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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.
Ep16_BrianWeber_final
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Sean Frost: [00:00:00] Hi and welcome back to another episode of Inspiring Innovation. It comes out the second Tuesday of every month and we appreciate our listeners. This one's going to be different. We're doing something fun today. ~I had, ~I want to give a shout out to the manufacturing happy hour podcast that inspired this this, this episode.
Episode today, because today we have Iowa water, I mean, Busch Light on, on, on uh, on the counter here, and ~we're gonna, ~we're gonna have some fun just having some beers and talking manufacturing. ~So, so. ~I think you're going to [00:01:00] have fun listening to some different stories and some unique stuff.
We're bringing back our chief operating officer Brian Weber, who came onto the podcast before, so this is our first repeat guest and we're going to do it in, in epic fashion. So Brian, appreciate. Everything that you do for Polo and how you embody our organization. And I'm looking forward to some of the stories that take place today over, over a happy hour.
So
Brian Weber: cheers. And I appreciate the nod to Iowa water. So I don't know if I know a lot about manufacturing, but I sure know a lot about beers.
Sean Frost: We'll touch on, on both of those things. So, so this will be fun. And we've got the commemorative 75th anniversary Polo custom product beer cup. So we're, we're doing a little bit of classy with a little bit of A little bit of Bush.
So, Bush, if you want to officially sponsor the podcast, we we're open to it. Reach out to, to Chelsea Trevino, our, our [00:02:00] marketing manager and, and cheers, Brian. Cheers.
Brian Weber: Thank you.
Sean Frost: So
last time we had you on the podcast, you told us ~your, ~your Polo story. What's the craziest story you have since since that time, since we talked, which is probably almost a year ago. ~Yeah,~
Brian Weber: I think it was right around a year ago and in manufacturing a year goes by pretty quick. ~Yeah, ~
~ ~I wouldn't say it was, it's crazy, but it's definitely been a lot of work by a lot of people ~and, ~and a tremendous success.
We have multiple product lines running a single medical product and ~it's~ we've been running it for about four years and it's been tremendously successful for Polo ~and, ~and from what I understand to our customer as well. But as we scaled up we had several hundred people working on this product and we continued to have to scale.
We had divided it between multiple locations. Actually, all three of our locations played a role in making either the product or components. And we wanted to diversify and spread the [00:03:00] risk out a little bit more. And so we decided with the customer's approval to launch it at our manufacturing plant in Dominican Republic.
And so to do that under the timeline that we had, the tight deadline and while this product was really booming and we had machines on order, all the coordination of bringing people from Dominican Republic to our Iowa facility to see the, one of the product lines Running and to duplicate that down in the Dominican Republic to do site prep, to do machine transfers, to get new machinery from our vendors.
It was quite a challenge and a very exciting time. And at the same time, our customer I think was a little worried. I think they wondered if we could handle it because to them, it seemed like a, quite the endeavor, but I think we had a, had a great plan and I think we had a lot of different departments execute the plan well.
And a lot of hard work by a lot of people ended up allowing us to do it. And it's [00:04:00] been very successful. ~And ~I think we exceeded our customers expectations with this launch and they can continue to run it to this day and it's, going well.
Sean Frost: Yeah, ~no, it's a, ~that is a really cool story. And I think transferring product is something that makes a lot of our customers nervous.
~Yeah, well, it's not easy. Right. Yeah, it isn't. It isn't. And I know, you know, we've, ~Had a customer said, I don't care if it's a hundred feet over there, I don't want you to move it. And so when it was at these scales, we're talking about, you know, a lot of volume, a lot of material, raw materials being spread over different locations and management.
~And so, so yeah, I, ~I think our customer was really impressed that ~there, ~there wasn't a beat skipped in ~that. Yeah, ~that we ~over, ~overcame ~all the, ~all the logistics ~on, ~on something that massive of a scale. So, congratulations.
Brian Weber: ~we, ~ we kind of live and die by ~the, ~what I call the five P's, which is proper planning prevents poor performance.
So, we had a good plan. We executed that plan. We stuck to the plan, even when there were challenges with~ You know, ~ocean freight and [00:05:00] all the things that are going on that are outside of our control and we're still coming off the COVID and material shortages and long lead times ~and, and it, ~I just, again, it's not crazy, but it's ~just ~something that I think we should all be proud of.
And I think our customer very much appreciates the effort that we put into it and the success we have. ~Big time. ~
Sean Frost: ~Yeah. No, that's a, that's a great example. ~If Polo Custom Products were a beer, what beer would it be and why?
