Enterprise Minnesota Magazine - Summer 2021

THRIVING AFTER COVID

Focus on company values and four critical traits: resilience, agility, high EQ and dynamism.

Helping Manufacturing Enterprises Grow Profitably SUMMER 2021

Jeb Blount, author of Virtual Selling

Why Virtual Selling Is inYour Future Enterprise Minnesota 2100 Summer St. NE, Suite 150 Minneapolis, MN 55413

Jeb Blount explains why manufacturers who don’t master virtual selling techniques will lose ground to those who do.

9001:2015

9001:2015

Enterprise Minnesota FY 2019 Manufacturing Workshops and Business Events

Enterprise Minnesota’s workshops offer outstanding professional and practical business Enterprise Minnesota’sexpertise events offer outstanding professional expertise solutions and practical business solutions to improve competitiveness and growth to improve competitiveness and growth opportunities opportunities for Minnesota’s manufacturers and related industries. for Minnesota’s manufacturers.

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TOPIC Investing in Your People 7/10/2018 Strategy to Create Leaders at All Levels 7/26/2018 Continuous Improvement

CITY St. Peter St. Cloud

Talent and Leadership expert Abbey Hellickson will be discussing Abbey Hellickson, Continuous Improvement Plymouth how to determine and develop leadership competencies in your Business Growth 8/23/2018 Leadership/Talent Inver Grove Heights organization to help foster a company culture of growth and Consultant 9/6/2018 Strategy White Bear Lake resilience. Online via Zoom.

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10/9/2018 Continuous Improvement Continuous Improvement for Your Business

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Strategy

Business Strategy for Growth 11/8/2018 Continuous Improvement

A Model for Manufacturing 12/6/2018 Leadership/Talent Excellence Using ISO 9001 1/8/2019 Continuous Improvement

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Business management expert Keith Gadacz will be demonstratingWinona 1/24/2019 Leadership/Talent the value of the ISO 9001:2015 system and how it can take your 2/7/2019 Continuous Improvement Willmar operation from average to excellent. Online via Zoom.

2/19/2019 The Value of Peer Councils Shoreview Learn more and register on our website.

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Keith Gadacz, Business Growth Consultant

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3/27/2019 Strategy North Branch Driving Continuous Improvement in Uncertain Times 4/9/2019

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August 17 How Your Employees Can Help Improve CompanyAnoka Profitability 6/27/2019 Leadership/Talent STATEWIDE ENTERPRISE MINNESOTA EVENTS

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Sponsorship opportunities are available. Please call Chip Tangen at 651-226-6842 or email chip.tangen@enterpriseminnesota.org.

SUMMER 2021

WHY VIRTUAL SELLING IS IN YOUR FUTURE

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Jeb Blount explains why manufacturers who don’t master virtual selling techniques will lose ground to those who do.

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All Hands On Deck

Moving Forward

Litchfield’s Towmaster is experiencing unprecedented demand for its high-end industrial trailers and truck equipment.

Focus on company values and four critical traits: resilience, agility, high EQ and dynamism.

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36

Necessarily Nimble

NEXT GEN

Hibbing’s L&M Radiator has developed a culture of efficiency and employee empowerment within its massive new plant.

How Minnesota’s technical colleges are training the next generation of industry specialists.

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2 A Look in the Mirror A fruitful consulting relationship is measured by how well consultants adapt their knowledge to the needs of their clients.

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Staying the Course

Deft Management

Success for Harriston-Mayo’s Mike Delisle means staying close to his customers.

Eric Black takes the reins of Minnesota Diversified Industries.

40 Helping Manufacturers Help Themselves Enterprise Minnesota’s peer councils enable manufacturers to help each other post-COVID.

Visit the Enterprise Minnesota website for more details on what’s covered in the magazine at enterpriseminnesota.org.

Subscribe to The Weekly Report and Enterprise Minnesota® magazine today! Get updates on the people, companies, and trends that drive Minnesota’s manufacturing community. To subscribe, please visit enterpriseminnesota.org/subscribe.

SUMMER 2021 ENTERPRISE MINNESOTA /

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Helping Manufacturing Enterprises Grow Profitably

A Look in the Mirror

9001:2015

A fruitful consulting relationship is built upon what consultants know but measured by how well they adapt that knowledge to the needs of their clients.

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expect that manufacturers will be focused on finding and recruiting an adequate number of employees to keep them competitive for some time in the future.

The less-discussed — but equally important — corollary to that is the premium manufacturers place on valuing the good employees they do have. Manufacturers recognize that one way to offset the potential harm of the workforce shortage is to improve the productivity they can achieve with their current workforce.

In this spirit, we’re going to devote some space in this and future issues of Enterprise Minnesota® magazine to profile the people on our staff. We’re doing this for two reasons: First, we want to showcase the evolution of our diverse portfolio of highly advanced manufacturing practices that can help manufacturers maximize their output using the resources they have on hand.

We deliver a comprehensive and interrelated series of services that help manufacturers develop a strategic roadmap for growth and lead their employees to where they want to be in one, three or five-plus years. Our consultants are also ready to help companies maximize their cultures of continuous improvement by constantly seeing and eliminating waste and identifying improvement opportunities at all levels.

And one of our most in-demand consulting practices involves Enterprise Minnesota’s talent and leadership experts who help you develop strategies to attract, engage, invest in and retain your workforce.

