Processor of the Year finalists are 3 custom molders, 1 captive molder

Finalists for Plastics News' Processor of the Year Award are three custom injection molders — Evco Plastics Inc., Prism Plastics Inc. and Nicolet Plastics Inc. — and a captive molder, Stihl Inc.

A team of judges from the Plastics News editorial staff picked the finalists.

Evco is based in DeForest, Wis., Prism's headquarters plant is in Chesterfield Township, Mich., Nicolet is in Mountain, Wis., and Stihl's U.S. manufacturing and plastics processing operations are in Virginia Beach, Va.

The winner will be announced Feb. 5 at a dinner and awards ceremony during the upcoming Plastics News Executive Forum. The following morning, leaders from each finalist processor will answer questions during a panel discussion of best practices.

The Executive Forum is set for Feb. 4-6 in Las Vegas.

Plastics News will profile the Processor of the Year in the Feb. 9 issue.

Judges evaluated all candidates based on seven criteria: financial performance, quality, customer relations, employee relations, environmental performance, industry/public service and technological innovation.

Last year's Processor of the Year was Tech Molded Plastics Inc., a custom injection molder in Meadville, Pa.

Plastics News editor Don Loepp and

senior reporter Bill Bregar are visiting all four finalists. Bregar coordinates the Processor of the Year Award. Loepp, who also participates in the judging, is shooting video for the awards presentation and the newspaper's website.

Again this year, the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. is sponsoring the Processor of the Year Award.

Here is a look at the four finalists, in alphabetical order.

Evco Plastics Inc.

Evco celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2014, in style — and around the world, at factories in Wisconsin, Mexico and China. At the headquarters city of DeForest, Wis., near Madison, 800 people packed Evco Circle to hear music, eat and drink, and take factory tours.

The custom injection molder employs 1,000 people at nine plants around the world, and runs 148 injection molding machines, with clamping forces from 28-3,500 tons. Evco racked up about $155 million in 2014 sales, more than double the level of the recession in 2009, showing an impressive rebound.

Not bad for a company that Don Evans started in his basement half a century ago with a Giddings and Lewis molding press. Sub-Zero, the Wisconsin maker of high-end refrigerators, has been a customer for 50 years.

Evco is still owned by the Evans family. Don's son, Dale Evans, has been president for 23 years. And now the third generation is becoming involved: Evco was self-nominated for Processor of the Year by Dale's daughter Anna Bartz, who is brand manager. And yes, Don, at age 88, still comes in every day.

Evco has earned a reputation is a groundbreaker in global manufacturing — setting up a mold-building plant in Shenzhen, China, in 1989, well before that became a trend. The China factory began molding in 2000. Evco established a plant in Calhoun, Ga., in 1984.

Evco runs four plants in its home state — three in DeForest and one in Oshkosh.

Evco likes to promote from within. Dale Evans said that makes it even more important to grow, so employees get an opportunity to advance. That, and a family atmosphere, pays off: of the 400 U.S. employees, more than 40 percent have 10-plus years of experience; 14 percent have 25 years at Evco.

The Wisconsin-based molder has a tuition-reimbursement plan. It gives each employee $300 a year for wellness, everything from a gym membership to yoga to help stop smoking.

The company pays gain sharing monthly, measured on profit, quality and on-time delivery (which stands at 99.4 percent for 2014).

The judges were impressed with Evco's technology, and its leadership position in moving U.S. manufacturing forward. Back in 1989, Evco launched its Advanced Molding Plant (AMP), centralizing utilities and putting them underground, and deploying an extensive use of robots. Today, 15 molding machines run in the AMP—Huskys, Netstals and Van Dorns from 200-1,500 tons in clamping force.

Overall, Evco runs 104 robots, including beam robots, six-axis articulating-arm robots and SCARAs for fast pick-and-place.

Evco got into clean room molding in the mid-1990s by building a Class 100,000 (Class 8) clean room in DeForest, dubbed Evco MED. Medical parts such as ultrasonic toothbrush handles, dental kits, parts for heart catheterization and DNA forensics are molded in 15 presses, including Engels, and Arburgs. One dedicated cell — running for the past 14 years — molds kits for blood infection diagnostics on an Engel press and then assembles, sonically welds and tests a seven-part assembly. One operator at the end of the line puts them in a box.

In a non-medical application, Evco MED insert molds a tight-tolerance plumbing part on two presses, using an ABB six-axis robot, checked by a vision system.

Companywide, Evco offers in-molding labeling and decorating, multi-shot molding, overmolding, insert molding, gas-assisted molding and stack molds.