Brian Weber: Wow. I feel like I'm in a psychology office or something. ~You know, I'm a, ~I'm a fan of the Iowa water and that's pretty much what I stick to, but I would call it a home brew because it's always different. You never know what you're going to get.
~And I think that's the. You know, ~That's the essence of Polo. ~We have, ~as a custom manufacturer, with, ~you know, ~four different divisions and market groups. We never know what we're going to be working on. ~And ~we never know what is coming down the pipe. ~And ~all we can do ~is ~is roll with it and execute.
And, you know, a homebrew, it's always loved. It doesn't matter, ~you know, ~how it tastes. You always love it because you put so much effort into it. But you never know what you're going to get. So ~if I had to, ~if [00:06:00] I had to call Polo a beer even though I love Bush Light and I love Polo, ~I would, ~I would say it's some sort of homebrew.
Sean Frost: Nice. Nice. A custom homebrew. ~Yeah, exactly. Exactly. ~Made to order. Whatever our customers want.
That's ~a, this is ~a good transition into the next question too. You kind of touched on it a little bit, which is We're a 75 year old company. I imagine you've had some pretty interesting product requests over the years. ~What's the, ~What's the wildest or most interesting product request you've gotten and how did you handle it?
Brian Weber: Well, this is a family show, I think.
It's been many years ago, so the details are, are a little sketchy for me, but I remember being called into the Director of Product Development's office at the time, and she just couldn't keep a straight face, and she had a print in her hand, which, nothing new, a blueprint, you know, engineering print, You know, at first glance, it looked like a product that, you know, we could do in our sleep, those webbing assemblies and everything, and, and she said, you know what this [00:07:00] is?
And I said, no, and I'll try and be diplomatic here. It was a a swing assembly for intimate encounters, let's put it that way, ~and, ~and, you know, not having a whole lot of expertise in that product line. ~You know, ~All I could do is smile because in my mind, I knew that somewhere there was some company ~that that was, You know, ~that was their product and they were proud of that.
And that was what put food on their family's tables. ~And, ~and there was some group of end users that wanted a high quality product for whatever reasons. So, ~you know, we, ~we had a good laugh, but then we settled, ~you know, set ~on doing what we do, and that is assigning responsibilities and reviewing the prints and, ~you know, ~finding raw materials and talking about specifications.
And certainly on that one, ~you know, ~we worried about some liability because if something broke, what would happen? But ultimately, not for lack of effort on our part I think we got to the sample stage. We made some samples and for whatever reason, [00:08:00] it never really went to production, but that sticks out in my mind as just one of those that, you know, in the beginning you're like, really?
But then you think ~there's ~there's all sorts of products out there that somebody has to manufacture it, right? ~Yeah, and ~and if you take on that responsibility, ~you got it. ~You got to do it seriously. So that's what we did
Sean Frost: Yeah I was going to say, what were the volumes requested on this?
Brian Weber: Yeah, that's where the, that's where the details are a little sketchy, but I'm sure with our sales team being what they are you know, it wasn't, it wasn't something that was, that was very small.
~It was super small. It was, ~it was worth our time and effort, and yeah, so that was, That was one that I'll have to go out, now that you've mentioned them, I'll have to go back and see if anybody remembers it and what the details were. ~Good~
Sean Frost: dust off the files.
Brian Weber: And we'd be happy to do it again. I mean, if there's a customer out there that needs a manufacturer,
We can do it.
Doesn't matter what it is, we can do it. ~The~
Sean Frost: happy hour podcast. I'm gonna, I'm gonna count that ~as ~as topics I never thought that ~we'd, ~we'd get [00:09:00] into on this podcast. this is getting kicked off on ~the, ~the right.
Brian Weber: You bring the beer, this kind of talk happens.
Sean Frost: I love how diplomatically put that was. ~Well, ~
Brian Weber: yeah, like I said, I never know who's listening.
Sean Frost: At Polo, ~we've grown rapidly over the last few years and ~was there a moment that ever stuck out to you of like, what were we thinking kind of moment during ~that, ~that growth trajectory that we've been on?
Brian Weber: Yeah, well, there's one thing about Polo is
we're cautious and we don't jump into anything without a lot of thought and consideration, but about a third of our business is done offshore. Yeah. And there's always risk offshore and there's everything from geopolitical risk to, you know, supply chain, everything. So I recall we're constantly looking for ~the,~ the best place to manufacture product outside the U S when our customer doesn't want to manufacture it for whatever reason, one of our [00:10:00] plants, where's the best place to make it.