Our second motivation is to describe the quality of the consultants who help us deliver those services. A consulting organi2

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zation like ours is only as good as its people. Each of our people understands that a fruitful consulting relationship is built upon what the consultants know but measured by how well they adapt that knowledge to the individual needs of their clients. A tool is only as good as the craftsman, and our culture is built on that concept.

We begin with Keith Gadacz, a business growth consultant based in Brainerd who applies his extensive career-long experience of building and implementing ISO business management systems to help his clients achieve business success.

As an internationally recognized standard of quality management, ISO has become a go-to process that provides a technical framework through which manufacturers can align their business strategy with dayto-day operations. It helps them keep up with increasing volume while avoiding risk and achieving their goals.

It’s clear that Keith is one of our emerging superstars. Most of his clients will identify the depths of Keith’s intellect and expertise within probably the first five minutes of talking to him. But what differentiates Keith, they say, in the marketplace is his willingness to transform his knowledge into digestible services that maximize outcomes for his clients. We have a lot of “Keiths” here at Enterprise Minnesota.

Future issues of the magazine will tell their stories as well.

Bob Kill is president and CEO of Enterprise Minnesota.

Publisher Lynn K. Shelton Editorial Director Tom Mason Creative Director Scott Buchschacher Copy Editor Catrin Wigfall Writers Brian Arola R.C. Drews Robb Murray Michele Neale Peter Passi

Contacts To subscribe subscribe@enterpriseminnesota.org To change an address or renew ldapra@enterpriseminnesota.org For back issues ldapra@enterpriseminnesota.org For permission to copy lynn.shelton@enterpriseminnesota.org 612-455-4215 To make event reservations events@enterpriseminnesota.org 612-455-4239 For additional magazines and reprints ldapra@enterpriseminnesota.org 612-455-4202 To advertise or sponsor an event chip.tangen@enterpriseminnesota.org 612-455-4225

Enterprise Minnesota, Inc. 2100 Summer St. NE, Suite 150 Minneapolis, MN 55413 612-373-2900 ©2021 Enterprise Minnesota ISSN#1060-8281.

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PERSONALITY PROFILES

Staying the Course Success for Harriston-Mayo’s Mike Delisle means staying close to his customers and being wise enough to profit from their advice.

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anufacturer Mike Delisle navigates the challenges that roil his industry with a been-theredone-that aplomb that comes from more than 40 years of guiding his company through things like COVID, the workforce shortage, market fluctuations and economic uncertainties. Delisle is general manager of Harriston-Mayo Manufacturing. His family-owned company’s 80 employees manufacture high-end equipment for planting, growing, loading and storing potatoes and edible beans. They work from facilities in East Grand Forks, Minn. and Minto, N.D., and a sales-and-service dealership in

Idaho Falls, Idaho.

A discussion about his company’s long history, future prospects or potential challenges will invariably return to the concept of stability — “staying the course.” To Delisle, that track includes doing what’s right by his employees, staying close to his customers and being wise enough to profit from their advice, taking a methodical approach to growth, and keeping his eye on logical strategic improvements.

Take the challenges of the pandemic economy. While many manufacturers might privately vent frustrations about the uncertainties around COVID and inconsis-

tencies around the government’s response to the disease, Delisle is proud of Minnesota’s reactions and how his company consistently stepped up to exceed the state’s mandates.

“We struggled along with everybody else,” Delisle says. He applauded Minnesota’s aggressive response to COVID. “Minnesota, of course, came on strong. And that was okay. I prefer they did.” HarristonMayo complied with every pandemicrelated regulation — and more. “It was our job to take all of the precautions that were suggested to outfit our facility, train our people and provide all the protective gear.

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At age 66, Mike Delisle admits to thinking about retirement. “If I don’t do it, the calendar will do it for me,” he says.

We not only did the minimum, but we did the maximum, to protect our people.”

He admits the quarantines cost the company hours of production time; his plants were short-staffed for much of the past 14 months. “We could have built more and sold more if we had all hands on deck.

Of course, everybody’s in the same boat, but we lost a lot of production from a sales standpoint.”

A history of adapting to customers

The company has developed the agility to grow and adapt to the needs of its planter customers, Delisle says. Mike has worked in the family-run business since he was old enough to push a broom. “I’ve swept that floor a thousand times,” he says. Mike’s grandfather, Mayo Delisle, founded the company in 1952 after working as a welder in and around East Grand Forks in the years immediately following his service in World War II. Duane Delisle, Mike’s dad, graduated from high school that same year and joined the business immediately after taking a welding course at a nearby trade school.

The two-man operation chose to specialize in potatoes because it was an abundant 4

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local crop. According to Mike, thousands of small growers rotated potatoes into other grains, wheat, corn and sugar beets. “In the ’30s and ’40s, they had learned they could store potatoes to provide food in the winters.”

Over the years, Mayo learned to adapt as the market changed to fewer but larger growers who tended to focus solely on potatoes and needed more sophisticated machinery. Typical growers then grew around 40 acres of potatoes. Today, the current grower will have more than a thousand. As the equipment got bigger, a grower could use the same machine to service 500 acres or 1,500 acres.

Duane bought the company in 1974, when Mike was a freshman in college.

He and his brothers spent their summers performing the kinds of odd jobs that were allowed by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for someone under 18 years old, but Mike says there was no immediate expectation that they would work for the company. Duane was relatively young, and the company was still relatively small. But he grew the company, built a new building, and by the time Mike graduated from college, his dad offered his three sons an opportunity to join. That need intensified in 1979, when Duane was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and the brothers, Mike, Mark and Dave, still just in their 20s, took a more hands-on role.

