Concentration on corporate culture, safety a winning formula for Team 1 Plastics

ALBION, MICH. — Team 1 Plastics Inc. has stuck to its business model for 28 years, serving transplant Tier 1 automotive suppliers as they established a foothold in North America.

“We went after a very specific need,” said Vice President Gary Grigowski. “Japanese transplants were coming to North America. They needed something between the large [automotive] molders with high overhead and the small molders who had no engineering expertise.”

The strategy has served the company well. Team 1 survived the Great Recession and the U.S. automotive industry meltdown in 2009, and now it's back on an aggressive growth curve.

Along the way, Team 1 established a strong corporate culture too — one that puts an intense focus on employees.

That includes giving workers the opportunity to advance within the company, to share in the firm's profits, and an emphasis on safety that's obvious to visitors as soon as they walk in the door at the Albion injection molder.

“Everyone can buy equipment. Everyone can buy and set up a plant. The differentiator is having the right people,” said President Craig Carrel. “We've gone 14-plus years without a lost-time accident. If you don't have a safe environment, everything else is BS. [Stressing safety] fits the culture here. We tell people ‘We value you, and we put an emphasis on safety.'”

Now the outside world is learning more about that culture. For two years in a row, Team 1 has finished in the top 10 in Plastics News' Best Places to Work program. And in March, the company opened its doors to more than 50 plastics industry visitors who took part in a plant tour sponsored by the Manufacturers Association of Plastics Processors (MAPP).

Troy Nix, executive director of MAPP, saluted the company for being an employer of choice in the Albion area.

“The pace of your business is an indication of your culture, and you really notice that at Team 1,” Nix said. “There's a family spirit.”

Close to Battle Creek

Carrel and Grigowski established Team 1 in 1987 with a third partner, Jim Capo, who later left the firm in 2004. All three had worked at engineering resins supplier Celanese, and they saw a niche for a molder to serve the rising tide of automotive transplants.

The initial wave of transplant Tier 1s were Japanese companies. Several had set up North American operations in Battle Creek, Mich.

“We knew we needed to be within about an hour of Battle Creek. We found Albion,” Carrel said.

The town, which is about 100 miles west of Detroit, but just 30 miles from Battle Creek, was a good fit for a growing injection molder.

“They really didn't have any plastics companies here, but it historically was a foundry town. At one time there were three foundries in Albion. So people were used to a manufacturing environment where companies operated 24 hours,” Grigowski said.

The company's first building was a 5,000-square-foot business incubator. Team 1 started with two injection presses, and two very hands-on owners.

“In the early days, we'd work seven days a week, 10-12 hour days. One of us would mold the parts; the other would drive them to the customer,” Carrel said. “We're still actively involved.”

That may be an understatement.

Workers say Carrel and Grigowski did a lot to establish the corporate culture at Team 1 that's made the company such a popular place to work.

“A lot of the small things they do make you realize this is the real deal,” said Dave Seedorf, the company's engineering manager.  “They're role models for me.”

Like many of the managers at Team 1, Seedorf started as a production worker and moved up, thanks to training that the company encouraged him to get — and paid for.

“I was raised with the idea that everyone in this world has opportunities. It's the person who takes advantage of them who's successful,” Seedorf said.

Production manager Tim Henry has had a similar career path, and he also credits the ownership team for giving him opportunities to advance.

“They lead by example, they work right next to us,” Henry said. “There's a mutual respect here.”

Automotive driven

Today Team 1 has about 70 employees, 25 molding machines ranging from 25 to 300 tons of clamping force running 24-7 in 45,000 square feet of manufacturing space. The company is 100 percent focused on automotive customers. It still molds a lot of parts for Japanese Tier 1 companies, and now it also does a lot of work with German transplants, too. Team 1 does very little work for domestic Tier 1 suppliers.

The company's specialty is molding precision and transparent parts. Team 1's parts end up in powertrains, air induction systems, and interior electronic switches. Operationally speaking, it focuses on “exceptional operational execution that will save customers time and money.”

How do they do that? A centerpiece is the proprietary production matrix, developed by Grigowski, which helps minimize waste. Robots also play a role. Team 1 has invested more than $2 million in automation.

“That's allowed us to be globally competitive. Some 15 percent of our production ends up in Mexico,” Carrel said.

Another major emphasis is on preventive maintenance. It may not be sexy, but Team 1 — like clockwork — does a complete mold tear-down after 25,000 shots, and machines get a complete screw and barrel replacement after 5,000 run hours. To make that work, it has a spare screw and barrel for every molding press.

“It's a huge cost up front, but unscheduled down time is down dramatically since we started doing it in the late 1990s,” Seedorf said. 

Open-book policy with employees

Team 1 stresses employee relations, and the most visible way is the emphasis on worker safety. The company immerses new hires in the safety-focused culture from their first day. There are big posters in the plant highlighting the company's latest safety milestone.

The break room walls also have photos of safety milestone celebrations — the company has one every 500 days, and recently celebrated 5,000 days without a lost time accident. Sometimes it also treats employees to special dinners, outings at a local casino, raffles and jackets.

But safety isn't just about parties. The company has monthly safety meetings, and everyone is involved.

Another area that involves everyone is profit sharing. The company has had an open-book management philosophy with workers since 1999, so workers always know exactly how the company is doing.

When Team 1 had to downsize during the Great Recession, workers knew why.

“I tell people, ‘Profitable companies don't go out of business,'” Carrel said. “This helps workers make better decisions based on the profitability of the business.”

Everyone is eligible for profit sharing, and the numbers are based on year-to-date wages.

Shelley Lewis, lead captain in the assembly department, said the open-book philosophy is one of the things she likes about Team 1. She started at the company in 1990, right out of high school — she started as a production assistant on the second shift.

“I didn't even know what injection molding was,” she joked. “When I walked in, everyone was friendly. I just liked it, it just fit. I just really enjoy working here. I still learn.”

Carrel and Grigowski appreciate things like the Best Places to Work awards, which they feel validate what they've been doing since 1987. Now they're working on what's next for the company. They've been working with Laurie Harbour and Scott Walton at Harbour Results Inc. on strategic planning, including a succession plan — for when they get to the point where they're comfortable being a little less hands-on.

“We feel that the team we have is very well positioned today. Part of it is what we went through. We're battled hardened,” Carrel said.

“Part of [succession planning] is generating more profitable growth. We want to get to the point where we can afford another level of management,” he added.

Right now Team 1 has sales of about $12 million annually. That's up from about $3.8 million during the Recession.

“We want to be $15 million to $20 million,” Carrel said.