Molder gets Innovative with production, community outreach

Schaumburg, Ill.-based Innovative Components Inc. is taking some proactive steps to adopt technology, get new equipment and benefit students with special needs.

Innovative invested about $2 million in software and machinery at its two locations during 2016 and 2017 with more investment planned in 2018.

"We decided to pretty much replace the entire fleet over a 2½-year period to be competitive and have the most efficient technology," said President Mike O'Connor. "We have begun to build our own automation because the newer machines are suitable for automation."

Innovative and its division Componentes Innovadores Ltda. in Cartago, Costa Rica, sell knobs with more than 10,000 part numbers and a wide variety of designs including knurled, fluted, tapered, push-pull, press-on, snap-lock, self-tapering and press-fit styles.

Production includes plastic clamping knobs, wire rope lanyard assemblies, quick-release pins, swell latches and the proprietary Thread Detective-brand identifier. Gliding gauges on a wire lanyard allow a Thread Detective user to distinguish between similar inch and metric threads on nuts and bolts.

More than 90 percent of the knob production involves overmolding a commodity thermoplastic or a soft-touch elastomer on a metal insert.

"We are diversified with about 1,200 customers per year and less than 8 percent for any single customer," O'Connor said. As a benefit of the diversity, "we don't have the amount of risk a custom molder has."

End markets include consumer products, office furniture, outdoor power equipment, retail hardware and agricultural implements.

The proprietary molder ships half of its output directly to original equipment manufacturers and the reminder through wholesale distributors such as W.W. Grainger Inc. and MSC Industrial Direct Co. Inc. and online mega-retailer Amazon.com Inc.

In 2008, Innovative acquired the assets of competitor US Knobs of Decatur, Ill., expanding Innovative's product line by 16 knob styles.

Since 2008, Innovative has more than doubled its sales, and O'Connor projects a 16 percent growth in sales for 2017 vs. last year.

The privately held business has annual sales in the range of $10 million to $15 million.

Innovative employs 50 in its 30,000-square-foot Schaumburg plant. The 15,000-square-foot Costa Rica facility has 70 employees including 12 certified mold makers.

Both facilities are certified under ISO 9001:2008.

In charting its future, Innovative opted to go "to a low-cost country with a strong educational system, and is getting a competitive advantage," O'Connor said.

Innovative began production in Costa Rica in 2006.

"We built from scratch" and fully experienced the economic downturn of 2008, he said. In working through the crisis, "we pulled back as far as we had to survive" with special attention to cash flow and inventory levels.

"We had to get a lot smaller for a while and work with customers," he said. "Customers were helping us survive."

In Costa Rica, Innovative found available mechanical and electrical engineering talent with automation skills now "driving technology that may end up in the U.S.," O'Connor said.

The team in Costa Rica uses a 2,949-square-foot state-of-the-art tool-and-die machine shop including computer-numerical-control Swiss machining equipment.

"We can make our own molds quickly, do the maintenance work and deal with the wear and tear," O'Connor said.

More automation is the next step. "We buy standardized robots, and our technical team integrates them," he said.

In 2015, Innovative began to order hydraulic injection molding presses from Japanese machinery maker Nissei Plastic Industrial Co. Ltd.

"Going forward, we will focus on Nissei" and hydraulic technology, O'Connor said. "We make plastic knobs. We don't need precision" that electric presses can supply.

Upon conclusion, the aggressive equipment replacement program will involve 12 new presses replacing older machines.

Innovative primarily uses 115-ton TNX-100R Nissei injection molding machines with rotary tables and vertical clamps.

Innovative operates a total of 19 presses with clamping forces range from 75-150 tons.

Schaumburg houses five Nisseis now and soon will get a sixth.

The existing 14 machines in Cartago include two Nisseis, four Niigatas, three QKs, two Apems, a Kawaguchi, a Yuh-Dak and a Haijing.

Now in the pipeline with Nissei, two replacements will occur late in 2018's first quarter, one each in Schaumburg and Costa Rica, and the third is planned in December 2018, probably in Costa Rica.

"Over the last few years, Innovative has upgraded from older machines while improving the whole company down South and in Schaumburg," said Terry DeVoy, principal of sales representative Northwoods Process Technology in McHenry, Ill., collaborating with the Chicago area technology center of Nissei America Inc. in Elk Grove Village, Ill.

In August 2016 after investing $500,000, Innovative turned on IQMS enterprise-resource-planning software in both locations. "I can sit at my desk and see how every machine is running and look at the schedule," O'Connor said.

In its region, Innovative Components is the lone manufacturing partner bringing students with special needs from multiple high schools into the Schaumburg plant daily for 2.5-hour periods over an entire semester.

In addition to hands-on work experiences, "we give them some life skills and bring some meaning into their lives," O'Connor said.

The program started with Township High School District 211 in mid-2015 and recently expanded to High School District 214.

Eight students with special needs participate with four coming in the morning and the other four in the afternoon. The schools provide a job coach and offer the program without charging a company.

"I've seen some of the kids go get jobs," O'Connor noted. "One of the girls got a job as a receptionist at the police department. Another found work at a grocery. And we hired one as a receptionist for our company."

Patrick Abraham, transition services coordinator for Palatine, Ill.-based District 211, said: "This collaboration is our first on-site work experience within the manufacturing industry. Our students are gaining work skills in both the assembly of parts as well as with office and clerical tasks. These skills aid in transitioning students to the post-secondary world after high school."

Roger Guy, grant supervisor for Arlington Heights, Ill.-based District 214, added: "This program provides students with opportunities to explore different careers in the manufacturing industry.

"They learn about specifications and the importance of soft skills such as communications and time management. We cannot duplicate that inside the four walls of a school."