Parkinson’s is progressively physically debilitating, but Mike says his dad’s mind was sharp and he provided guidance. “We were thrust into things at a fairly young age,” Mike says.

Was it a leap? “It didn’t seem like it at the time, but looking back, I guess it was.

At the time you just needed to do what you had to do. Things were placed in front of you and you handled them.”

Mike and his brothers bought the company from their parents in 1983.

Their mission as new owners was to stay the course. “The company was doing fine,” he says. “We didn’t see a need to change anything.” The company still relied on long, successful relationships with customers and growth came as they expanded their geographic reach out of the Red River Valley into Manitoba, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Idaho, and then eventually throughout the rest of the U.S. and other parts of Canada.

Alongside Delisle’s commitment to methodical strategic growth, he does acknowledge one misstep the company took to accommodate market changes in the late ’90s. As processers were using irrigation technologies to help guarantee a consistent crop, Mike agreed to merge with a Fargo-based company that could integrate a number of local companies. The merged company was called TerraMarc. In addition to Mayo, the merged companies included Crary Industries in West Fargo, N.D.; Harriston Industries in Minto, N.D.; and Lockwood Manufacturing in Gering, Neb. By 2005, the combined companies had to concede that the merged companies weren’t going to deliver the market efficiencies they had desired.

“It took away some of the flexibility that we liked, and it just didn’t work out all that well,” Mike says. “We still did fine, but not

to the levels that we had been used to.”

The Mayo team bought their company back into private ownership, along with “sister” company Harriston. Today, they operate as Harriston-Mayo, one company.

The marriage worked well, Delisle says, because the companies manufactured complimentary products, and the plants at just 33 miles apart were a good cultural fit. “We’re the same kind of people. We all grew up in the same area,” he says.

The future

At age 66, Delisle admits to thinking about retirement. “If I don’t do it, the calendar will do it for me,” he says. “I’m going to slow it down; I already have somewhat. I can’t say for sure what the future holds, though. I’m really having fun, actually.”

Succession planning, he says, will begin to evolve “fairly soon.” He says the company maintains high-quality managers. He also has a son who joined the company within the past year.

Delisle pauses, then adds, “We’ll continue to expand, but it’s going to be an expansion in what we know.” He says the company is considering several new products that could be marketed to existing companies. “We’ll stay with what we know. I think we’ll stay the course.”

What keeps him jazzed is his mission: “It’s working with these folks who use innovations to feed the nation and the world. The fun part is to help them flourish.”

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If you want a Vistabule camper today you better have plenty of time and disposable income; the waiting list is long, and the trailer’s base price is around $20,000.

SUCCESS

Happy Campers Vistabule Teardrop Trailer is looking to lean up its operations to keep pace with sizzling demand for its niche product.

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ou might say Vistabule Teardrop Trailer is building dreams.

On the website, of course, you’ll find dozens of examples of their luxury campers, customizable in dozens of ways. But when they hear from their customers, they don’t hear stories about how great the shopping experience was or how they loved the color options.

Instead, they hear stories from people who wept when they finally received their teardrop trailer, or who cashed in their retirement and sold their house to live a life of adventure in their new mobile home.

While the COVID pandemic has affected many manufacturers in different ways, Vistabule Teardrop Trailer — whose signature product is the Vistabule line of teardrop-shaped campers — has watched its already-expanding customer base grow even larger. Had the company not been forced to 6

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shut down for a month, it likely would have posted another record sales year.

The St. Paul-based company is poised for even more growth. If you want a Vistabule camper today you better have plenty of time and disposable income; the waiting list is long, and the trailer’s base price is around $20,000.

“Orders have gone through the roof during COVID,” says owner Bert Taylor.

“People are reacting to cabin fever. They’re really dying to get out there and experience nature before they’re taken down by COVID.” And while a waiting list can say a lot about demand, Taylor says he wants to get trailers into customers’ hands much quicker. He’s hoping a new facility with a key parts supplier on site will reduce customer wait times.

“That’s why we’re kind of desperate to increase our productivity,” he adds.

Customers who want a Vistabule trailer must wait up to 18 months once they place an order, with the COVID pandemic appearing to have heated up the public’s demand even more for modes of escape.

Taylor is also pondering how a new facility might simultaneously maximize profits

“Some people have literally saved their whole retirement to buy this trailer and go and make their dreams come true. It’s so fun to watch it. We get presents all the time from customers. And we really are treated like family by them.” and cut down on customer wait times.

Taylor transitioned into the trailer business after spending his career building furniture and working for various small manufacturers. He wanted to try something new and so, when he heard about teardropstyle trailers from a friend, he started

researching. Being familiar with design tools and seeing a niche he thought he could fill, he built his first teardrop trailer in his garage. After it was done, he and his wife drove it to the Grand Canyon. That maiden voyage convinced Taylor to create Vistabule Teardrop Trailer and launch the Vistabule line.

At any given time, the company may have 10 trailers on its shop floor in varying states of completion. Taylor described the company’s assembly approach as sort of a “supermarket” process. The trailer is moved around the shop where workers perform specific production tasks. In one area they may be mounting wheels, in another they may be undergoing water testing in the “hurricane room,” in another the trailers get put on a lift where a sealant is applied to the underside. Production includes several phases: wheels, axel, frame, sides and, finally, the skin. Teardrops, which came into popularity in the 1930s and ’40s, are typically 1,200 pounds, which make them easily haulable with a regularsized car.