Management likes to maintain a diverse range of customers, including industrial, agricultural, power sports, medical and packaging. An example of a challenging part: a large rotary screen for John Deere.

Customers said they appreciate Evco's on-time delivery, quality and technological expertise. And the firm's 23 large-tonnage machines (1,000 and above) give the company an advantage against competitors. The biggest, a 3,500-ton Engel, began molding parts in Oshkosh in 2013, where Evco added an 80-ton crane for handling big molds. Evco builds about half of its total molds, which Dale Evans calls a key competence.

Evco has adopted 3-D printing, to turn out sample parts and customized fixtures to hold parts. Late last year, the company invested in a printer that runs can run carbon fiber, Kevlar and glass-fiber reinforced parts.

Evco also scored well in the industry/public service category, thanks to a more than 25-year partnership with DeForest High School's co-op program. Two human resource leaders play key roles on the DeForest Area Chamber of Commerce, which promotes industrial educational programs.

Evco recently introduced the Legacy Project, pledging two scholarships a year for local students interested in engineering or technical education.

Nicolet Plastics Inc.

Nicolet Plastics is located in an out-of-the way place — tiny Mountain, Wis., in the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest, about 200 miles north of Milwaukee. Wildlife abounds, fishing, and this time of year, snowmobiling. At Nicolet Plastics: high-level molding by a skilled group of self-directed employees, 110 to 150 mold changes a week on 17 injection presses, and focus on measuring time to track efficiency.

Nicolet is a small custom molder, $12.5 million in 2014 sales and about 80 employees. The company has found a solid niche in a high mix of low-volume parts — an ability to manage complexity. But that wasn't always the case, as Nicolet changed its approach to the plastics molding business in 2010, moving from a struggling custom molder to the new model of Fast, Fluid and Flexible (FFF).

First, some background. Bob Macintosh and three partners started the company in 1985 and incorporated the following year. Macintosh, who had a customer service background in the telecommunications business, was president and CEO. Over time, he bought out the shares of the partners, who were toolmakers. (That tooling heritage continues, as Nicolet makes about one-third of its molds in-house, sources one-third from domestic mold makers and gets the other third from suppliers offshore.)

Nicolet, at first, was a traditional molder, chasing any and all work, looking for long-running jobs. Then the Great Recession hit in 2008. Work moved to China. Nicolet was forced to lay people off.

The molder struggled to compete as high-volume molding projects were leaving the country. But low- to moderate-run work was staying here.

Company officials adopted the philosophy touted by a University of Wisconsin professor, Rajan Suri, who explained it in his book “It's About Time,” that advocates a time-based model for manufacturing. You've heard the phrase “time is money”? Well at Nicolet Plastics they practice that in a big way. The goal: Zero time spend on semi-finished parts. No work-in-progress. No building up of inventory.

They set up “swim lanes” for longer-running jobs. But the key is shorter runs, lower-cost startups and quick, smart production. That strategy makes Nicolet especially attractive to companies that generate lots of new products, company officials say.

Nicolet has dubbed the strategy Quick Response Manufacturing, or QRM. Macintosh said QRM is “Amazon thinking” (get what you want when you want it) instead of assembly-line thinking.

One innovation: Every 15 minutes a conveyor takes parts from an area with smaller-tonnage presses to a quality and packaging area. There the parts are evaluated and details input into Nicolet's IQMS system.

For QRM, employees are the key, and the judges gave Nicolet a very high grade for the employee relations category.

Nicolet uses IQMS as a high-level tool to handle things like orders and preventive maintenance scheduling, but when it comes to scheduling production, and assigning machines, the company drives decision-making down to the plant floor. Employees handle it.

A dispatch list, issued three times a day, goes to all employees detailing the jobs running. They regularly check a scheduling board in the center of the plant, with movable tiles and dry-erase markers.

Another board for employee suggestions, called the Tip Board, highlights successful projects. As of mid-December, Nicolet has implemented ideas that have saved 700 hours per year. Time is money — and much of the money gets plowed back into the company.

Macintosh and the other Nicolet executives have developed a unique training/financial rewards process, called the “Skills Matrix.” The goal is a cross-trained workforce. Employees learn new skills listed under the matrix, with sets of prerequisites just like college. As an employee progresses to be able to handle more complex issues, he or she earns “apples” (a play on Bob Macintosh's name). For every 10 apples they earn, they receive an additional 50 cents an hour. The worker has the potential to earn up to $9 an hour beyond the entry-level rate.