~And you know, ~whether it's China, whether it's Vietnam, whether it's Cambodia somewhere in the Caribbean, Dominican Republic, like we just talked about. But about 10 years ago, Myanmar popped up on our radar, ~you know, ~also known as Burma but ~it's, ~it's called Myanmar now. And there was a lot of Chinese companies moving manufacturing to Myanmar.
~And that was, ~Myanmar is definitely a developing country. There's definitely lots of unemployment and lots of available labor it's definitely low cost country. So just like anything else, we investigated it, we kind of dipped our toe in, ~we, ~we decided, yeah, this is somewhere ~we could, ~we could do some work, we could do some manufacturing.
We partnered with ~a ~a Chinese manufacturer that we had dealt with before who had opened a facility there. And we did some quoting and ultimately about the time that we were ready to completely pull the trigger there's a military coup and a mass exodus ~from, ~[00:11:00] from Myanmar. And because we did this cautiously, we were able to exit ~and, ~and still move that to, I can't remember who it was, some other Southeast Asian country, ~you know, China or Vietnam, or if we went to the Caribbean, ~but ultimately, we are still able to satisfy our customer.
~And, but, but that's where you start thinking~ We can do everything right. We can be as cautious ~as, ~as you can possibly be. You can dot every I, cross every T, and when it comes time to say, yeah, we're sure this is going to work, something out of left field can happen that's out of everybody's control. And I think that's what defines a company is how do they react when something totally unexpected happens.
~And,~ and in our case, or in a custom manufacturer's case. How do we make it so that our customer doesn't feel? And in that case, we were able to do it. You know, we definitely had to let the customer know, little change of plans. We're not going to make it in Myanmar. We're going to make it wherever but we're still gonna be able to make it for you.
And they were happy. We were happy. But that, that's still an area of the world that probably at some point will become a hotbed of [00:12:00] manufacturing, but those countries have to kind of get ~their, ~their own internal political strife under control and figure it out before we can help them out.
Sean Frost: Yeah, I know there's advantages to owning facilities in different parts of the world, but it has been beneficial to Polo historically ~to Be able ~to be nimble in those situations.
~And it's great that we didn't invest a lot of capital in a facility in Myanmar.~
Brian Weber: Yeah.
Sean Frost: This particular instance,
Brian Weber: a lot of those countries, ~you, ~you don't own anything. You can think you own it. You can have a deed in your hand. You can have all the assurances in the world, but especially when the governments are not necessarily democratic government or well established, things can change.
So, I think Polo has been able to do it the right way. We've been able to offer our customers ~a ~a low cost option without the risk that they might have if they were trying to do it on their own.
Sean Frost: This was not something I planned on talking about, but since we're talking about our import partners I think it'd be interesting to touch on Polo's value in that because we've got [00:13:00] longstanding relationships with some of these manufacturers.
We've got lots of volume with them. And so, you know, just if a customer's thinking about going direct over there. We've, we've laid groundwork and we have done a lot of ~the, ~the upfront vetting, ~you know, ~you know you're going to get what you're ordering~ when, ~when you're working with Polo, do you mind kind of touching on that dynamic since we're talking about import partners?
Brian Weber: Yeah. You know, I have a lot of peer networks manufacturing executives that I members of different groups, people I've met on airplanes flying to and from Southeast Asia. And I've heard horror stories. I mean, I've heard stories where people had their product made for a year and decided they wanted to go see the plant and when they get there, the plant doesn't exist. Or, you know, there's some major quality issue and all sorts of finger pointing, or they [00:14:00] find out that there's never been one manufacturer. It's always been moved to, to~ From ~plant to plant, different company to different company of whoever can make it at that given time. When we decided to do this, and this goes back before me, so I very much attribute our success to the people that came before me. We've been doing it for 40 years, but the idea has always been the same and that is we make sure what we're getting into before we pull the trigger. We, you know, we're doing business in Dominican Republic now, but it took four years from the first trip we made there to We'd already done homework at that time, and we had a list of companies we wanted to see and partners we wanted to visit.
It was four years later, I think, when we launched the first product there. And that was a very small item. And it actually worked out because the buying group for this big OEM was actually located in Dominican Republic. So [00:15:00] we were making it in Dominican Republic and shipping it. To Dominican Republic, and it was a fairly low volume product that we had been making in Iowa.