This approach to production works for Vistabule Teardrop Trailer, but Taylor still hopes Enterprise Minnesota can help him lean up the company’s production process to maximize efficiency.

Having said that, Taylor concedes the area where they’d like to make their biggest improvement might be one of their parts suppliers.

“I’d like to know more about how the lean processes can be incorporated into this type of model, rather than us forcing this into a different type of model that might not work as well,” Taylor says. “So, I’m open to that and we’re learning more about that.”

Vistabule Teardrop Trailer has a unique relationship with a company called Great River Woodworking, which supplies all the wood parts for Vistabule campers.

Taylor says the company is considering purchasing high-tech machining equipment to allow Great River to manufacture parts faster. He’s also considering relocating Vistabule Teardrop Trailer to a larger facility, one with enough room for Great River Woodworking to move right in.

For now, though, Taylor says he’s happy with the kind of growth they’ve seen. In fact, they’ve got one of those

problems that is good to have.

Even if the wait times remain, it’s clear the Vistabule line has carved out a nice niche.

Steve Corcoran, general manager at Vistabule Teardrop Trailer, says the Vistabule line has evolved to one that attracts an affluent client base, one that may eschew traditional campers or RVs. “We attract people who are either approaching or have reached retirement, who maybe want to retrace the steps of some of their epic trips they took when they were kids,” Corcoran says. “From an economic perspective, I can tell you that certainly, these are not people who are without disposable income. They have an appreciation for what it is in terms of the design, the attention to detail, the interior

Executive Peer Councils August 10 • 9:30 am Learn from four manufacturing executives what successful companies are doing in 2021 to compete and grow profitably.

detail with the exposed wood. A lot of times they’ve been looking long and hard for that perfect trailer, and they see this one and that’s it. They’re done with the search. Let’s get in line.”

Vistabule Teardrop Trailer employs no sales staff. They don’t need it. Customers come to them. And when they do, their first encounter is usually with Lily Taylor, Bert Taylor’s daughter.

Lily says she helps customers navigate the 30 options available with a Vistabule trailer. Most of those customers, she continues, arrive at the company’s St. Paul facility having never seen a Vistabule in person. Sometimes they get emotional.

“So many people come in and they’re crying because they’re so excited about this,” Lily says. “Some people have literally saved their whole retirement to buy this trailer and go and make their dreams come true. It’s so fun to watch it. We get presents all the time from customers.

And we really are treated like family by them.”

—Robb Murray

Led by Talent & Leadership expert Abbey Hellickson.

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gets over 50% of its revenue from the aerospace and defense industries. Hansen says the company has seen upper single-digit or lower double-digit growth every year since the company’s inception. The company is also 100% employee owned through ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan), which then-company owner Roger Ryberg implemented when he retired in 2006.

According to the company’s website, “The higher sense of responsibility that comes with employee ownership has made Windings even more responsive to customer needs and continues to foster innovation along with a desire to bring ever-increasing value.”

ESOP enables employees to have a stake in the health and performance of the company, Hansen says. “And ultimately, the motivation for employees is to build a nest egg. Each employee as an employee-owner feels personal responsibility to help contribute. It’s been a huge benefit to us in terms of employee engagement and motivation.”

While Windings’ production facility is in New Ulm, the company’s engineers are stationed in Eden Prairie. Hansen says

TECHNOLOGY

Perseverance NASA’s Mars land vehicle is just one more project that benefits from parts manufacturer Windings.

T

he world watched video of NASA mission control personnel erupt in gleeful cheers when the Perseverance land vehicle successfully touched down on Mars in February. At the same time, the small staff at Windings was erupting with some glee of its own.

Somewhere within Perseverance’s robotic arm is a part made by Windings, the New Ulm-based manufacturer of custombuilt electric motors and motor parts.

Exactly which part, they’re not allowed to say. There is also a Windings part in the rover’s coring turret drill, which is used to drill beneath Mars’ surface to remove soil core samples.

“It’s really exciting to be a part of something like that,” says David Hansen, Windings director of strategic marketing.

This isn’t the first time Windings has designed products meant to work in extreme conditions.

“We have components that are miles below the seabed. We do work in oil and

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gas downhole tooling,” Hansen says. “So, we say we have components located miles below the surface of the sea to Mars and everything in between.”

Built on wings

Windings was founded in 1965 by J.W. McKinney, who used his technical knowhow to fill a growing demand for motors and aircraft components. As evidenced by the company’s connection to NASA, Windings retains a strong connection to the aerospace industry.

The company also has strong ties to other industries. Windings developed handheld surgical tools for the medical device industry and motors designed to withstand extreme conditions for the oil and gas drilling industries. The company has also entered the factory automation and hybrid vehicle realms. Windings has done work with companies on the alternative energy front, as well, including wind.

While Windings is fairly diversified, it still

One of Windings’ niches is what David Hansen calls “doing the hard stuff.” And one need only look at a previous high-profile project to see just how “hard” he means.

Windings has had better luck attracting top talent by having those jobs anchored in the Twin Cities.

“As you can imagine, being in southwest Minnesota can make it tough to recruit certain employment skills to that area,” Hansen says. “So, the company about a year and a half ago decided that, in order to attract and retain certain skill sets, we needed to have a presence closer to the Twin Cities.”

The hard stuff

One of Windings’ niches is what Hansen calls “doing the hard stuff.” And one need only look at a previous high-profile project to see just how “hard” he means.

