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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.
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Sean Frost: Hello, this is Sean Frost. Welcome back to Inspiring Innovation. This is the fifth episode. So appreciate you joining us and we would encourage you to like and subscribe. We'd like to know more about. What you wanna hear on this podcast, whether it's even nerding out about supply chain more or RF ceiling polyurethane materials, we can get one of our experts in the house for the next episode.
So we wanna hear from you. We [00:01:00] appreciate you tuning in and this is a gonna be a a different kind of episode. We're just gonna recap. Some of the best takes from the experts we've already interviewed from the first four episodes. So if you like what you hear, you can go back and listen to one of those episodes and learn more.
So appreciate you coming today. Lately I've been spending a lot of time with customers going across the country, touring different manufacturing plants and what. I really love about this job and what's so exciting about what's going on in our space is just seeing all these teams of really brilliant people come together to make sure that these products are not gonna fail in the field.
That they're creating things that are in our hospitals, on our war fighters, supporting our firefighters, maybe on submarines. Some of the things that we've seen a lot of headlines about these days, so know that you never wanna have to use a lot of our products, but you're glad [00:02:00] that they're there if you do.
So we've got some really great people that we work with behind the scenes that make those things happen, that get those products out into the world. And so it's been an inspiring season and, and we appreciate everybody coming in to listen. So, With that, I'm gonna get into some of the best takes and some of the best practices in supply chain, quality operations, and customer service that we've seen in our industry and, and that our experts talked about more in, in the first four episodes.
We're gonna start off with supply chain, a pretty cool topic. Pretty relevant these days, and that's something that our supply chain director Jennifer Fennel commented on. It is something that a customer of ours has commented on. It's something that a book that I've been reading has been commenting on lately, which is supply chain did not have a front row seat at the table for many, many years.
The book joked about, that's where people that [00:03:00] didn't make it in HR go to die is purchasing. And so, that's super extreme, but really I feel like they've been in a pretty thankless role and it's front and center when companies have been restructuring, supply chain is staying at the top because it's a very, very important profession, and they're finally getting the credit that they're due.
And so some of the things that we learned from Jen, basically how to mitigate risk having, you know, best practices accountability and collaboration. Making expectations clear with their suppliers up front, anticipating problems early, and communicating options for our customers to solve those things.
So they've done a really great job working with our IT department to optimize our processes. They're constantly evaluating different ways that they might be able to optimize what they're doing. They might be able to automate certain [00:04:00] notifications and communications so that they can get that real time data out to our customers with options.
So we have an incredible team in that department. They've delivered on time as the industry has seen 80% decreases in performance, especially when it comes to long boating products overseas. So it was a really great episode and they're actually implementing even new software now where, where they can see where everything's at live and they can anticipate issues that might happen if there's stuff being held up at a dock or potential strikes, getting ready to take place, something that we know all too well that happened recently and thankfully was avoided, but we had contingency plans in place. We communicated to our customers, you know, these are some things that are gonna potentially be facing us and it could lead [00:05:00] to delays, but this is what we're doing about it.
So one of the things that Jen and her team do really well is they set their expectations for our raw material suppliers, and they, they grade them by their performance. And when, when one of our suppliers isn't meeting the criteria that they clearly laid out, then it leads to a conversation. And that could be viewed as a negative thing.
But Jen's approach and her team's approach is really about collaboration and partnership. And so I, I think that that speaks well to what will take us forward in the future of this industry, is not beating each other up over mistakes that were made, but figuring out, you know, is there something that Polo can do to better serve you and, and help you hit your goals and your timelines and, and your, your issues and your struggles. So, so I thought that was really [00:06:00] unique to hear from Jen, our director of supply chain. And I think it's not unique to Polo, but we've definitely seen our partnerships with our customers go, well when, when it is a true partnership.
So Jen and her team are great to work with and I always get people coming up to me at trade shows telling me stories, you know, different stories about enjoying working with Jen. So, I definitely would encourage watching that episode as well.
We had Dawn Silver, our director of quality on the podcast, and she talked about our number one asset being our people, having that continuity, the training that they have to make sure that every product as they're making it is passing different checks, utilizing the tools that we have available shop aids to, to make sure that things are going in the spec. And, and so she talked about a lot of things. She talked about how do we measure at the product level, and then how do we measure at the system level.
So on the [00:07:00] product level, you know, did we hit the customer specifications? Is it in accordance with our internal standards and did we comply with the different regulations? And then from a systems level, it's, is it effective? Does it meet the objectives it's supposed to meet? And are there opportunities that exist for improvement?
So we span, you know, four different industries and we have a lot of quality requirements across. Those industries like the FDA, like the FAA, like military and automobile regulations that, you know, span, you know, different, different things, obviously, but they all have a lot of consistency to 'em, and that's why our systems, that's why these policies are so important and we always wanna make sure that we're, we're hitting those specifications and thankfully we're experts. Within our capabilities within all those [00:08:00] industries.
So we might be making similar types of products across these variety of industries. And that's really served us well as a company too. When one industry might have economic issues, another one may be up. And so that's what's been, that's what's helped Polo be around for 75 years.
We have a lot of quality systems in place. We're ISO certified 9,000 1 20 15 13 485 20 16. So we, we really come a long ways when it comes to quality as a company. Some of the things that we do monitor is our customer feedback, satisfaction returns, complaints deliverable parts per million is a goal that we track towards in a KPI. And We've hit 138 defective parts per million, and our goal is 1200.
So we're we're really proud of that KPI, [00:09:00] we've got people performing across our plants and, and anything that might be a mistake is getting caught on production lines or inspected in our quality labs. We do a number of different types of testing, tensile testing, pressure decay testing, inflation testing, fitment checks, dimensional analysis and shake testing.