So that's just an example of how long it takes to, you know, the example I gave earlier of Myanmar. That wasn't something that we woke up on a Tuesday and said, hey, Myanmar's in the news. It sounds like that's a really great place. And by Friday, we were, you know, quoting. It takes years. And that's why you know, we got all the way through this and had everything ready to go.
And then this military coup happens when we first started looking at it, there was no indication that that was going to be a problem. So, that's where I think it's getting easier for companies, but I think it's always a risk if that's not what they do day in and day out, like what Polo does, they may not be aware of the issues that they might face and they may not have the.
network that we have, ~or the, ~or the man on the ground, so to speak. You know, we have a,~ a ~a gentleman that works for us in China who's a Chinese national. He lives in Shenzhen. ~He's,~ He's [00:16:00] well rounded, has quality, the sourcing, communication skills, ~and, ~and really helps us. And if we didn't have him, you know, especially in the early years working in China, I think we would have been~ at, ~had a hard time.
Sean Frost: If we are working with a import partner, we make sure that they have, the same quality systems as us that they have the same sourcing kind of qualifications that we do. You know, there's, everybody does things a little bit differently, but it's not hands off once we get the PO.
I mean, we are working with them. Like you said, we've got people on the ground. ~We've got you know, we're, ~We're alerting our customers to Chinese new year and things like that, so that we're hitting their timelines ~and, ~and really ~work in the ~expedite the process and ~get. ~get them what they need at the end of the day.
So those are all fun rabbit trails I didn't plan to go down. No, and it's true. ~And~
Brian Weber: you know, the thing is, is even if you do all of that, you still have to get the product in a container to the port and then from that port to whatever port in the US that you're [00:17:00] receiving it at and then to your warehouse and then to your customer.
And that can be challenging as well. I mean, there's things in the news whether it's, political unrest in Europe or whether it's storms. Especially now as we go into hurricane season or you know what happened in Baltimore with the bridge collapse. ~And even right now there's in the news is a ship that's in Charleston I believe with some throttle issues, and it's being quarantined or you know government control,~
So when you have a container on a container vessel, and it's out of your control for a period of time. We have a logistics department that that's their sole mission, is to make sure that the product gets from A to B. Not only on time, but ~you know, ~at a competitive price. And we deal with all the tariffs and that kind of stuff, which can get companies in trouble too.
you misclassify a product, and you're not paying the right tariffs on it, and you get audited, you know, everybody's on the hook. So, we make sure that's not going to happen.
Sean Frost: That's a really good point. A lot of the value that Polo provides in that process and I keep saying that I feel like [00:18:00] Danielle needs to do almost like a news update.
Like we should, we could almost make that a podcast in itself. It's her updates on the Baltimore bridge collapsing and how that's going to affect, ~you know, the, the, ~the shipping containers and ~the, ~the carriers ~and, ~and the traffic flow and all that kind of stuff. She always provides great insights. She's always on top of it.
She's always figuring out solutions for our customers and. And so, so great, great examples. And and yeah, I love it. I, yeah, there's a, I was just thinking of a customer that talked about going to plants all over the world. And she caught on fire. I won't say which region of the world she was in, but she was in a plant and caught on fire.
They ended up stomping out her coat ~that was~ that was on fire and she saw some unsafe practice. Yeah, I've been in some facilities.
Brian Weber: I've toured everything from facilities with dirt floors and holes in concrete walls to some of the most [00:19:00] sophisticated, clean room impressive manufacturing, advanced manufacturing.
So I, I've seen the gamut outside of the U. S. It's certainly the same, maybe not the dirt floor and the holes in the walls, but I've, I've seen factories in the U. S. that, you know, are opposite ends of the scale. But one thing you have to realize when you're working with a manufacturing company offshore is that they don't they don't operate under the same laws as we do.
So you have to respect that. Right. Because you're in a foreign country and they have their laws.
Yeah.
But you also have to realize some of the stuff we do in the U. S. it may add some cost. But it also adds a significant margin of safety. So that's why we offer both. Because that's important to some people.
~And maybe the lower cost is important to some people because they have to be competitive in their market space. Absolutely.~
Sean Frost: Yeah, and I think my message to customers and prospective customers is let Brian and our import team catch on fire. You don't have to go through that.
Brian Weber: I'll, I'll take, I'll take the fire for you.
That's our responsibility.
Sean Frost: last time I think we talked about PD and some [00:20:00] power sports products and could you talk about some of the unsung heroes or products of Polo and ~maybe, ~maybe something that's surprising or a feel good story about ~our, our, ~our people going above and beyond?
