Stihl cuts through the competition

Throughout Stihl USA, there are plenty of six-axis Fanuc robots. Many workcells use two of the articulating-arm robots in tandem, working together with pad printers, vibration welders, insert molding machines, and employees, aided by vision systems.

Stihl USA bought its first robot in 2002. Back then, the company often molded components, put them in a box in the warehouse, and then hauled them around for additional operations. Now everything is done right at the press. The company favors Yushins for top-entry, beam robots.

Koestler said factory planners can't just throw automation in randomly.

“You have to simplify the process, stabilize the process and then automate. If you don't do that beforehand, you will not be successful in automation, period,” he said. “And what we emphasize at Stihl Inc.: No job has been eliminated due to automation. And that makes it easier for us to put automation in, and actually people on the assembly floor say, ‘hey we could automate this station,' because they know they're not going to be put out on the street with no job.”

The privately held company, still owned by the Stihl family that founded the company in Stuttgart in 1926, does not break out sales for its internal plastics operations. As a result, Stihl could not give details for the award's financial performance criteria — but high marks in other criteria more than made up for that omission. (Corporate-wide, Stihl has annual sales of more than $3 billion.)

Stihl set up its U.S. operation in 1974, after looking up and down the East Coast for port locations for easier shipment to Germany.

“Our goal is to have a replacement part to customers within 48 hours. So you need to be located where you have good access to your distribution points,” Koestler said.

Initially the company rented a warehouse in Norfolk, later buying land in Virginia Beach. The Hampton Roads metropolitan area is a major military center, and home to the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. Stihl offers a good place to work for spouses and for retired military veterans. Koestler said they have a good work ethic: “If you start at 7 it means 7 and not 7:15. So those folks know what to do and follow work instructions. They're very diligent.”

Stihl supports employees with good pay and benefits — including profit sharing and bonuses for performance and quality. Employees that make suggestions can get paid up to 25 percent of the first-year cost savings, according to Andrew Jaeckle, manager of talent acquisition.

Stihl doesn't really compete with the shipyard, a center of heavy manufacturing. But it can be tough to recruit skilled plastics people to relocate to Virginia Beach — even though the nearby beach in summer is a major attraction. Koestler said the cost of living is high, and often prospective plastics technicians are coming from more rural areas, where they have lots of land.

Hoffmann said it's often difficult to make the transition from a custom molder to a major captive molder running 24/7. Changeovers have to be super-fast, for example, so Stihl likes to use magnetic mold platens.

“You can't shut it down for an hour. If the changeover takes an hour instead of 30 minutes, you're screwed,” he said.

Training from within

Hoffmann said Stihl has more success training people from within, or taking on college interns. That's how both Koestler and Hoffmann got their starts, as interns.

Hoffmann took a three-month internship at Stihl USA while a college student in Germany. He returned to college, and Stihl Germany offered him a job that didn't interest him. Hoffmann called his contacts in Virginia Beach, and took a quality engineer position. He quickly moved up to quality supervisor. About two years later, Hoffmann was put in charge of special projects, as well as the Accessories plastics plant, where he coordinated an expansion.

Then a few years ago, Stihl management decided to put both plastics operations under the same management. Hoffmann became a full-time plastics guy. He goes to industry events, like the benchmarking and best practices conference organized by the Manufacturers Association for Plastics Processors (MAPP).

His college internship turned into a career. Living in the United States, he took advantage of Stihl's tuition reimbursement (any employee can get up to $5,250 a year), to get a master's degree in engineering management. He is currently working on a doctorate's degree at Old Dominion University.

“Teaching people that have been in molding for 30, 40 years or so, it's challenging. That's why we found we're most successful when we train people from within. Or when you get them out of college, have them here as interns and develop them,” he said. 

Apprenticeship program

Stihl established its apprenticeship program back in 1984. At first, it was very traditional geared toward journeyman tool and die makers, said Lorraine Wagner, director of manufacturing. The graduates could move to other areas in the company, including plastics processing.

Wagner, who coordinates the apprenticeship program, said it has grown over the years. Last fall, Stihl became what company officials believe is just the third company in the United States to gain German certification for its apprenticeship, for mechatronics. Stihl's increasing use of automation has required people skilled in mechatronics, which combines mechanical, engineering, electronics and controls.

In addition to mechatronics and tool and die making, Stihl USA apprenticeships also cover polymer technology, CNC machining, quality assurance and plant maintenance.

The apprenticeship program is an American version, adapted by a German company for conditions in the United States. Wagner said the average age is 31. In Germany, teenagers start while still in school under a nationwide system that identifies skills and interest around age 15.

Some things are the same — Stihl pays for all the training. And the content is the same as Germany.

Wagner said about 300 people try out for the four or five spots. Apprentices wear special uniforms so they stand out in the plant.

“The apprentice program is a highly-sought-after position, a coveted position,” she said.

