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Host Sean Frost is joined by experts in the manufacturing industry to discuss bringing big ideas to life. Join us every episode for a deep dive into manufacturing trends, processes, innovation, and how to be successful in the ever-changing world of manufacturing.
Inspiring_Innovation_EP13_final
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Sean Frost: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to another episode of inspiring innovation where we do deep dives into manufacturing and hear from industry experts and i'm your host sean frost The director of sales and marketing for polo custom products. And today we've got a real master of manufacturing with us. Greg Brown is our plant manager of our Lewisville, Mississippi location and he's our most experienced plant manager, the Lewisville facility has the most square [00:01:00] footage.
It has all of Polo's capabilities and a really incredible team. So, Greg's a great leader. He's come to us from from You know, a manufacturing background, a sewing background even. Before that he was in the military. And so he's got a really disciplined approach to leadership and it shows with the way that his team executes and delivers.
So, really excited to have Greg on the podcast today. And I also know, you know, part of his experience that I think is, Motivating and inspiring too, is that he's really good at putting on a fish fry. So, I gotta get down for one of those, one of these days here, but Greg, welcome to the podcast and thanks for joining us today.
Greg Brown: Thanks Sean. Thank you for your kind comments.
Sean Frost: Yeah, no problem. So can you just. Give us a walkthrough and an overview of some of the processes and the capabilities that you guys have at the [00:02:00] Louisville, Mississippi location. And really anything that might be a little bit unique or specialized that we might not openly market in terms of different things that Polo sometimes does as a custom manufacturer.
Greg Brown: Well, basically in this plant, we can break into three broad categories of what we do. First and foremost is sewing. We've also have a strong RF operation here, and the third one is forming. And all of those feed through the same processes. Everything starts with a raw materials that we order and bring in and we store.
Of course, all of that is. Done everything we bring in, we put log model labels on or barcode label so that we can track it. We can inventory it. We can move it. We know where it's at, but it all starts in cutting. And when we cut, we have two main methods of cutting. One of those is a computer aided cutting machine, Electra.
And the other one is die clickers. We have two very large Clicking machines, and we'll cut parts out with [00:03:00] dies. We no longer do anything by hand here to aid in precision and quality on those. But that's basically it. It'll, once it comes through cutting, it flows through if it needs anything like embroidery silkscreen.
We can do that. We have those capabilities as well. And then it blends out to the floor into the individual. So teams are RF teams are into our foreman area, depending on the product. And some products will run through two of those. I don't have any, it runs through all three of those sales, but we do have several that run through.
And that's kind of a basic breakdown of what we have and how we get it through.
Sean Frost: Yeah. And Not sure if there's any reason not to talk about these, so we can cut this part if we need to I know we've also got some different ways of you know, putting logos on and maybe screen printing and and there's that one back room too, where there's a different operation that, That involves some ventilation and I didn't know if that's worth touching on at all either.
Greg Brown: Well, that room basically is [00:04:00] just in the use of manufacturing sandblast hoods. And there's a process in there where we vulcanize rubber onto the face plate to cover up the stitches so that they won't be worn from the abrasion. That one does. Generate a little bit of fume. It is well ventilated, but we also seal those stitch lines and glue and with the, but the main process there is a vulcanization.
Sean Frost: Yeah, that's, that was the word I was struggling to remember that we don't put into our marketing materials, vulcanization of rubber. So, but it is pretty, pretty interesting process and And I always enjoy the plant tours down there and, and bringing customers down there. Anything else from the kind of logo screen printing, any of those capabilities?
We
Greg Brown: do several different ones. We have some, we have one customer that uses a, used to be leathers, now pleather or vinyl, and we can imprint logos into [00:05:00] that. When we do that with an RF press, where we actually imprint them into the material itself. The other way is screen printing, where we can print on, we print on multiple different.
Materials for that one. We also emboss in the forming room. We have an operation in a press where we can emboss into that embroidery, we embroider logos on, we do heat transfers and I think that covers everything we have on those.
Sean Frost: Yeah, I I think we've covered some of our capabilities and other episodes, but it's always great to hear from the production side and Potentially get some engineers in the audience, brain twirling a little bit about what they might be thinking about for any of their products, if they're tuning in, so appreciate all that explanation and then move it on to Quality, which, you know, that's one of the things I think our customers want to make sure, you know, we're going to deliver on time and it's going to be a quality product.
