Viega Views and News - April 2015

ISSUE ONE * APRIL 2015

VIEGA VIEWS &NEWS EMPLOYEE NEWSLETTER

Celebrations and Happenings pg. 2 Reintroducing Viega Views and News pg. 4 Community Outreach pg. 6

THE NEW W I C H I TA OFFICE

C E L E B R A T I O N S

A N D

H A P P E N I N G S

L E T ’ S C E L E B R AT E

S E R V I C E

JANUARY BIRTHDAYS

M I L E S T O N E S

03 - Chelsi Schafer 03 - Ryan Olsen 04 - David Desjardins 04 - Stacie Easter 04 - Ashley Jansson 06 - Christopher Ferguson 06 - Peter Przymus 07 - Kristine Kohr 07 - Gary Melroy 08 - Haley Russell 08 - Vaughan Latham 08 - David Robbins 09 - Kevin Willits 10 - Tiffany Burke 12 - Timothy Schmidt 13 - David Satterlee 13 - Bryan Wert 14 - Douglas Barbeau 14 - Paula Hartmann 19 - William Lynch 19 - Mike O’Halloran 21 - Darrell Markley 24 - Christopher Phillips 25 - Keith Sayers 26 - Joshua Peery 27 - Lee Bena 30 - Casey Blew 30 - Christopher Witter 31 - Seth Larson

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YEARS OF SERVICE

03/12/1990 - Merlin Martin

15

YEARS OF SERVICE

02/07/2000 - Sharon Mitchell

10

YEARS OF SERVICE

01/10/2005 - Albert Ackel 01/31/2005 - David Peters 02/25/2005 - Jorge Megias 02/28/2005 - Lee Bena 03/14/2005 - Steve Fiedler 03/22/2005 - Daniel Courtney

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YEARS OF SERVICE

01/04/2010 - Douglas Barbeau 02/08/2010 - Peter Paulozza 02/22/2010 - Ryan Olsen 03/08/2010 - Derek Bower

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FEBRUARY BIRTHDAYS 01 - Douglas Evans 01 - Melissa Real 02 - Robert DeAngelo 03 - Scott Ohman 03 - Thimuthu Weragoda 03 - Wendy Garrett 05 - Emily Diaz 07 - Carl Antle 08 - Jess Arbuckle 08 - Michael Crosby 09 - Albert Ackel 09 - Dennis Harvey 09 - Troy Locke 09 - Kelly Nelson

12 - Michael Richter 12 - Thomas Outlaw 14 - Trent Furgason 15 - Jason Allison 15 - Mark Marlett 15 - Diana Groote 16 - Christian Geisthoff 16 - Gary Morgan 16 - Justin Turner 17 - Robert Hall 17 - Becky Webster 19 - Cindy Rae 20 - Jorge Megias 23 - Lenora Lewis 23 - Robert Pettegrew 23 - Tyra Collins 24 - Heather Spaich 25 - Terrell Raines 25 - Lance Williams 26 - Marty Ellis 26 - Thad McCloskey 27 - Jeremy Nelson 27 - Edward Paine 27 - Jordan Rose 29 - Bradley Shaft MARCH BIRTHDAYS 01 - Darrel Ratlief 01 - Daniel Courtney 02 - Cinque Alexander 03 - Robert Gottermeier 05 - Thomas Davis 05 - Derek Robinson 07 - Tricia Musgrave 07 - Elizabeth Rivera 08 - Roger Fiedler 08 - Richard Reeve 08 - Dalyn Cantrell 09 - Michael Urton 10 - Heath Williams 13 - Max Silvis 14 - Robert Shepard 14 - Joey Parent 15 - Robert Boots 16 - Thomas Castro 16 - Jeffrey Todd 17 - Sindie Haug 17 - Francis Longtin 21 - Rachel Stillabower 22 - Robert Thompson 23 - Mary Dietrich 24 - Timothy Arnold 24 - Joshua Smith 24 - James Erhardt 24 - Michael Francone 25 - Joseph Boeh

25 - Judy Rump 26 - Keith Sitts 27 - Bradford Sturgill 29 - Jennifer Pardi-Cusick 30 - Joseph Pikus 31 - Terry Neal

BIRTHS Andrea and Jacob Coy welcomed their son, Greyson, on November 3, 2014.

Tricia and Scott Musgrave welcomed their son, Vaughn, on December 15, 2014.