New hires undergo a 90-day “on-board” training. Employees read Suri's book, and take a test.

Nicolet also scored well on customer relations, thanks to a 99.28 percent on-time delivery rate, even for brand new customers. QRM works well for just-in-time production.

Under the category of industry/public relations, Nicolet hosted a plant tour for the Manufacturers Association for Plastics Processors last year. Macintosh is willing to share the time-focused management style with other plastics processors. The molder also hosts a run/walk to raise money for local emergency responders — that includes several Nicolet workers.

And the broader world is taking notice: In 2013, Nicolet was a top winner in the Manufacturing Leadership 100 awards, from Frost & Sullivan's Manufacturing Leadership Community. The other winners: General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co.

Nicolet was self-nominated by Bob Gafvert, business development manager.

Prism Plastics Inc.

At Prism, they often talk about “The Prism Way”: A statistics-driven approach to molding that removes as much variation as possible from the molder of critical automotive parts such as seat belt parts and fuel-connector bodies.

Prism was born in 1999 by three men — Rodney Bricker, Gerry Phillips and Jerry Williams — who had left their executive positions at Huron Plastics after it was purchased by LDM Technologies Inc. From day one, they bought only all-electric Toshiba injection presses and Yushin high-speed robots, and implemented IQMS to tie operations together through an enterprise resource planning system. Standardizing on equipment and an ERP gives uniformity for employees and management.

Williams died Aug. 27, 2014, after battling stomach cancer for several years. He was 51.

Jeff Ignatowski was hired as Prism's director of sales and marketing in mid-2014. Ignatowski self-nominated his company for the Processor of the Year Award.

Altus Capital Partners, a private equity firm focused on middle-market manufacturing companies, is majority owner. Altus bought the majority stake from the founders in May 2014. Bricker and Phillips, both vice presidents, retain ownership positions, and Williams' estate also has a stake.

Management runs the company and makes the decisions, said Bricker and Phillips. It's a team approach, with no single “president.”

The company generated $30.1 million in 2014 sales. Prism has been consistently profitable.

Prism employs 70 people and runs 31 Toshiba injection presses at its three highly automated factories in Chesterfield Township and Port Huron, Mich., and Harlingen, Texas. Clamping force ranges from 65-390 tons. Even the auxiliary equipment is uniform companywide.

Company executives say each plant is “right-sized,” housing no more than 16 presses. In the near future, they are looking to start a fourth plant. Too many presses under one roof can result in too many unique processes, and leave employees scrambling to react to problems instead of preventing them, they said.

As its reputation for automotive molding grew, in 2005, Prism opened a second plant, in Texas, and expanded its Port Huron plant. In 2012, the company opened the Chesterfield Township factory, and moved its headquarters there.

Prism officials have a goal of reaching $100 million in automotive sales by 2020. Additional production capacity also will allow Prism to target new markets beyond automotive, such as medical, appliance, industrial and aerospace/defense.

Prism runs lean. It takes just three people to run the plant floor, per shift.

The super-automated plants have extremely low defective parts per million — even on technically demanding parts on presses running molds with up to 32 cavities. That's a big reason the judges gave Prism high marks for quality. Another specialty, optimizing the size of runners, reduces customer costs.

Ninety-nine percent of the parts are never touched by a human hand. Of course, that means the humans that are working in the plant have to be top-notch. Prism's employees are highly skilled technicians that know scientific molding and take ownership of parts — since the company does not have a dedicated quality control department.

Prism has very low turnover. Employees become 100 percent vested in the 401(k) on their first day at work. Prism holds its holiday party at a Christmas tree farm, and employees take home a tree or wreath.

Serving customers is a key to Prism's growth. In 2014, one customer, a steering systems supplier, gave Prism awards for perfect quality and product launches, and superior customer service. Prism molds seat belt components for Takata Corp., which named the molder Supplier of the Year in 2013. Prism received Autoliv Inc.'s Supplier of the Year Award in 2011.

Contacted by the Plastics News judges, customers praised Prism for its responsiveness and quality. “When I deal with somebody at Prism Plastics, they feel like they have ownership in the company. They know that the owners are behind them in everything they do,” said a supplier quality manager at one customer.

Stihl Inc.

Stihl International GmbH is a major Germany-based manufacturer of chainsaws, string trimmers, leaf blowers, hedge trimmers and other power tools for forestry, landscape maintenance and the construction industry. Founded in Stuttgart in 1926, the company remains owned by the Stihl family.