It's the best price we can make it for [00:06:00] them. But how does your plant. Ensure consistent quality in our products and measure, measure that. And what measures do you take to make sure we're meeting those high standards?
Greg Brown: We'll take a look at that from 10, 000 feet. First off on this our quality program.
That we currently run is of course it's ISO certified. We spend a lot of time in auditing, going back and making sure that our processes that we are following our processes we have external auditors coming in on us. We do internal auditors, or self audits every quarter to ensure that our processes are being followed.
That's probably the most important part It's easy to sit down and come up with a procedure or policy, but to ensure that you're actually doing it day in and day out we spend a lot of time on that, but everybody that comes in here goes through a one week training class before you're hired onto the floor, you go into training and you're taught.
Everything that's in our BOM, or [00:07:00] our Bill of Manufacture. And that covers everything from what materials go in, what operations in the production, what the quality standards are, we have quality history sheets in there, I mean it's just a, it's a big packet that covers anything you could possibly want. So in their first week they get training on that, how to read that BOM, where to go to find the quality history sheet, how to interpret the drawings that are in there so that they can make a good product.
The other thing is, we have a QC department that makes roving inspections. They make random inspections throughout the lines and teams during the day. Most of these, 98 percent of them are random. We do have some customers that require 100 percent inspection. So those are a little different. Every part there is 100 percent inspected.
But we also do a lot of feedback when we do have an issue, when we do have an escape and we get a non conformance, then that goes back to that team that built it. You know, this is what happened. This is what got out. [00:08:00] How are we going to fix it? What do we need to do? So everybody's aware when we do have an issue.
Then we also have other tools at our disposal that we use with that. We have boards out on the line that will display uh, what a good product is versus. A poor quality product. But probably most important on that is our quality history worksheet that is in that BOM. That will list every revision, every change that's happened to that product from the day it was released.
It'll list any returns or any complaints we got from the customer on it. So before somebody sets down on a new job and begins to produce, you know, that's one of the first things we need to do is take your BOM, flick back to the Quality history sheet and see where we've had problems in the past. That way we can ensure that we don't have them again.
That's kind of a high level overview of where we're running and what we're doing.
Sean Frost: It does come down to the front lines knowing the history and capitalizing on it so they can identify anything that might come up. And then, [00:09:00] you know, this has been. A wild few years in the industry, in the world and delivering products on time is definitely essential and seems like it's been crazier than ever with supply disruptions and different issues that have come up.
And, you know, one of the things that, We've commonly talked about with our customers, early bad news is good news. But what specifically in Louisville, have you guys taken as measures to make sure that you're hitting your delivery deadlines and how do you address any potential challenges that tend to come up?
Greg Brown: You're correct. And a lot of it now. Is driven off the raw materials and our supplies and vendors getting it into us. Our lead times have double, triple, quadrupled from where they were four years ago. So it's very critical that you don't have an inventory error that puts you in a behind situation without raw materials.
So we look at that a lot closer than we maybe once. Would have in the past we try to go through our [00:10:00] warehouse regularly doing audits and checks to ensure that our inventory is accurate. We do a better job of getting on top of it when something is wrong. You know, on occasion we find where there's a usage may be wrong in a material and you use it up faster than you thought you would.
So we try to stay on top of that and keep that going to minimize it. But in, once you have all that going and you get an order and, you know, Some of them go right through, they're not any issue, they're easy bills, and some of them are very difficult bills, and they're a little harder to get through due to labor constraints and time and such as that.
What we try to do, even though our plant is built of many small teams, When we get to something like that and we have a crush date on it, we'll try to move our people around, take them out of their teams. It's basically a juggling act. If we're a little ahead over here, we can move some people in and help fill that void.
We have overtime that we can fall back on too, if you know, that's the last resort, but if we need to, [00:11:00] we can do that, but basically it's just trying to keep looking far enough ahead. A week, two weeks, some cases, two, three months out to make sure that, you know, what's coming at you and you have an adequate plan to be able to get your resources in the right place.
Sometimes on some of our more complicated stuff it may have a hundred, 120 operations in it and it's long and we see that down the road in six months, instead of waiting, we'll start trying to release parts of that. And anytime we have labor freed up, we start working on it and we build it into sub assemblies and we hold those parts.