The Parker Solar Probe mission is a seven-year NASA effort to study the sun. It’s a spacecraft that will fly closer to the sun than any other man-made object. That means dealing with extreme

Doing work in space is very unforgiving because of the vacuum concept, extreme cold, extreme heat, and radiation.

heat and radiation. For that project, Windings supplied parts that help the spacecraft maneuver its solar panels.

Windings’ work with Perseverance isn’t the first time one of its parts made it to Mars. For NASA’s Curiosity rover, Windings supplied parts for the mechanical crane that delivered the craft to Mars’ surface.

Doing work in space is very unforgiving because of the vacuum concept, extreme cold, extreme heat, and radiation.

When designing parts to work in a vacuum, engineers must contend with a concept known as outgassing, which refers to the phenomenon of gases trapped within a solid leaving that solid. This happens in the extreme conditions of a vacuum. When outgassing occurs, parts

don’t work.

This puts utmost importance on material selection. Cadmium, zinc and magnesium, for example, have high outgassing rates and would be poor choices for any components designed for functioning in a vacuum. Certain varieties of stainless steel and aluminum, on the other hand, have low outgassing rates and would be good choices.

Engineers for products designed to go into space also must contend with another reality: It just has to work. This notion has a name: the “Five Nines of Reliability,” which means anything designed for use in space has to have a 99.999% success probability.

This is the kind of work they do every day at Windings.

“Everything we do is challenging,” Hansen says.

“Everything we do has a critical nature to it for one reason or another.

That could be what kind of environment that it’s operating in, it could be performance. They’re pushing the envelope on performance of these parts. Failure is not an option when you do this.”

Much of what Windings does in this part of its production takes place in a cleanroom — a production environment where dust and dirt particles and any other kind of foreign debris are removed.

“Most of what we build in our cleanroom is destined for space,” Hansen says.

“But it does allow us to do other things.

Occasionally, we’ll have medical applications where cleanliness is an issue. We’ve done work in semiconductor industries where cleanliness is an issue. But primarily for us, what drives clean space manufacturing is space applications.”

—Robb Murray

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SUMMER 2021 ENTERPRISE MINNESOTA /

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UPWARD MOBILITY

Deft Management Eric Black takes the reins of Minnesota Diversified Industries.

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or 12 years, Peter McDermott, CEO and president of Minnesota Diversified Industries (MDI), has led this not-for-profit manufacturing giant through a national recession, major corporate changes, and even a global pandemic. His efforts have seen the company not only rise through tumultuous years in the early 2010s but thrive even now through the coronavirus and years of workforce shortage in Minnesota. On April 1, McDermott retired from his role, giving the lead to Eric Black, who brings more than two decades of experience in marketing and manufacturing, plus a background in the sort of social good that is central to MDI’s mission.

Founded in 1964, MDI today is a $33-million, 562-employee, four-campus social enterprise that combines a specialty in manufacturing extruded plastic products with a mission positioned on employing disabled workers. If you’ve ever seen those ubiquitous plastic totes used by the United States Postal Service, you know their work. The company’s client base is split evenly between government contracts and

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commercial distributors who sell to notable brands like Amazon, FedEx, U-Line, and Nike.

MDI also takes on projects that require labor-intensive processes, like sorting mixed products for resale or producing scattergram radiology pads, water quality test kits, surgical glove kits, and other medical products in their ISO-certified clean space.

MDI strives to employ a 50% disabled workforce, and all employees make at least minimum wage. It also advocates for disabled rights and the value of meaningful employment to persons with disabilities, as well as the economic value to the state of employing these willing workers. A 2016 Wilder Research study found that the annual economic benefit to taxpayers, society, and the disabled is approximately $1.8 million via wages annually. These dollars translate into tax base as well as personal spending, and the income received by many who would otherwise receive support from government services frees up tax dollars for other purposes and caregivers and

The company’s dependence on one government contract — the USPS — made it particularly vulnerable to the market fortunes of that client. By 2010, USPS orders dwindled.

MDI’s workforce shrank to only 120 people, and the company’s managers scrambled to find a more stable mission. families for other needs. In the 2015 year studied, the company received $368,965 in donations and grants. The study concluded that every $1 invested in MDI yielded an ROI for the economy of $4.87.

But it wasn’t always this way. Around the time McDermott joined MDI in 2008, the company was enjoying a surge in prosperity. The company’s workforce had rocketed to more than 400 employees and tripled the size of its Grand Rapids facility.

But the company’s dependence on one government contract — the USPS — made it particularly vulnerable to the market for-

tunes of that client. By 2010, USPS orders dwindled. MDI’s workforce shrank to only 120 people, and the company’s managers scrambled to find a more stable mission.

So, McDermott diversified, seeking commercial clients (who had previously made up some 10% of their orders) to now fill half the company’s capacity (around $13 million in 2019), with the USPS contract (at around $16 million in 2019) making up the other half. MDI added a services division in the Twin Cities facility to handle medical products and repackaging. A surge order from the USPS in 2011 added to the growth, and MDI’s workforce fought their way back into an era of stability.

The profitability of this new business model enabled MDI to focus on adding workspace for a workforce that grew with every new client. It relocated its St. Paul plant across the river, to a 40,000-square-foot facility in Minneapolis that quickly expanded to 60,000 square feet. After acquiring Deer River Hired Hands in 2013, MDI purchased a 110,000-square-foot facility in Cohasset. In Hibbing, the company’s operation in a former Greyhound Bus building evolved in 2018 to a 36,000-square-foot plant near the Hibbing Airport. And in the last few years, MDI increased its commitment to the Grand Rapids area by adding new machines, new processes, and dozens

With MDI searching for a new CEO, Eric Black saw an opportunity to leverage his background in production and commercial sales with his desire to help others.

of new jobs.