Brian Weber: Yeah. Well, you know, when you say heroes.
We have ~some ~some murals in our different plants, similar messages, but essentially heroes work here because I truly believe that.~ You know, ~We have people that during COVID when a lot of the country was locked down, they came to work every day with unknown risks. ~You know, ~Nobody knew what might happen, but ~they're, you know, ~Polo was deemed critical and essential by ~the, you know, ~the U. S. government. We make a lot of products that people depend on. ~And ~so, I do believe that heroes work here and ~you know, ~that goes all the way ~from, you know, ~from the CEO down to the newest machine operator. We all have our moments and I've seen, ~you know, ~people going above and beyond is almost a daily occurrence.
I mean, we're 400, [00:21:00] caught 430 people in the company ~and ~right now and I would say, ~you know, ~the majority of them at some point have gone above and beyond ~and ~some examples would be people that give up weekends ~or, ~or holidays to make sure product gets out the door because our customer needs it. ~And maybe, ~Maybe it's a medical product, maybe it's a fire and safety product.~ But, but ~for whatever reason the customer needs that product ~and ~out the door. ~And ~we strive to be on time. ~So, so there's something that, which is, which is relatively minor all the way up to ~I've seen people take weeks or months away from their family. During the summer, during the fall, during the holiday seasons to fill in for people on lines or to scale production or to fill in when we have somebody unexpectedly out.
Maybe they left the company or maybe they're on leave and there's a gap. I remember a previous plant manager from Iowa kind of just picked up and moved to Mississippi because we 200 [00:22:00] people that. You know, needed in that plant that needed leadership ~and,~ and we didn't have to, you know, force him to do that.
~We didn't, ~it wasn't voluntold. ~It was, he, ~he stepped forward and said, Hey, ~you know, ~let me do this for you. And, ~you know, ~that's impressive that somebody would be willing to do that away from his wife, away from his family. But again, I've seen people, you know, we talked earlier about the groups that went to Dominican Republic to support that transfer.
We have people that would. You know, spent time in DR, or we had people that spent time in Mississippi, or we had people from Mississippi that spent time in Iowa and liked it so much that relocated to Iowa after ~their~ their time was over. So, people go above and beyond, and there's no limit to how much people impress me.
~And, you know, we talked earlier, and I think it's been a theme throughout your podcast about, you know, the culture of Polo and the people that we have. ~And I would like to think that every company has that, but that's probably unrealistic. I mean, I think ~we have, ~what we have is pretty special.
Sean Frost: When our customers tour our plants, they see that, ~you know, ~our chief operating officer knows the screen printer or, ~you know, ~the associate that's running this product. ~they see, ~They see [00:23:00] our associates, our own face. When they're asking them questions about what they're doing or what they checked for from a quality standpoint ~Or you know ~They want to see the BOM and we know where the BOM is or the bill of manufacturing ~or how we do things or what?~
We're looking at ~but ~but they don't skip the beat and then they have fun questions about the product I'm like, hey, is this thing used on Air Force One or what?
Brian Weber: Yeah, the more the more we can Provide our associates at every level information about the products that they manufacture every day. The more engaged they are, and the more proud they are.
And it could be something ~that ~that would make anybody proud. Like, somebody that manufactures a medical product ~that ~that is documented to have saved hundreds of lives, which we have a few of those, all the way down to maybe a product that goes on a motorcycle that helps somebody enjoy their week off when they're, ~you know, ~going to the foothills or something. But if they know what they're making and they know how it's used, they're going to feel some pride. ~And, ~And certainly when our customers [00:24:00] visit and our employees get a chance to interact with them, ~it's always, you know, ~it's always great and it's always appreciated. And I think our customers find it refreshing as well.
Sean Frost: If you could go back in time to when you started at Polo, what piece of advice would you give yourself then? And would you have listened to it?
Brian Weber: Well, I like to think I would have listened to it but who knows, right? But one thing that strikes me about my 25 plus years with Polo, is the people ~that we've, ~that have come before me.
~I mentioned them earlier. It's, you know, ~Some of them are retired. Some of them are unfortunately gone, ~passed,~ but a few stick out. And I think my advice to myself would be, ~you know, ~identify your mentors, whether they know they're your mentor or not, identify ~who, you know, ~who you feel is somebody you want to model your behavior and ~your, your ~the way you do things after, and then keep your eyes and ears open.