Any of those kinds of things are ways and manners that we try to do it. But bottom line is we try to make every date that's out there. Sometimes you can get the rabbit out of the hat, and sometimes you won't come.
Sean Frost: Yeah, no, I totally don't envy the problems that seem impossible that you all work to solve sometimes, and and, you know, you've got a great team working on it.
I [00:12:00] do wonder too, I mean, If you serve, you know, all the different industries that we're in, whether it's aviation, medical, industrial or direct to, to government and military and defense knowing that you have such a wide range of different products and different industries and different regulations to meet and keep in accordance with What are some of the various or common challenges that you encounter at the plant how are some ways that you address and mitigate those?
Greg Brown: A lot of time. And like I said, it just comes down to scheduling it and being able to have enough labor on hand to turn it government contracts for us are always And loaded, you know, it's, there's all, it's, there's a ship date almost before you ever start to process and that never moves. So as you're sitting there watching your time go away from you, you know, we're planning on how we're going to make up [00:13:00] lost time before we ever start because we know what's coming.
So you, you look at that and you look at, can I get a second shift started? Can I get, Work on the weekend. How can I, it all comes down to hours. How can I get more hours in a smaller window? And sometimes that gets pretty creative, but the bottom line is that's what you gotta have. That's where you gotta get it.
For the most part on a lot of these projects Once we've had it for a while and have the bugs worked out of it, you know, it runs pretty smooth and We're doing a lot better job now on our new products where we're actually getting product development into the plant And we get a chance to work with them before it comes in and we see a lot of things that are going to be issues to production Before the BOM is ever written before the samples are done and we're able to get some changes made in That's going to help us a lot on making those dates on new releases and new products.
I think
Sean Frost: that's great. [00:14:00] And really bleeds into the next conversation here, which is, are there other advancements or trends that you've observed in the manufacturing processes at Lewisville? I mean, how have things changed in the 20 years that you've been there from an operation standpoint, 20 plus years, I should say.
Greg Brown: Well, it's product mix is a lot different from us now than from what it was. Used to, it seems like anything to come. We had at one time, 1200 active products in here. We would be sewing 42 different products at one time. That would lay you up. With 42 jobs in process, 42 jobs coming in, 42 jobs going out.
So you're trying to keep your hand wrapped around 130 active jobs at any one time. It did get a little hairy. What we're seeing now is we have less of the jobs. Nuisance jobs. We used to call them, you know, when you're trying to get set up and go and go on something and making your money, then you [00:15:00] get dropped in a hundred of this or 50 of that and there's never anything in it.
So I think as a whole, as a company we're a lot better shape. Cause a lot of that we no longer deal with. I think we're narrowing our focus and we're getting deeper instead of wider, which makes it a lot easier to run the plant we have upgraded a lot of our equipment over that amount of time. Our RF presses now, I think we're running solid state presses.
I think that's state of the art doing great with those. We're constantly looking at how we can improve not so much. The big equipment, but the stuff that goes along with it, our work aides, our shop aides, our plates and clamps. I think we, we make a lot more sophisticated plates and clamps now than we did in the past.
That gives you repeatable quality and it helps on operator train up those types of things there. We've made great strides in.
Sean Frost: That's awesome to hear. And I think that was a, Difficult period that I came in at the tail end of, which is, you know, [00:16:00] making some tough decisions during COVID of which products we really wanted to hone in on and which ones were really just hard to turn a profit on because they were lobbying orders that weren't, you know, High enough volume to keep it up, and I think a lot of people within different industries had to make those decisions during that time.
And we did our best to service our customers with last buys and all that kind of stuff. But but it has really We are a lot more focused and that's really cool to hear, you know, the different, state of the science almost that you guys are achieving down there with the different plates.
Now. You know, our associates are some of our best assets and could you share kind of, you've touched on it, the training and the development programs that we have in place to, to nurture our talent and to make sure that they keep improving their level of expertise.
Greg Brown: Well, actually.
I think we do the best job of that than we ever have. As I said earlier, everybody that comes in the door [00:17:00] now gets a one week, goes through a one week training program, whether they're going to be sewers or where they're going to work on RF press or where they're going to be in forming whether they're going to be indirect labor, such as warehouse personnel, they all catch that week.