But in April 2021, McDermott, now 70, retired and the company’s board selected new President and CEO Eric Black — a 23-year manufacturing veteran — whose background combines plant management, production, and a commitment to raising up others.

Growing up outside Kansas City, Black has a degree in chemical engineering as well as an MBA. He spent more than 20 years working for Cargill, Inc, managing plant operations, business development, and sustainability initiatives at facilities in Iowa, Nebraska, and Minnesota.

He and his family moved to Minneapolis in 2009, following a new position at Cargill. Four years later — while still busy at Cargill — he co-founded the Twin Cities Black Affinity Network Development Day (TC BANDD), which today has trained more than 2,000 people from over 650 companies on core life skills like financial management, conflict resolution, and personal growth. What started as a collaboration with a friend from General Mills has grown into a life-changing organization with sponsors like Cargill, General Mills, Wells Fargo, Best Buy, Target, Johnson & Johnson, and U.S. Bank. Seeing the impact of lifting up others inspired the 46-year-old executive to plot a new course.

“I just felt that continuing to drive [and] increase profitability within a corporate environment was diverging from my DNA,”

Black remembers. “So, I made the decision to leave Cargill.”

Timing wasn’t on his side, however. Black says that Cargill gave him its full support in pursuing something new that spoke to his heart and his experience, but his six-month’s notice came to a conclusion in March 2020. He intended to spend some time meeting with friends, reading a few good books, and learning about other options to earn a living while giving back, but the coronavirus had other plans.

So, he became a distance-learning teacher for his two children, he jokes, and temporarily took a job as the global marketing and technical sales director for Univar Solutions at about the same time an opening appeared at MDI. He says a chance encounter with a book humbled him from thoughts that he could use his corporate experience to swoop in and become a hero in the non-profit world.

With MDI searching for a new CEO, Black saw an opportunity to leverage his background in production and commercial sales with his desire to help others.

“There are a lot of things we can do that could be profitable, but if they don’t [create] jobs, we won’t do them,” Black says.

“If they’re things that don’t create or [that] jeopardize our culture of inclusiveness, we won’t do them. If we’re not employing enough people with disabilities, we hold ourselves accountable to think differently and figure out how we could get it done.”

As CEO, Black has a three-pronged strategy for MDI’s growth by focusing on business development, workforce development, and advocacy. He’ll work to further diversify the company’s product lines through MDI’s new polypropylene extruder to accompany its long-successful extruded polyethylene products; expand the company’s outreach through new technologies, such as virtual reality; and continue working in advocacy on the benefits of a diverse workforce that includes veterans, the disabled, and members of disadvantaged or underrepresented communities.

“This is not a sheltered work group,” he says. “These are people who are participating in a vibrant employment opportunity that allows them to do meaningful work.

It’s on me as a leader to make sure we find and continue to grow those opportunities.

That’s what I’m most excited about.”

—R.C. Drews SUMMER 2021 ENTERPRISE MINNESOTA /

11

Manufacturing Walkasins has been the easy part.

Clearing all the regulatory hurdles? Not so easy.

DOING GOOD

Walkasins RxFunction restores mobility and balance for people who suffer from peripheral neuropathy.

A

small company in Minneapolis that manufactures a unique medical device is hoping to one day make a big difference for the millions of Americans suffering from peripheral neuropathy.

The company is RxFunction, and its product is called Walkasins, a device that promises to help restore balance and mobility to patients rendered immobile due to the numbness of the feet and hands caused by this condition.

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/ ENTERPRISE MINNESOTA SUMMER 2021

According to Johns Hopkins University, peripheral neuropathy has many different causes. It can be inherited, but one of the most common contributing factors is pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes.

The condition causes symptoms that include numbness, muscle weakness and cramps.

For many, though, losing the ability to walk and maintain balance is among the most devastating symptoms. And that’s where Walkasins can help.

Developed chiefly by researcher and scientist Lars Oddsson, Walkasins hit the market in 2019. Partly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the rollout was slower than Oddsson had hoped. Still, Oddsson says the company’s client base is growing steadily. He says once word spreads about the product’s effectiveness, more growth will come.

Of the 20 million people in the U.S. suffering from peripheral neuropathy, five million of them are candidates for Walkasins (not all peripheral neuropathy sufferers have the kind of foot numbness that could be alleviated by the product).

Oddsson’s background stretches all the way to Sweden. He attended the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, one of the world’s top research institutions for sports and exercise physiology. After earning a Ph.D., he moved to Boston University for several years, where he worked in the Neuromuscular Research Center. It was there that the idea for Walkasins was born.

Building on previous research using footboards to measure sensory levels, Oddsson began developing a device that looks a lot like a shoe insert. Equipped with sensors, the insert evaluates balance and delivers gentle sensory signals to functioning nerves around the lower leg. The brain uses that information to restore balance. All of this, of course, is designed to prevent the user from falling, which could have catastrophic — and expensive — consequences.

RxFunction is partnering with Minnesota Rubber and Plastics to manufacture the device, which is made using injection molding, according to Oddsson.

Manufacturing the device has been the easy part. Clearing all the regulatory hurdles? Not so easy.

“Commercializing something like this has been a very interesting learning experience on my part,” Oddsson says. “Getting through the regulatory side of things for medical devices is very challenging and enormously expensive. So, it’s not surprising that technology is expensive in the medical space, because you have to pass regulations that are quite substantial.”

