Kickstart: Remembering one of the men behind Saturn's plastic panels

Nearly 20 years ago, I had the chance to visit the assembly plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., that made General Motors' Saturn cars and see the in-house injection molding operations.

Deep within the plant, the company turned out door panels made of polycarbonate and ABS and quarter panels of polyphenylene oxide and nylon — items that were a key part of marketing that Saturn termed "dent resistant" in advertising for the small cars.

You can find a 2004 ad for the Saturn Ion here as an example.

Beyond the normal quality checks for any exterior panel on a car, Saturn's plastic parts were also tested for extreme weather — to make sure they wouldn't crack if they were hit by a shopping cart during a Minnesota winter, for instance.

The plastics engineers I met then took a lot of pride in being able to marry their love of polymers and automotive. Since the Saturn brand was killed off in 2010, no other carmaker I can think of has fully embraced the possibility of thermoplastic panels on entry-level cars. But during its brief existence, the Saturn brand was designed to be "a different kind of car company."

That marketing line was developed by Don Hudler, a GM executive who helped develop and run the Saturn brand. Hudler died Dec. 16 at his home in Charlotte, N.C., at the age of 87.

The Spring Hill plant has been repurposed multiple times since I visited. In January 2020, GM announced a $40 million investment to increase capacity to make engines for its full-size trucks and SUVs.

The ongoing labor shortage will continue making news into 2022, and the advice from manufacturers isn't easy. If you need to hire more people, your company had better plan on higher pay — and that means starting pay, not pay available at some point via bonuses.

"The starting wage is the price of admission," Charlie Braun, president and plastics and rubber processor Custom Rubber Co., said at a recent Manufacturers Association for Plastics Processors event. "You can talk about [other benefits] ... but at the end of the day, in this marketplace right now, if that sandwich board outside your building doesn't say $18 an hour — or whatever it is for your particular area — you don't have a chance, in my opinion."

Reporter Catherine Kavanaugh writes that molders working to attract more labor have increased wages for both new and existing employees while also investing in training and benefits.

Complaining that people "don't want to work" or "lack a work ethic" isn't going to help, and the cost of losing good employees to other companies is expensive. There's no sign that the shortage is going to end soon either, so if your company hasn't already, it's time to take a hard look at what your company offers and what your competitors offer.

Pantone LLC has declared that the color of 2022 will be "very peri," what it terms a futuristic periwinkle blue with "violet-red undertones."

But what makes Pantone the expert? Since 1999, the company has used its own instincts, customer input and cultural trends to pick a color for the upcoming year. (Handily, some firms then use that declaration for its products, guaranteeing use of the color.)

But just because it's the most well-known color of the year arbiter doesn't mean it is the only one. London-based trends company WGSN has picked a pinkish hue termed "orchid flower."

And Swiss chemicals company Clariant AG has rolled out its choice for a "golden" color palette.

"Clariant sets new trends as one of the only pigment producers to publish color palettes for decorative coatings, supporting DIY enthusiasts to professional decorators with trend-setting colors relevant to key application trends and design directions," the company said in announcing its pick for 2022.