So I'll give you some examples. When I started with the company, we had a CEO he's been retired now for 15 years or so. ~Talked to him on occasion, he's a great guy.~ But there was a big [00:25:00] gap between his level and my level as a, you know, manufacturing engineer. But I got to interact with him a lot because of some of the projects that we were on.
And I just knew ~he, ~he was a guy that I thought, wow, ~I want, you know, ~I want to absorb all I can. ~And there are similar, you know, ~Our recently retired chairman of the board, another guy that I wish I had more time to spend with over the years because the time I did spend with him in his office or at the plant or wherever and got to talk with him, ~you know, ~just a lot of great advice not just about the business, but maybe business in general, or maybe even in my personal life.~ Another guy, you know, ~When I started as a manufacturing engineer, I quickly got involved with some sales engineering and visiting customers. One of the customers I frequently visited, our sales rep, had been a sales rep for us for many, many years. And he was, I think he was only with us for about five years before he retired after I started.
But in that five years, I really feel like that's where I learned how to, you know, how to go into a meeting, how to be prepared for a meeting, how to act in a meeting and how, you know, you can walk into a meeting and sit [00:26:00] down ~and, ~and for two or three minutes, talk about totally unrelated business things and, you know, ask about family and stuff and really.
Kind of cement the bond before you jump into the real serious business thing. So keeping my eyes and ears open and absorbing more of that. I feel like I did some of that, but ~in the same thing, you know, I have a, you know, ~my grandfather ~who, ~who has passed, ~but you know, ~I just remember I learned a lot of my work ethic from him and ~he started thinking, ~I wish I would have talked to him more about that.
Learn more. Those are things that I think if I could go back in time, that's what I try to do.
Sean Frost: Yeah. ~Yeah. That's a,~ that's really. profound ~and ~and hard too. I know ~like, ~somebody that you mentioned is retired. ~And, ~and so ~like, you know, ~I've talked to him on occasion too. ~And, and it's, you just, ~you see them where they are in life and know that they kept the company that you were at alive and that they feel like they invested a lot in a lot of people.
And ~you just, ~you want to get down the road in life and feel that same way, you know? ~Yeah. ~
Brian Weber: ~I~
I
hope people that are 30 years younger than me that started [00:27:00] when they were in their early twenties, ~you know, and, ~and when they're in their late forties, early fifties, ~they, ~they think of you know, I appreciate the time he spent with me and the information he provided.
So it's not only about, ~you know, ~identifying mentors, but as you get on in your career is becoming a mentor and ~how, ~how serious of a job that is and how~ You know, you, ~you kind of owe it to everybody to, if you benefited from it, ~as you, ~when you were young, you better be willing to repay that favor.
Sean Frost: Absolutely. Yeah. It's ~a ~easier said than done, but I did read something recently that was talking about how management is one of the most important jobs there is. ~And, and ~they were talking about, you know, it's the difference between somebody going home and feeling beat up and, ~you know, not ~not valued versus somebody going home and, you know, we all face challenges.
We all have a million things going on, but. Do they feel like someone's investing in them and their growth? ~And, and ~Do they feel good about what they're contributing [00:28:00] to the company? And,~ And, and ~and at the end of the day~ that's something that, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's, you want, ~you want to strive for, you want your people to go home and feel proud of the work that they're doing and how they're growing professionally and personally in the process.
~And and yeah, you encapsulated all of that in your response. ~So.
Getting deep here on the happy hour.
Brian Weber: As an engineer, ~I don't, ~I don't like to paint with a broad brush, but I can talk about myself as an engineer. Emotions ~and, and ~and expressing gratitude. appreciation definitely isn't a strong suit for my personality type.
And I,~ I, I, ~I feel that that's a heavy burden that maybe over the years I didn't express my appreciation to people as much as I should have, because I do feel like again, everywhere from the CEO down to the machine operator, they've all contributed to our success, which has contributed my personal success and allowed me to do the things I want to do.
And, you know, I kind of wish I would have expressed that more. But I, you know, as I joke with my [00:29:00] wife, ~you know, my, ~my engineering personality type, you know, I told you, I loved you when I married you. And if that changes, I'll let you know, right? I don't express it enough. I should. And so, it's the same ~with ~with our associates.
I appreciate every single 1 of them. And I probably don't. Vocalize that as much as I should, maybe none of us do, but I hope they realize it.