Walkasins are what is known in the medical device world as “low-risk technology,” similar in regulatory burden to crutches or wheelchairs. But while the device may be low risk, that doesn’t mean the regulatory process is lax. Such device makers are required to comply with certain Food and Drug Administration requirements so that, if customer complaints result in an FDA audit, there’s a paper trail

Of the 20 million people in the U.S. suffering from peripheral neuropathy, five million of them are candidates for Walkasins. showing regulatory compliance.

Walkasins are generally acquired through a doctor’s prescription. So far, RxFunction’s biggest client base has been patients at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Minneapolis. VA patients are fortunate in that the VA typically pays for such emerging technology.

Non-VA patients will need to consider the investment. A pair of Walkasins will run paying customers several thousand dollars. But Oddsson says they’re in communication with health care providers and insurance companies in an effort to convince them that a moderate cost up front could prevent a major cost later.

“We have expertise in our team, specifically our CEO, Mary Anderson,” Oddsson says. “She has been with two other startup companies and helped them develop their path to receiving reimbursement for new technology. So, we really have strong expertise in our team on how you get there. And you don’t jump on that right away. You build your patient needs.

You build your research and establish it.

Then with that you build your case and show that this might decrease cost overall for the health care system.”

For now, RxFunction has fewer than 100 clients. But Oddsson says COVID is to blame for the delay in growth. Once the virus is in the rear-view mirror, he figures sales will grow considerably.

“I’m hoping that, in a few years, we will be in the thousands per year for sure,” he says. “It’s been growing fairly quickly now in spite of COVID. And of course, a big part of it is going to be the ability to receive reimbursement. Then the market will grow a lot quicker, because there are a lot of patients who could use this who cannot afford to pay for it right now.”

—Robb Murray SUMMER 2021 ENTERPRISE MINNESOTA /

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T.E.C. Industrial President Marcel Black (right) with co-owner Nathan Perry (left).

President Marcel Black believes that T.E.C. Industrial is more than its ownership, and he has set his sights on new retail locations and a greater online presence.

TRANSITIONS

Dream Job In a year of turmoil, Marcel Black has watched his business soar.

F

or Marcel Black, the president and co-owner of T.E.C. Industrial Inc., 18 months ago he landed his dream job running one half of a 100-year-old service and manufacturing company in the southern center of Rochester.

“Every day I have to pinch myself that I get to be a part of this.”

T.E.C.? Well, back in 1919, that stood for Tom’s Electric Company.

“Back in the day when we didn’t live in a society of disposable items,” Black says.

For five decades as a simple business repairing toasters, radios, and televisions, the company was fighting for relevancy by the late 1960s. Household devices were becoming more complex and repairs more costly.

Enter the Perry family, namely Bill and his wife Mary. In 1967, they purchased and incorporated the business as T.E.C. Industrial Inc. They diversified, keeping their hallmark electric motor repair services

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but bringing in sales and manufacturing of belts, bearings, and electric motors. Their sons, Bob and Jim, came up in the business and took over in the 1990s. By 2020, this family business moved into its third generation of owners.

Pre-pandemic purchase

Marcel Black served four years in the U.S. Marines. When he entered the civilian world in the early 2000s, he found satisfaction in commercial HVAC repair.

“I’ve been a customer of T.E.C. for about 20 years,” he recalls. “If I needed a shaft repaired, if I needed a belt, if I needed a motor for a condensing unit, I always came to T.E.C.” He moved to Rochester in late 2011, handling HVAC and refrigeration for Hy-Vee grocery stores, but the move also brought him closer to T.E.C. headquarters.

There was something compelling about the

company, and he would take every opportunity to “hang around.” It was early last year, then, that Black purchased one half of the company, as Bob Perry retired. Jim Perry sold his half, too, to his son Nathan. Black and Nathan had known each other for years, and the younger Perry had put in his time as a machinist, growing up in the business like his father and uncle before him.

When they signed the papers on January 8, 2020, the notion of a global pandemic was pure fiction, and Black says even in the months that followed, the business soared.

“It was business as usual; one of the best quarters was the first quarter of 2020,” he recalls.

But as the country and the state entered shutdown, Black and his business partner fretted the repercussions of an outbreak in their shop and planned for the worst as they hoped for the best. Business slowed with their consumer and industrial customers scaling down on spending, but it didn’t take long for things to bounce back. In the year of endless shutdowns and obstacles, T.E.C. added staff and opened a new division — powder coating — while others struggled to adapt.

Black says it’s always difficult to know when to make a big decision, but he has no

regrets. The company operates as a job shop, taking contracts from a single piece to 500 units or more and working with consumers as well as commercial and industrial clients. T.E.C.’s 22-person staff in three facilities across Rochester and Red Wing embody the Perry family’s philosophy of putting the customer first, and Black says that commitment and the diversity of the company’s offerings helped T.E.C. weather a turbulent year.

“Our customer base is anywhere from the guy coming to get a lawnmower belt to the industrial customer who is getting a manufacturing part or assembly that we do all in-house,” he says. “[Our customers] stuck with us, kept us busy, kept us moving.”

Powder & possibilities

Black has kept the business moving, too. Looking at T.E.C.’s portfolio, he saw an opportunity in powder coating, and in June 2020 purchased a building neighboring the company’s Rochester headquarters.