Now it's tailored to their individual needs. So if I'm hired in as a sewing machine operator, I'm not going to go through the exact training as the person that's hired in as an RF press, your basics are going to be the same. This is our work rules. This is how Polo operates. These are BOMs.
Everybody got to understand how to read a BOM. And then it goes after that initial, then it breaks down into what your individual job will be. So people coming in are in a lot better shape than they used to be before we did that and just did the OJT on the floor. Now, does that prepare you to walk out and be a production associate?
No, it doesn't, but it lays the necessary building blocks that when you do go to your job and you switch into on the job training, [00:18:00] that you're not totally in the dark, you understand what people are saying to you as a, they go through the BOM with you and they show you your operations and show you how to sew or show you how to set the press up.
So it, it gives them a great foot up on that. It also gives us an opportunity to evaluate you in that week, very rarely, but it happens, people don't make it out of that training because that week's enough time to understand you're not going to fit our culture. You're not going to fit what we're trying to do here.
So, that's a helpful instance. Now, the other thing that we do a lot of now is we, our trainer has put Many classes she's got some of the best leadership classes I've ever been through and they are beginner, intermediate and stepped on up. We put as many people through that as we can.
You know, sometimes, well, I'll just put my supervisors through it, but I want to get my supervisors through it. I want to get my team captains below them through it. And if I got anybody that shows potential right now as an operator or an associate, I'd like to get them [00:19:00] in it too because that's going to help us in the long run.
It's going to help them in the long run. The more they can be exposed to it, the better they are able to step up to it when their opportunity comes. So we have those, we have technical classes as well. We run computer classes up there. That'll get you the basics of Excels Word, things of that nature, how to run our internal program site line.
There's quality classes that go through. So. We now have a class that'll cover about anything, so there's not a lot of excuse for I don't have a chance, I don't have a way to go. We also use a tiers program here, where we tie your pay to what tier level you can reach, and we have three levels. You come in, you take your first test that, that lets us know that you know how to do your job.
If you can do that, you can get to tier one if your attendance is, and everything is there. Tier two, you can run anything on the line you're in, and tier three, you can run [00:20:00] anything in the plant, plus you can work on it, plus you can teach other people how to do it. Tier three is extremely hard to get to, but we probably have about 13 people here that have attained that.
But again, it's training, and it's giving you an opportunity to advance by going through training. So, I feel like we do an excellent job now. Way above where we were when I started in that area.
Sean Frost: Yeah, that's a really great program. And you mentioned a lot of great things there, but I do feel like that is something that allows our associates to really look at this as not just a job, but a career path for them and you all do a tremendous job with that.
And I think, I mean, you mentioned. Culture and cultural fit. And I mentioned fish fries. But truthfully, what? What would you say? Drive some of the culture there in Lewisville and specifically around continuous improvement. And innovation, you know, amongst your workforce. I think about, you know, Some of the [00:21:00] boards that I see at the different work cells and the way that they're continuously updated and tracking important information.
Is there anything you'd like to touch on in the culture that, that you think helps drive the success in Lewisville?
Greg Brown: Well, the culture is what you make it. I mean, it's as a plant manager I can have it, whatever culture I want now, depending on how well that culture is will impact my longevity here.
It all has to work towards corporate goal. And that's what we're trying to do is to bring that culture into a, we want to develop a work ethic. B, we want to develop a family atmosphere down here, you know, in the South, that's a big thing. If you can't come in and blend with us and eat at our fish fry, then it doesn't work out too well for us.
But we want all these things we want to bring into. We want you to not just come here and feel like you have to be here, come here and be a part of it. You know, help it work better. Come up with ideas to make your [00:22:00] job easier, our product better. Cause if it's easier for you, then it's better for us.
And that's kind of where we are. We strive very hard. I do anyway, to make this a family. Place anybody out here can talk to anybody and that's one of the great things about this company as a whole I mean anybody can pick up the phone and call corporate they can get a hold of CEO They can get a hold of vice president of HR Like I mean anybody in this company is a phone call away and believe me they do it You know, I have associates on the floor that call us the CEO But that's one of the things that makes it strong.