Adam and Ashley Bengston welcomed their daughter, Raelynn Ray, on February 16, 2015.

Casey and Sarah Blew welcomed their son, Corbin Lee, on January 17, 2015.

4 T H

Q U A R T E R

Yanilla Guerra Business Development

Laurie Lesmerises Business Development

Jo Marlett FVM

Gary Parker FVM

Sara Pierce Human Resources

Justin Turner Information Technology

Kevin Willits Extrusion

BUSINESS UNIT Tech Manager Sales & Marketing SCO DC TM II Sales & Marketing DC TM II Sales & Marketing SCO Sales & Marketing SCO SCO Finance SCO DC TM II Sales & Marketing DC TM II SCO SCO Supervisor

W W W . V I E G A . U S

V A L U E S

Service commUnication Purposeful Effort

NEW EMPLOYEES

W W W . V I E G A . U S

RETIREMENTS

C O R E

Fred Fleming Marketing Innovations

Dec - Larry Ortega Feb - Rose Mary Evans

Feb - Chelsi Oliver Schafer

S U P E R I O R I T Y

SUPERIORITY WINNERS

NAME Andreas Adrian Cody Buck Melinda Couch Linus Dixon Mary Fawcett Jeremy Finn Kevin Fox Kody Goodell Jason Hansen Anura Hewawitharana Alison Koehn Tonia LeBlanc Shawn Likes Debra Peres Daniel (Dan) Pfeiffer Robens Pyrrhus Suzie Sorensen Dwight Terrell Corey Unruh

WEDDINGS

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DEPARTMENT Field Sales Field Sales Manufacturing MKS Warehouse Sales Operations RNV Warehouse Marketing Manufacturing Field Sales Logistics Manufacturing Accounting Logistics MKS Warehouse Field Sales SE Warehouse Logistics Logistics MegaPress

Entrepreneurial Respect Integrity Ownership TeamwoRk Innovative QualiTY

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N E W S

C O M P A N Y

N E W S

REINTRODUCING THE VVN

W I C H I TA M O V E T O B O A B U I L D I N G

Greetings! Viega LLC is excited to re-introduce the Viega Views & News. We hope you enjoy our first issue of the employee newsletter for 2015.

This will be an interactive place to share information, communicate with employees at all our locations and celebrate milestones along with them. Work anniversaries and employee award winners will be featured, but it’s more than that.

Please submit your ideas and suggestions, including personal milestones like weddings and birth announcements so your co-workers may offer congratulations and share in your excitement! We’ll do our best to include all we can into each issue.

One of the keys to a well-run organization is good communication. We strive to achieve that, but of course there’s always room for improvement, and Viega Views & News is one way to keep employees “in the loop” regardless of their location in the United States.

We want this to serve as an avenue to provide better communication about upcoming activities, management’s goals for the company and various events from trade shows to charitable efforts that involve Viega. (For example, read about Viega’s contribution to Step Up for Kids on Page 7.)

Another goal of Viega Views & News is to afford us all a chance to get to know Viega team members a bit better, especially since they work in various locations and geographic regions.

Viega LLC spent the first part of this year getting settled in its new location at the Wichita headquarters.

Viega moved in December 2014 from the Epic Center at 301 N. Main St. to the Bank of America building at 100 N. Broadway. The company occupies the entire sixth floor.

“The new location offers us a bright and open atmosphere as the offices have glass walls, allowing natural light to penetrate the entire floor,” said Justin Turner, Director of IT. “Additionally, all employees based at the North American corporate headquarters are all on one floor whereas at the Epic Center we occupied two floors. While at first it may not appear like a large benefit, what it has accomplished is improved communication, access and camaraderie with every team member including our CEO, Dave Garlow.”

More than 100 Viega employees are housed in the 32,865-square-foot location. The move wasn’t easy, especially near the holidays, but the project was planned carefully to maximize efficiency.

“Construction for remodeling the

VIEGA VIEWS &NEWS

5 * APRIL 201 ISSUE ONE

Spring 2015 issue of the VVN: Printed quarterly and will include a mix of educational, informative pieces and fun, interesting features

If you have story ideas or newsletter improvements for Viega Views & News, please email them to hr@viega.us. Or visit the Intranet site and click on “Corporate” for the Viega Views & News section.