The plastics operation of Stihl's U.S. plant in Virginia Beach, Va. is trying for the award. Stihl also has factories in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Brazil and China, and the vertically integrated U.S. manufacturing complex — which includes the largest plastics operation — is measured against those global operations, and has to compete, according to Benjamin Hoffmann, manager of polymer technologies in Virginia Beach.

Hoffmann nominated his plastics operation for the Processor of the Year Award.

Stihl scored high marks from the judges, especially for the categories of technological innovation; employee relations, where the company has a leading apprenticeship program; quality and environmental performance.

Hoffmann's submission gave a high level of detail and quantification — and explained to the judges how the U.S. plant stacks up favorably to Stihl's other global plastics operations. Less easy to spell out, however, are customer relations — since the captive plastics plant sends its parts directly to the Stihl assembly lines — and financial performance. Stihl USA generates sales of more than $1 billion, selling to Stihl dealers, but the private company does not break out sales for its internal plastics processing.

The German company had 2013 sales of more than 2.8 billion euros ($3.4 billion).

Still, it's safe to say Stihl's “customers,” people who buy the products, are well served. The company has been recognized for high quality by Consumer Reports, Consumer's Digest, Popular Mechanics, Men's Health and a host of other consumer and trade magazines.

The highly automated Virginia Beach factory employs 1,900 people. That includes 400 plastics employees. In addition to plastics, the complex makes some parts that Stihl distributes around the world, such as crankshafts and pistons. The location won Plant of the Year from Assembly Magazine in 2014 and, the year before, the AME Manufacturing Excellence Award.

Plastics-wise, Stihl runs 89 injection molding presses at two factories in Virginia Beach. The main molding plant has 62 presses — 53 Engels, eight all-electric Milacrons and one Boy — with clamping forces from 10-660 tons. That plant runs about a thousand active molds on presses with magnetic platens. Seventeen of the presses are fully integrated into automated cells, using six-axis Fanuc robots.

The main plant also blow molds 4 million fuel tanks, oil tanks and other parts on four Bekum machines.

The second plant makes accessories, under a factory-in-a-factory concept. When Stihl opened the plant in 2006, the goal was to integrate all production for mowing heads for string trimmers in a single area. Twenty-seven all-electric Milacron Roboshot presses turn out 65 million parts a year. The defective parts per million is less than 100, and the scrap rate is less than 1 percent.

Magnetic mold platens allow technicians to change a mold in just 20 minutes.

So far, 20 injection molding presses are equipped with eDart systems from RJG Inc. The company uses gas-assisted molding, using sequential gating, most often to produce hollow handlebars.

The accessories plant also runs four Davis-Standard extruders producing trimmer line — 240,000 miles of line a year. Fully automated equipment winds the line onto spools — that Stihl molds from in-house scrap from the molding presses.

Stihl USA had been No. 1 in quality in the total Stihl Group for the past seven years, according to the company's submission for the award. The operation leads all locations for the least defective PPMs. All Stihl plants worldwide exchange information about operations. The company uses lots of analytical metrics to measure quality.

For plastic parts that go directly to the Virginia Beach assembly, the short feedback loop helps the plastics plants learn about and solve any problems quickly.

Employee training and retention is a huge issue for U.S. manufacturing these days. Stihl in Virginia Beach shines in that effort, with its German-style apprenticeship program, established way back in the early 1980s. This past September, Stihl USA became just the third company on the East Coast to gain German certification for its program.

The apprenticeships cover tool and die, CNC machining, maintenance, mechatronics — and polymer technologies.

The Virginia Beach operation is helping other local companies adopt the apprenticeship model.

One benefit: Employee turnover is just 6.3 percent at Virginia Beach. The average tenure is 9.5 years.

Stihl also gave lots of details about its recycling and energy saving efforts — resulting in a much better-than-average grade for the environmental performance category. For example, the operation works with a recycler that grinds plastic parts that contain steel, and the firm removes all metal and sends the plastic back to Stihl to be blended back into regrind. That will reduce waste by 640,000 pounds, officials said.

The operation buys only all-electric presses for new machines under 330 tons, and hybrids for larger presses. Today Stihl USA runs 37 all-electrics, saving 950,000 kilowatt hours

Six small windmills generate electricity for the factories.

Stihl also excels at industry/public service. Stihl USA is a member of MAPP and the SPI. Most of its engineers are members of the Society of Plastics Engineers

Of course, the company donates time, money and chainsaws to the forestry and conservation sectors. A Stihl cycling team participates in the Stihl tour des Trees, which raises $3,500 for urban trees and education.

And Stihl donates chainsaws for clearing trees after disasters and storms.