Applicants undergo a rigorous process to get in. This year, they had to follow written instructions to tear apart a carburetor and put it back together again. The second test looks at teamwork skills. Finally, they sit down for an interview with a management team. And they go through basic math and English tests at Tidewater Community College.

“It's very hard to get it, but we want it to be hard because we want the best of the best in the program,” Wagner said.

The four-year apprenticeship includes three years of training in Stihl's apprenticeship lab, college classes and factory-floor work. The final year, the apprentice works in his or her full-time department.

“It's two full-time jobs, basically, because they go to work every day and they're at college at night, and weekends,” she said.

Graduates earn an associate's degree. Many go on to achieve a four-year degree in engineering.

Stihl has begun offering apprenticeship training to other area companies, at a minimal fee.

Wagner said American manufacturing needs to interest younger people, so Stihl is forging links with local high schools. Juniors and seniors can take classes at a local high school that focuses on technology. They also will visit Stihl's gleaming plant floor for an open house this April.

Seeking out teenagers seems a bit Germanesque, but Hoffmann said America can't simply copy the century-old German system.

“One of our main focuses has to be getting young people interested in manufacturing,” he said. “When you go to high school, you're not exposed to manufacturing; you don't know what it is. But once they know, there's a lot of interest there.”

Advanced manufacturing

Stihl plastics officials certainly do give an impressive plant tour. In the Processor of the Year competition, the company earned high marks in the area of technological innovation. And Stihl in Virginia Beach won the AME Manufacturing Excellence Award in 2013 and was named Assembly Magazine's Plant of the Year in 2014.

In addition to plastics, the massive Stihl operation also turns out engines, crankshafts and

pistons for Stihl operations

worldwide. A highly automated process turns out chainsaw guidebars.

In a warehouse area, a long conveyor delivers containers of parts to a stoic crew of automated guide vehicles that zoom through the aisles, delivering parts to the proper area.

The beeping carts run themselves. But Stihl's plastics operation invests in the people side, too, employing: 22 people RJG Inc.-certified as Master Molder I and eight as Master Molder II. Hoffmann said the company even sent two co-op students from the University of Massachusetts at Lowell to Master Molder I training.

As of early this year, Stihl has equipped 20 injection molding presses with RJG's eDarts for sensing mold cavity pressure.

Stihl ties its far-flung U.S. operations together with an SAP enterprise resource planning system. Each plastics machine is tied to a Barco system for real-time machine data collection and machine monitoring.

The firm uses gas-assisted molding to produce hollow handlebars and other parts. For a firm grip, TPE handles are overmolded using rotating molds. Fanuc six-axis robots work in tandem on several workcells, loading screws and connectors for insert molding, removing parts and doing post-molding functions.

The factory is full of eye-popping technology. In the Polymers operation, run by production manager Klaus Hummel, two halves of a nylon fuel tank are injection molded on a 400-ton Engel. A six-axis robot removes the parts. Another six-axis robot installs a vent and takes the parts to a Branson vibration welder. An operator puts in other connections and hoses. Finally the tanks go via conveyor to a leak tester, before a robot places them into a box.

That workcell replaced an earlier arrangement, where parts got injection molded, then shipped in a box to the warehouse. They had to be shuttled back to the vibration welding and final assembly — a time-consuming process.

Over in Accessories, unit manager Marko Popovich explains that yes, all 27 Roboshots are dedicated to trimmer heads, but they make more than 20 different heads. That's why nearly every press is equipped with magnetic mold mounting. Plus, the trimmer spins at high speeds, so the thick-wall heads have to be perfectly balanced.

The trimmer line extrusion operation produces 240,000 miles of line a year — enough to reach from the Earth to the moon.

Good stewardship

The Processor of the Year judges were impressed with Stihl's level of detail for the environmental performance category. For example, the company recycles 89 percent of its waste. Six small windmills generate electricity for its manufacturing operation — where the buildings have “green” roofs covered with grass and plants.

Stihl cut waste by 640,000 pounds by working with a recycler that grinds plastic parts containing steel, removing all the metal and shipping the plastic back to Stihl to blend back into the process. The company injection molds its trimmer wire spools from in-house scrap.

And Stihl has tallied up the energy savings from its 37 all-electric molding machines: more than 950,000 kilowatt hours a year.

Forklifts run on hydrogen fuel, as Stihl generates its own hydrogen.

Stihl is very active with industry and public service. The U.S. operation has been a member of the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. for 30 years. Most of its engineers are in the Society of Plastics Engineers.

Stihl sponsors the Tour des Trees, a weeklong 500-mile cycling event to benefit tree research and education. Stihl employees enter a team riding in the event.

It's no surprise that a major chainsaw manufacturer would donate time, money — and chainsaws — to forestry, conservation and landscaping groups. Stihl employees volunteer in local disaster preparedness efforts by joining the Virginia Beach Community Response Team.

And any time a major storm hits, who sends in the chainsaws? The newest Processor of the Year!

Take a video view of Stihl Inc.