This will be a quarterly publication that includes a mix of educational, informative pieces and fun, interesting features. Be sure to think of us as you take photos at trade shows, company events and work-related holiday festivities.

The business climate and the world of technology are always changing, and it’s important to adapt as a company. Viega’s history of innovation has created a culture of presenting new ideas and improving on existing products.

As Viega LLC continues to grow and expand across North America, the new and improved Viega Views & News will be your opportunity to be heard. We hope you’ll partner with us to provide valuable content for our great company every quarter.

EMPLOYE

Celebrations and Happenings pg. 2

T E NEWSLE

new location took several months to complete,” Turner said. “The physical move lasted the entire month of December as we moved people and furniture in phases.”

The sixth floor features a lobby display with a unique artistic quality showing a timeline of the company’s history and various products that Viega offers.

“What I believe it communicates is the rich history of Viega, conveying to everyone coming through our doors that we have been around for a long time and represent stability our customers can depend on,” Turner said.

He added that the goal was to showcase two of the company’s strengths: creativity and innovation.

Since it gained more than 10,000 square feet by moving to the new building, Viega provided some room for artistic flair to ensure a memorable first impression.

“This way customers, visitors, applicants and even fellow employees can become familiar with our products,” said Bob Ale-Ebrahim, Creative Marketing Manager. “It has been helpful as an educational tool to help show potential and new employees what our products look like and, in some cases, a simulated installation. It is an impressive way to show our breadth of product line but also utilize our products almost like art to display and communicate visually.”

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THE NEW W I C H I TA OFFICE

Viega Reintroducing s Views and New pg. 4 Community Outreach pg. 6

Employees from different departments and locations are pictured in the new building lobby that showcases Viega product in unique ways From left to right: Tenishea White, Buck Leonard, Sergio Gonzalez, Kim Smith and Valerie Bonham 4

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C O M M U N I T Y

O U T R E A C H

C O M M U N I T Y

C O R P O R AT E CHALLENGE

STEP UP FOR SIDS According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 2,000 babies die each year of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

It is the leading cause of death for infants between one month and one year of age.

This year, Viega LLC is joining with other companies and individuals to combat the problem. Viega is a bronze sponsor for a Wichita event called Step Up for KIDS. “KIDS” stands for Kansas Infant Death and SIDS Network.

Viega made a monetary contribution as well as donated various items for a 5K and memorial walk in April. The company became involved when an employee from the McPherson site, Jeramy Janzen, mentioned the idea during a meeting.

His son, Connor Scott Janzen, died of SIDS on Aug. 31, 2006. He was almost 6 weeks old.

Viega will soon be participating in the Wichita Corporate Challenge organized by the Greater Wichita Area Sports Commission. The challenge is designed to promote healthier lifestyles, fitness and camaraderie among Wichita’s companies and organizations. Stay tuned for more details!

McPHERSON I N V I TAT I O N A L BOYS BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT On January 22-24, Viega sponsored the McPherson Invitational Boys Basketball Tournament hosted by McPherson High School. The three-day tournament had school participation from Hutchinson, Maize, Blue Valley West, Manhattan, Mill Valley, Shawnee Mission East and Wichita Heights. This was a great event to show community support, bring awareness to what Viega manufactures at the McPherson plant and highlight the many job opportunities available at Viega.

C O M P A N Y

Participants stop by the Viega product table at the McPherson Invitational Boys Basketball Tournament

For the second year in a row, the Wichita office sponsored a Salvation Army Angel Tree. This Salvation Army program supports families that don’t have the means to buy Christmas presents for their children.

In 2013 Viega sponsored 40 Angels. But thanks to overwhelming interest in 2014, we increased our number of Angels to 52!

Thanks to the Salvation Army in Wichita, 3,875 families were able to open gifts on Christmas morning.

There were 15,265 people in these families who received over 40,000 gifts. It took more than 1,500 volunteers giving more than 7,000 hours of service to The Salvation Army this Christmas to make it happen. Thank you to everyone at Viega who helped in the great success of this program. ·

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“It’s an eerie thing. … The doctors come in and tell you, ‘We don’t know what happened,’” Janzen said.

Janzen, who has worked at Viega for two years, and other family members participate in the Step Up for KIDS event annually.

“It’s just a way to remember him,” Janzen said of his son. “There’s a lot of other people there that went through something very similar.”

