new product from PittPlas has a wall thickness of .090.
As Tom Walker, a Principal
of PittsPlas, reasons, "We've added more beef to the wall to ensure
the highest performance in fine wire reel winding for our customers.
There's a significant barrel strength advantage over the others currently
being offered in the market."
Walker continued, "And with
our new 6 ½' x 6 ½" x 3" we've rounded out the whole standard reel line.
This, too, will have the .090 wall thickness barrel - ensuring excellent
high speed winding results."
Earlier this year PittsPlas
introduced improvements in the11 ¾" x 7" and the 8" x 6" standard workhorse
reels of the industry.
According to Tom Walker,
"Our two new designs of these standard wire reels came from a re-engineering
to address the market's concern for flange chipping and breakage. We
incorporated an additional row of ribs in the 11 ¾ x 7 and added six
more ribs to the 8x6 to create a stronger flange in these HIPS (high
impact polystyrene) or ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) reel designs.
This has been proven to enhance both in-process and shipping reel performance
for our customers and the demand has been phenomenal."
PittsPlas is, also, taking
a leadership position with the environment with the way they've been
going to market with these products. Walker went on to explain that
they have improved production facilities with additional molding equipment
so that they can offer J.I.T. (just in time) deliveries to help better
accommodate their customers' scheduling needs. "These new reels are
also recyclable", he added, "after their useful life we'll take them
back and re-process them. A good analogy would be the classic milk truck
delivery - we take back the empties!"
The new Standard Wire Reels
are available in a wide range of custom colors with optional customer
labeling.
-END-
For more
information on Pittsfield Plastics Engineering and Precision Spools,
Inc. contact: Tom Walker, Vice President at (ph) 413.442.0067 or e-mail
at Tom@pittsplas.com
Pittsfield
Plastics Engineering Inc.
1510 Housatonic St
PO Box 1246
Pittsfield, MA 01202
Phone: (413) 442 0067
Fax: (413) 445 7849
E-mail:
info@pittsplas.net
