SAS Automation attempts to set itself apart

SAS Automation (Booth W5353) prides itself on not being your typical company.

From an array of roof-top solar panels, to the way the company does business to employee engagement, the Xenia, Ohio-based maker of robotic end-of-arm tooling for the plastics industry does not want to be like everyone else.

Trent Fisher is founder and owner of SAS Automation, has been for nearly 20 years, but knows that his company cannot keep doing things the same old way year after year and expect to be successful.

And part of that realization means a deeper emphasis on marketing and communications that shows off his company's capabilities.

The self-described “techie” readily admits that sales are not his strength.

“Really, I sat back and said even though we've done a great job, we have a great team, but the problem is exposure in the market. ... The market potential has been missed,” he said. “It's really the fear in our heart or the lead in our ass, but we've got to get in it. Because if we're in this space, we've got to be a player who has meaning.

“And one of the ways that the market defines meaning is the percentage of market share you have,” he said.

So SAS is on a journey to enhance its name, show off its capabilities and promote just what it can do in the world of end-of-arm tooling. That not only includes selling tooling and systems, but also solving manufacturing challenges and problems through its in-house design team.

“One of the big differentiators for us is our design capabilities. We have a full design staff. We're really known for the tough jobs,” general manager Rob Dalton said. “We've got the design capabilities to do just about anything.”

End-of-arm tooling is an industry that SAS knows well as the only domestic manufacturer of such parts in the United States. Fisher said he even coined the phrase end-of-arm tooling back in the day, but didn't think to trademark the description.

“We're trying to release to the market really who we are. And, to be frank with you, they don't really know the full breadth that we have and the value that we can bring them,” Fisher said. “The people who do know us, they will come to us for the tough tooling.”

“Our job, right now, is to enhance our visibility in the marketplace,” he said.

Part of that journey has been to bring on a sales and marketing manager, Bob Lord, to better engage the industry.

One project that has been developed under Lord is the creation of a vendor inventory management program that will place cabinets full of SAS parts at plant locations. This will allow customers to quickly access needed equipment instead of having to wait for parts to be ordered and shipped.

In its very early stages — the idea is being showcased at NPE 2015 — an SAS technician with a van will then work an established route to serve those customers, probably mostly typically on a monthly basis.

Plans are to start with routes in the Midwest, but Fisher also raised the possibility of locating other vans on the West Coast or Southeast, for example, in the future.

Along with promoting the new vendor inventory management program at NPE, SAS also will be highlighting its move to expand distribution of the Nile line of air tools and blades for degating. The company also is introducing the full Merry Tools line of hand degating tools.

SAS has been growing at an annual rate of between 5 and 10 percent each year for the past four years, Dalton said. That's thanks to the company's design capabilities as well as a willingness look beyond its traditional base that still represents the bulk of the company's business.

“We've also expanded our product lines as well, in addition to the plastics industry, we've gotten into some other markets,” Dalton said, such as designing equipment to move products for palletizing, commercial baking and metal stamping.

Another difference is the 222 solar panels that are located on the roof of SAS, a project that paid for itself in about three years thanks, in part, to tax credits and state grants.

“What's the big deal?” Fisher asked about the project, wondering while more companies do not undertake such projects.

“We're a green outfit. ... That's just the kind of outfit we are. We care about those things,” the owner said. “Why is this little outfit in Xenia the only one in our space that does this worldwide?”

SAS also does something else unique for a firm of any size.

The company always has opened its books up to all employees and has an associated profit sharing plan.

That's one thing Dalton said he never experienced before coming to SAS.

“I've worked for all size of outfits, big and small,” he said. “While we had knowledge of the sales end, really the profit end we really didn't know much about that. And I felt from a profit end, there should always be some sort of sharing. When the firm did very well, I should have a piece of that.”

So that's what he's done with his own company since day one.

“Long-term, it not only helps them out, but also helps the whole team out. That's the type of mindset we want,” he said about SAS employees.

Fisher had to weigh the potential of financial information being leaked to the market verses the good the information does for the workforce. It's a bit of a risk, he allowed, but sharing the information provides much more benefit.

“Every employee, regardless of what they do, they have an impact,” he said.