And we grow that here as well, but we do that through training, through talking to people. We have our monthly, I have a monthly meeting every month where I kind of the state of the union, how we did last month, where we stacked up on our metrics, anything new that's coming at us. Try to keep everybody.
Involved in it. One of the worst things in factories is [00:23:00] rumors and they will start and fly over anything. So the more open communication we have with people, the more we talk to them, the less issue that is. Supervisors have weekly meetings where their teams, where they break down what I say and go over it and reiterate it and reinforce it so that we.
Can always continuously work to get the thing how we want it to be.
Sean Frost: Those are all great points and I don't know that I've ever been anywhere where there was too much communication and it doesn't matter, you know, how many times you say things, there's always going to be things that are hard to purvey.
So I think you guys have a great system for that down there and definitely have a great conversation. Culture and community. And it's always enjoyable to get down there, even when it's like, 105 degrees and humid. So, we enjoy getting down there and it's just a great culture and plant.
So, can you speak to a little bit more of the quality control and assurance? You mentioned ISO you, you [00:24:00] mentioned the team down there. That'll run random checks. But is there anything more you'd like to add about how they contribute to our product excellence at Polo?
Greg Brown: The quality program is hard to break down in terms, cause there is so much going on in that.
Naturally as anybody else's, we have a quality manual, you know, it's a nice big, heavy book that lays out everything that we're going to do. It will lay out what the auditors will check as far as. How many pieces do they need to check? If I find X amount of bad pieces, I check three more pieces.
That's the nuts and bolts of it. Everybody has that. But what makes this thing click to me is the quality here. Again, it goes back into culture. They work very close with production. It's not a us and them. It's not an adversarial relationship. When they see things that aren't quite off the rails yet, but going that way, we have that conversation, you know, this down the road, this is okay now, but down the road, this needs to be looked [00:25:00] at.
And I can go back the same way on it as well. I understand what you're saying. It's not an issue right now. We'll work on it down the road, but we're good now to get to that point. We have a quality manager here. And he handles, of course, the day to day operation of that. He also gets involved with customers.
He does all of the, and when we get an NCM, he does the investigation. He leads that. And those are the things that do happen. The inspectors go out and they make their inspections and they do the paperwork and they keep it on the charts. You had alluded earlier, we have boards in every. On every team, not every department, but on every team that lists the checks that were made, they had green, red, yellow.
They know where they're at. We try to make everything as visual as possible. And on some areas where we've had some issues, we'll even lay out the entire product up there on the board. And with all the examples of anything that we've ever gotten back for it, you know, skip stitch or something turned wrong.
That's all on their [00:26:00] visual. So you can see it. They go through those, they make their checks, and anything is brought back. Each operator is personally responsible for their own quality, and they're responsible for the person in front of them. If you sew over bad quality, then you own both of those.
So, you got an incentive to look before you start sewing to make sure the person before you's operation is correct before you sew over it. But they're responsible for that. They have every operation that we do. We have a sample piece sewn of that operation. It's on that machine. So if they have any doubt whatsoever, where they're putting on a button or they're sewing on a piece of binding, or they're hooking a gusset to a body, that sample piece is hanging on the machine in front of them and they can look at it and make sure that they're still on track, they will also stop every hour and check.
Three pieces, and if they have any issues, if they find a bad one, then they go back and check more. So, those checks are there as [00:27:00] well. That's all recorded. It all goes on that BOM, and it stays with it for the next seven years until that paperwork is done. Ready to be done away with everything is locked, tracked.
Everything is tied back. So when we do have an issue, we do a pretty good job of being able to get it back to where it came from what raw material it was who sold it the whole nine yards.
Sean Frost: Yeah, that's really. helpful for identifying how we get better. And it seems like each one of these questions kind of bleeds into the next, but with today's competitive landscape, efficiency is key.
And how do you work to optimize some of your processes to enhance efficiency and productivity? I know You know, you mentioned earlier, even just some of the barcode scanning and inventory management things. And how do you how do you make sure that we're working as efficiently as possible when we're going through [00:28:00] all of these different steps from sourcing all the way to Shipping it out the door.
Greg Brown: Well, you get the right people in the right spots to start with that. That's your biggest help. We do have that if you start all the way back in raw materials, if you start back in procurement, you know, they're working every day to ensure that it's here. They're working every day to ensure that the specifications that we require are met.