So, we've got great quality teams. We've got great associates, and they are our number one asset when it comes to quality. Our quality statement as a company is that we have products that are delivered on time as a, at a competitive price with outstanding quality.
We do make products that cannot afford to fail, and so this department is. Is really great to work with. They're involved from the beginning of our designing of our products with our project engineers with our lead designers and with our customers teams. So they're really collaborative. We can meet any standard [00:10:00] and, and we we feel really proud about the team's achievements.
One story I wanna tell about quality that happened recently was we were meeting with the customer and then we were going to another location where their samples were being made. It was a really a cool deal because we were worried. The sample wasn't passing the test, the quality tests that had been put in place.
And so we got our teams together. It was unique that we happened to be with the customer. So we got their engineer on the line working with our engineer and we all sat around in this room and somewhere communication got mixed up about what the testing specs were. So thankfully we were testing to higher standards than were required for the part, for the really, for the pressure that this bag was gonna need to hold for how long.
And so, we found out that's what the issue was. And so we got to go test it according to the right [00:11:00] parameters with our customers, with us. And it, it passed the test and it was a really fun opportunity to problem solve, live with everybody involved. And, and that's what I mean when I talked to earlier, just seeing the teams of people that bring these products to life and get them out into the world.
Our second guest on the podcast was Brian Weber. He's our Chief Operating Officer and somebody that embodies our, our business. Really been with the company a long time. Always encourages any prospective customer or current customers to come take the tour of our plant and really any tour of any plant that you can ever get your, get your feet into.
It's amazing to see. The different capabilities, the different processes, the way that things are made. And so he had so many stories about how we have launched and scaled products. One of the most recent success [00:12:00] stories for Polo Custom Products was a urine management device that We worked with a large OEM on, this is a $20 billion company, and they said that we helped them launch and scale this product faster than any product in the history of their company.
And they said, you know, that they asked us to do the impossible and we rose to the occasion and. That happened multiple times in multiple ways. So this project started for us in 2019. We figured out how to produce this, how to make it manufacturable, how we could scale it. And and it was a complex product.
And then when the machine was in-house, it went really well. You know, we got, we got it out into the field. And then once it got to the field, once it was used in the ICUs, it was highly popular. And [00:13:00] the demand just blew up for it. And so for the last really three years since it got out into the field in 2020, it has just been scaling and scaling and scaling.
So now this is something that's requires. 15 different machines across three of our locations and, and one of our import partners locations. So, so we're in four locations, 15 machines making 6 million units a year annually. And so it was a really incredible success story. We also are, Finding that, you know, with other customers, current customers, other of our competitors are struggling with labor, which thankfully has not been an issue for us because of our multiple locations and the job markets within those locations, we we're able to pull levers, we're able to add additional labor as our customers need it.
And so, so we find that that's a [00:14:00] very competitive advantage in today's landscape. And we also have our import partners that are. Hungry for work nearshore and offshore. And so we've got a lot of levers and we can meet our customer's needs, however big those are. And, and we we really are fortunate to have that.
We have great people, we've got great processes, we've got great collaboration with. Tons of experience in the industry. So I'd encourage you to hear a few stories from Brian Weber and go back to that. Episode number two.
Our first guest and last last guest to review is Lynn Lemke, and she was our, she's a division manager for our sales team.
And I would encourage a listen to hear how our customer service goes above and beyond for our customers. We, we definitely have felt the statement of early bad news is good [00:15:00] news in the industry right now. And an example of that, that Lynn really helped facilitate was we had a resin change where essentially an input to a raw material had changed, and we actually weren't even notified about the change, but one of our very detailed supply chain professionals noticed a change to the specs when the materials were delivered.
So we identified this with a a pretty decent time horizon, I would say. That's why the early bad news is good news. Before, before the stock that we had in place ran out we were able to identify that and then collaborate with our customer to move as fast as possible to make the changes to file, you know, the appropriate paperwork to test the new material that needed to be [00:16:00] biocompatible. We're talking about a medical industry product, so, there was a lot to be done in a short amount of time, but but we were able to come with solutions and give everything that we could and get all the information up front. And that's what Lynn and, and our sales team is just incredibly good at doing to accommodate our customers. You know, it, it kind of gets to the point sometimes where they're a little confused which team they're representing. They're, they're so embedded with our customers. They know their mission, their values, what their success is measured by.
That they gotta remember, you know, which team they're working for, if they've got the Polo Custom product shirt on, or some other medical OEM that they are deeply embedded in and, and great partners with. So, I think that's a theme that goes across all of the different podcasts and the experts that we've talked to is really the level of partnership.
Polo Custom [00:17:00] Products provides the level of expertise experience that they bring to your team. Because. When it comes to these huge launches, these huge scales, you've gotta get these things right up front and it's gonna take a lot of collaboration, a lot of effort, a lot of teamwork getting the right people around the table and, and getting the right people to the plants.
And so we would definitely invite you to reach out. Come tour our plant if, if you're interested in any. RF welding, ceiling thermoforming or sewing capacity that, that Polo Custom Products has to offer. And please reach out about what you wanna hear more about on the podcast. We've got some ideas about getting some manufacturing legal expertise in.
We'll get some. Some guests that talk about leadership in the manufacturing space. So we've got, we've got some guests lined [00:18:00] up, but we want your feedback. We want to hear what's of value to you, and we want to create more of that in this space. So we really appreciate you listening to the podcast.
Listen, subscribe, comment let us know how we can get better from you.