Sean Frost: Spoken like a true engineer ~and and ~Amy keeps signing up. ~I mean, she does. Yeah, she, she, ~she knew what she was getting into. She renews the contract every year, right? I'm almost sick of talking about it, but because it's ~like ~a topic on every podcast. But truly nothing's changed the world as much or threw us for a loop as much as the pandemic did. So, what was one of the most creative or innovative solutions that we came up with? ~That you can think of ~during ~all the, all the craziness of of ~that fun period of time.
~It was a~
Brian Weber: crazy period of time and, you know, there's a lot to unpack there because ~that in ~that call it two years of really difficult [00:30:00] times and being that we were like, as I said before, critical and essential and everybody came to work every day. It was, you know, how do we mitigate risk and especially early on when you didn't really know what the risk involved, right?
~So, ~so some of the things that we did, I remember a call early on with, ~you know, ~a portion of our executive team and our board of directors was, ~you know, ~how are we going to handle this? We have to stay open. ~You know, ~we don't know what we're getting into. ~So we, you know, we. ~We trust our employees and I think part of that trust in our employees allowed to do some of this, and that was, you know, originally thought was, well, you can't come into work if you have a fever over 100.
I think it was 100. 4, which is what the CDC recommended. ~You know, but ~To queue up all of our associates outside the door in, in March in Iowa or Mississippi, and try and take their temperature, you know, that was not practical. So we asked them to, ~you know, ~keep a temperature log at home, check their temperature every morning before they come in, ~you know, ~keep a log.
~So that we knew we weren't gonna infect each other. ~We [00:31:00] moved equipment. ~We, ~Luckily we were able to move some equipment around so that ~we, ~we tried to keep the. Social distancing, you know, we may not have been able to maintain six feet, but we certainly spread people out. We rotated people so that we didn't have areas where we had a dense group of associates working.
~ When we had, I still remember ~When we had our first infection or our first positive test. ~it couldn't have been, ~it happened to a quality inspector, a roving inspector. So if you think, you know, when you start doing contact ~track ~tracing, what's the worst case scenario? Well, somebody that goes and talks to every single person and touches every single product ~in the, ~in the plant.
This was down in Mississippi where we had 200 people. So we shut down for a week. I mean, in hindsight, was that the right thing to do? I don't know, ~because it's certainly ~We didn't have ~like a, ~an outbreak that crippled us, but would we have if we would have stayed open? And so we shut down for a week and that hurt and especially at the time when government and defense projects were [00:32:00] hot and heavy and we had rated contracts that we had to execute on and ~certainly ~medical products were in high demand, especially stuff that was used in ICUs, which is a lot of our products.
But, you know, to ensure the safety of our associates, we shut down and then that happened in Iowa, we shut down. ~and then we bought equipment to that. ~We sent our maintenance teams in to fog the whole plant. We had to make sure that the, the germicide or whatever it's called I can't think of the name of it now, but that we were fogging wasn't going to have any repercussions to our machines or materials, and we had to fall off areas so that they didn't get exposed.
So it was a challenging time, ~I think in, ~I think our customers. We're able to continue to get their products, and our associates were able to feel as safe as possible. In fact, I had several of them ~feel like, you know, ~tell me that they felt safer when ~they ~coming into ~the ~the plant and going to the grocery store or doing the things they need to do outside of work.
So that made me feel good, but it certainly was a team effort. We had~ you know, ~our CEO ~or ~our VP of HR, ~or ~I know that they were working on this ~every, ~every day. It was ~like a team effort. ~in [00:33:00] the forefront of their minds ~you know, ~giving us good advice. And we were always monitoring what the CDC was doing.
So ~we, ~we got through it.
Sean Frost: Yeah. And
Brian Weber: we certainly didn't have the horror stories that I heard from other companies. And,
you know, we had to deal with an FFCRA, the CARES Act, all that kind of stuff ~and, ~and leaves people being on leave. And so it was challenging, but we, we made it through it.
Sean Frost: Absolutely. Sounds logistically troubling.
Brian Weber: One of my favorite sayings is what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. So I do feel like those challenges that we faced in those days maybe ~not ~ are not something we can completely transfer to challenges we see today, but I think we learned to work together and deal with the problem at hand.
Prioritize and execute.
Sean Frost: Absolutely. ~I,~ I definitely feel that. And I definitely feel like it's
things are,~ are, ~are rebounding. There's still, ~you know, ~lots of different factors from a macro standpoint ~that, ~that are challenges today. ~And, ~and so much changed because of our, ~you know, ~window ~of, ~of having to operate differently. We're all about custom manufacturing here. And what's the [00:34:00] biggest myth in custom manufacturing that you'd like to debunk over a beer?