When that raw material comes in the back door. At receiving every item number that we have has a list of specifications and does it get checked or not? And if it gets checked, it spells out exactly what you look for, how you measure it, what the measurements are, what the weight is, what the color is. So all of that is done coming in on the front end to ensure, you know, you're doing your best to keep it off the floor.
Once you put it on the floor and put a needle in it, you've got extra money in it. So you try to catch that on the front. You want to be as efficient as possible to make sure only the, only proper materials get to the floor. Once it goes out there, if [00:29:00] you're looking at efficiency, you have a, we'll call it tribal knowledge.
I've got 24 lines in this plant right now sewing. Some of those people sew the same thing every day. A lot of them sew a different product every time. 40 different products. Some people are better at some things than others are. Sally may be able to sew this pocket on better and buy and buy in a plant, but she can't bind and Sue over here can bind, but she can't do that.
So that's the next step. You got to learn your people, what their strengths and weaknesses are and get them where they need to be. That's the biggest factor in running the product through efficiently is to make sure you have the proper people there, the right amount of people if you're running a three person team on one product, that's the absolute right amount of people.
The next product that comes through behind it may need four. And the difference that one person may be 25 percent on your efficiency. So you have to be looking when it comes in, you have to be [00:30:00] looking ahead. What am I going to need on the next job? Where am I going to get it? Can I get it? And then you start your magic act at that point to make sure that you are setting yourself up for optimal success by having the right people in the right spots at the right time.
But if you do all that and you're successful you'll make a product at a very good efficiency. And that's your number one driver on your margins.
Sean Frost: Yeah, I think We might need a title change for you, maybe like professional magician or juggler or problem solver. And I mean, you do, and your team does, and you do have the right people in the right places.
So, it's always incredible to see what y'all are able to accomplish what you had with what you have there.
Greg Brown: Part of my job, if I had to say one thing that I get the most enjoyment out of it's that it's when everything goes wrong. How do you fix it?
Sean Frost: Yeah, there's never a dull moment. That's for sure.
So, I guess, you know, this is kind of a good ending [00:31:00] question for you, but looking ahead, what are some of the future goals at Lewisville and how do you plan to continue to remain competitive in this industry?
Greg Brown: We're going to keep sharpening the skills that we currently have. Our mix has changed over the years from 100 percent sowing to now probably 50 50 RF to sowing. It really allows us to focus more on the sowing end of it. That's the more difficult end that requires more skill, takes up more time, needs more oversight.
So we continue to polish that. And what we're working on right now to take us into the next step is, as I mentioned earlier, where we work in teams right now, we want to get to a point where we work, our labor is in pools. And not in a team so that when a product comes into the plant, when you look at that and say, we need seven people, not that it's going to go to this team, but I need seven people for this product.
Just reach out, grab the [00:32:00] seven best for it. Start it. What's the next one? Reach out, grab who I've got left in the pool and start it. When we get to that level, at that point, everybody's pretty much cross trained to where they can run about. Anything that they need to run. So that's kind of where we're trying to get with that.
That should take us into the next generational products that we see. But we always want to continue working on that efficiency. Getting down to the proper amount of people in the plant, keeping our overheads down. We're always looking where we can save an overhand. Do we need to swap out LED lighting?
Do we need to go to different shifts? Heating, cooling issues, you know. Just stay in the weeds on all of it. There's a minute you stop looking at it. It'll go out of control on you.
Sean Frost: That's the one thing you can count on. It doesn't uh, get tracked or measured. Doesn't perform right. Yeah, it doesn't happen.
So, yeah, well, Greg, I really appreciate your time and joining us today. This was really fascinating, great deep [00:33:00] dive. I think it ties together lots of the different podcasts that we've had with other components of the business. and I really appreciate you being the first and only plant manager we've had on the podcast to date.
So, you did a great job. I learned a lot and I think this will be great for our audience.
Greg Brown: Alright well thank you
Sean Frost: Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the inspiring innovation. It comes out every second tuesday of the month Please like subscribe comment your feedback what you want to hear more of if we get Greg back on for a second round one of these days Or what you had hoped we'd touch on so, You Thanks for tuning in.
We really appreciate our listeners and hope you learned something. Thanks.