Experts say that stomach sleeping places children at higher risk for SIDS. They recommend that babies sleep on their backs instead of their sides or their stomachs. For more information, visit www.kidsks.org.

R E S O U R C E

W E AT H E R S A F E T Y

ANGEL TREE

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O U T R E A C H

W W W . V I E G A . U S

There’s an expression that you never mess with Mother Nature. Severe weather often grabs headlines, from snowstorms on the East Coast to tornadoes in the Midwest, hurricanes in the South to earthquakes on the West Coast. Wildfires are common from California to Colorado.

Of course, the Midwest experiences tornadoes, blizzards and now even earthquakes. Viega LLC is committed to keeping employees safe. One way to do that is the development of an emergency plan for the new office building in Wichita.

Viega moved from the Epic Center on Main Street to the Bank of America building at 100 N. Broadway, where it occupies the sixth floor.

The company is working with the National Weather Service to prepare for various incidents.

“We’re forming the plan right now. The spring is the best time to put it in place,” said Nicole Mandina, a trained storm spotter and Viega employee for five years. She attends annual storm spotter meetings and remains up to date on training.

“I don’t chase, but if I see weather, I alert the National Weather Service,” she said. Mandina watches the National Weather Service news feed at Viega to monitor if severe weather might be developing.

W W W . V I E G A . U S

W E A T H E R H O T L I N E : 1-800-367-5736

“Certified storm spotters are on staff at Viega in McPherson as well,” she said. Mandina explained that the emergency plan includes keeping track of visitors on days that there is the potential for severe weather. She checks with the receptionist to find out if someone is working in temporary offices or is present at the company who wouldn’t usually be there. As a result, we can help the visitors find shelter if there is a threat.

In addition to Viega’s Wichita and McPherson locations in Kansas, the company has sites in Reno, NV; Peachtree City, GA.; McDonough, GA.; Nashua, NH; and Harrisburg, PA. Viega employees in all those cities may call the company’s Weather Hotline to find out if facilities must close or starting times are delayed. The number is 1-800-367-5736.

Mandina pointed out that Viega has a number of long distance commuters, and those who have smartphones should set their phones to receive government alerts or download apps to learn the latest about severe weather and which direction storms are moving.

“With weather forecasting as good as it’s getting now, using technology can help people know weather is coming,” Mandina said.

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V I E G A

F I T

P R O G R A M

IMPLEMENTING LEAN PRACTICES

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By now you have probably heard of Viega:fit. services. We can do this by developing new products It’s not the latest weight loss craze, but what exactly while controlling costs through optimization of the is Viega:fit? total process and by maintaining a culture of active Viega:fit is Viega’s name for our Lean enterprise participation in the improvement process. system. We have steadily plodded along the path of • Timely: The goal is to get the right product of implementation, and those who have been at Viega the best quality in the right quantity to the right for more than five years and who work in McPherson place at the right time. know that evidence of this can be seen everywhere.

To achieve these ideas we must practice four key Improved machine efficiencies, reduced inventories, principles: Flow – faster/continuous, Takt – at the faster processes, clean and pace of customer demand, Pull – organized work areas are just only when and where they need a few things that Lean brings it and Zero Defects – without to the table. Last year we error. These principles are began expanding the reach designed to give guidance TA W vative o into other departments with to how we operate and n In our complexity are represented by the management workshop. pictured wheel.

A brief history and How does this definition: Beginning program “fit” with le with Toyota in the 1980s our mission, vision and and implemented by values?

Our mission is to EF P E some of the largest and “enhance lives by providing CTS most successful companies quality, safe and innovative in the world, Lean is a set of piping systems.” Viega:fit gives tools and philosophies focused us the tools and the on continuous improvement. mindset to enhance not only the FIT is an acronym for Flexible, lives of our customers but one another, Innovative and Timely. as we challenge and strive together to achieve • Flexible: We must adapt quickly to changing our goals through continuous improvement. customer needs. This is achieved through quick Viega:fit is here to stay. It will play a crucial role in set-up times, small lot sizes, quick changeover times, shaping the culture here at Viega LLC, allowing us to sufficient capacity reserve and increasing supply meet our 2020 goals. To learn more about Viega:fit without increasing cost. contact Chad Molen at chad.molen@viega.us or • Innovative: We continuously develop new 316-425-7480. ideas for improving and creating new products and