Brian Weber: Yeah. I need two or three to debunk this one it's interesting about every two or three years, ~this, ~this comes up and inevitably what happens is one of our customers, whether they're an existing customer, new customer, it's happened with both.
They come to us and they say, we've been working with a design firm and we have this product rendering~ it's, ~it's got the style that we're looking for and it's got the all the functionality we need built into it. We just need somebody to make it. And, you know, this isn't a knock ~on, ~on graphic designers or design firms, but the reality is, is it's often possible to draw or to render something or even model it in CAD that is impossible to manufacture.
Or, or [00:35:00] maybe possible to manufacture, but cost prohibitive to manufacture. So that happens quite a bit. And it's always disappointing to the customer who may have spent Tens of thousands of dollars, and many weeks ~of their ~of their development cycle to come up with this drawing that we essentially have to ~tell, ~tell them we, yeah, we can't do this.
And there's been times when customers say, okay, what can you do? You know, ~let's, ~let's use this as a model and get as close as we can. And there's been other customers that said, Okay, ~we'll, we'll, ~we'll go to somebody else and find somebody who can make it. ~And, ~and, interestingly enough, there's been several customers that have come back to us and said, you know, you're right.
~We're, we're, ~We're going through that actually right now. We're back in the redesign process of something that we designed. It's been a lot of time designing it in 2019, I think, 2018. And it was a competitive bid situation, and, and we, we all had the same statement of work. And we knew that some of the things they were wanting wasn't possible, and we had to leave those out.
We had explained it in our [00:36:00] presentation, and ultimately we didn't get the bid. And when I walked out, I was talking to our salesperson, and I said, you know, I don't know how they're going to do it. You know, I'm not saying I'm wrong, but I just, I don't know how they're going to do it. It'll be interesting.
And then, you know, two or three years later, that customer comes back and says, you know what, ~we, ~we got all the way to the point of production and we couldn't make it for whatever reason, ~you know, ~whether it was we couldn't make good parts all the time, ~you know, ~or process wasn't capable. ~So that's,~ that's what people don't realize about manufacturing is there are constraints in all manufacturing processes.
~And ~I'm not saying Polo is an expert in all manufacturing processes, but we've successfully designed some of the products, sealed products, thermoform products, as well as injection molded products, blow molded products. Roto molded products, stampings, forgings, castings. You name it, we have some experience with it and at a very minimum we know what can be done and what can't be done.
Sean Frost: ~it's a, ~ It's a huge value to [00:37:00] our customers to be able to design it for manufacturability so that we can scale what they want, ~we can ~Maybe save them some money in the process, ~you know, and I, it's just funny because ~I see, ~you know, ~our engineers and our designers talking to people. ~And, and I, ~Most customers appreciate us pushing back on their design and ask, because ~they, they're, you know, ~they're not experts in our capabilities.
They've come up with a beautiful design, but ~you know, ~that edge or, ~you know, ~This material or that sealing can be the difference maker~ in, ~in being able to support the volumes and the needs of our customers. ~And, ~and it's a huge, huge ad.
Brian Weber: Yeah. I can give all sorts of examples ~of ~in all of our markets where customers have come to us with a product that's already out on the market, but somebody else is making for them even in one case, something that they were making internally themselves, and ~there were you know, that the the ~the failures, field failures, or the process capability wasn't where they needed them, and we helped them solve that problem.
And one that I can [00:38:00] think of was a medical product that was a compression product, so an inflatable, let's call it. And there was all sorts of leaks, and they came up with a design, and we told them, hey, we can't do this design, it's going to ~leak, ~leak, here, here, and here. ~You know, they, ~they really wanted to pursue that design.
They pursued it with another company and came back and said, yeah, these things are leaking. And so we redesigned it and eliminated the leaks. So we do have some expertise. We're not experts in everything. And it is always nice when the customers appreciate the fact that we're not trying to be critical ~of, ~of the design.
We're just trying to be ~realistic, ~realistic about what can be manufactured. I can't think off the top of my head of time. I've been surprised when I, we've said that something can't be manufactured and it was, but. I think there's plenty of examples of when we, we communicated the fact that it was going to be challenging and it was..
Sean Frost: Well, we're having too much fun on this podcast here. ~So ~cheers to the audience. Cheers, Brian. ~We're going to, ~we decided we're going to make this into a two part episode and and we're going to keep [00:39:00] going, but this will be released subsequently. So we appreciate you joining us on this episode and we hope that you join us for part two as well.