Inside the 7,500-square-foot space now stands a surface preparation space, an oversized spray room, and a 1,600-cubicfoot oven that has allowed the team to handle projects as large as a 1967 Pontiac GTO frame down to more common requests such as truck rims, patio furniture, and motorcycle hardware.

From the company’s internal use alone, Black says the powder coating division, known as T.E.C. Fabrication and Powder Coating, made good financial sense, but opening this new service to outside clients has also eliminated downtime for his staff and increased profits, all while offering something Rochester otherwise lacked.

At the end of the day, Black believes that T.E.C. Industrial is more than its ownership, and he has set his sights on new retail locations and a greater online presence, in addition to reorganizing the manufacturing shop to increase efficiency and integrating new manufacturing technologies where they add value. It’s about ensuring that a company that has weathered more than a century already can stand to weather another.

“I’m in awe every day of what our team is capable of making,” he says.

“Every move that I’m trying to make is to better serve our customers.”

—R.C. Drews

MANUFACTURING IS VITAL TO MINNESOTA’S ECONOMY Our programs and services here at the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) can help you through the economic recovery.

Look to DEED for: ● Business financing programs

Look to CareerForce for: ● Virtual hiring events and online resources

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Visit MN.gov/deed/business

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Let’s see what we can do together.

Talk to a Bremer banker today.

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bremer.com

SUMMER 2021 ENTERPRISE MINNESOTA /

15

Keith Gadacz, Business Growth Consultant

Inside Enterprise Minnesota

An ongoing series.

PROFILE

Building a Personal Toolbox How Keith Gadacz used his diverse experience to become a well-rounded — and busy — quality management systems consultant.

W

ith a work history built on expanding his analytical expertise and developing a multi-faceted toolbox of skills, Keith Gadacz has become one of Enterprise Minnesota’s most well-rounded — and busiest — quality management systems consultants.

Gadacz, whose Polish name rhymes with “cottage” and translates to “big talker,” attended Foley High School where he finished fourth in a class of 156.

He then got a degree in mathematics from the University of Minnesota-Morris.

“Not to teach, which is kind of interesting that now I’m a consultant,” he says.

“I guess I sort of teach in a different way.

I certainly didn’t intend to be a classroom teacher when I went to college.”

Gadacz has used his three years at Enterprise Minnesota to carve a niche as a skilled ISO problem-solver. But instead

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of merely striving to help the greatest number of ISO certifications, Gadacz says he’s motivated by customer satisfaction.

“The customer’s goals motivate me,” he says.

Colleagues and customers alike appreciate Gadacz’s career-long priority of honing his skills and acquiring new expertise.

While working his first job out of college at Hutchinson Technologies, Enterprise Minnesota business growth consultant Keith Gadacz absorbed every ounce of wisdom from a trusted mentor, a person who would later call Gadacz the best technician he ever worked with.

When he later took a job at Fingerhut, Gadacz noticed analytical opportunity and used his math skills to help usher the concept of “big data” into the company’s process, helping Fingerhut dive deeper

into customer behavior analysis.

And at Minnesota Rubber — where he initially knew nothing about ISO or quality management systems — Gadacz became a self-taught expert about ISO 9001, ISO 13485 (the standard that governs manufacturers of medical devices) and IATF 16949 (the standard that governs the automotive industry).

“I really didn’t have a clue,” Gadacz says of his time prior to Minnesota Rubber. “And you get thrown headlong in.

Your first week there you have a customer complaint to deal with, you have a nonconformance you get to conduct an [ISO] audit on. So, okay, let’s learn these things and get going.”

That experience, Gadacz says, taught him how to accommodate unhappy customers. He learned how to deal with traceability, lot control, product cleanliness, contamination, mixed parts, and defects — and how all those sub-systems work together. As he progressed into a managerial role at Minnesota Rubber, he made conscious efforts to become a wellrounded management systems expert.

As he attained greater responsibilities, he says, he gained ownership of the company’s management systems, things like internal auditing processes, and Management Review, a key element of the ISO Management System. He learned about handling customer feedback and

complaints. He applied his mathematical skills to Statistical Process Control (SPC) training. Customer experience helped him improve his skills in First Article submissions, Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), and corrective actions. And he learned to write effective procedures, work instructions, and job aides.

“I use all of that experiential knowledge to help manufacturers build their Quality Management System (QMS) and improve their businesses,” he says now.

Whether customers want to work with government contractors or demanding OEMs, their desire to improve prompts laser-like focus from Gadacz. He says he loves helping clients understand the why of implementing a QMS. When

GROWING COMPANIES, ENHANCING COMMUNITIES

Granite.com

Gadacz views every job as an opportunity to help that company maximize its potential through better management systems. they understand that, it’s much easier to get them on board with systemic changes that elevate their process and professionalism. From that, victories follow.

“I get to provide victories to five different manufacturers a week,” Gadacz says. “So, I can do different creative things. An electronics builder, a rubber and plastic house, a machine shop, a supply house, a die maker. They all have different avenues I get to grow from. It’s fun to help them find solutions that are great for their culture, their style, their technology and their customers.”

Gadacz is a true believer in the power of management systems, one of Enterprise Minnesota’s most extensive and impactful services. And he sees every job as an opportunity to help that company maximize its potential.

“A management system is a perfect tool to make a business better,” he says.

“It’s a perfect framework for growing profitably. The management system becomes the building block or the frame of the house. They are the full pieces.

And each business has a unique way of having to go about them.”

—Robb Murray

The Weekly Report newsletter delivers timely manufacturing news, insights and trends on the people and companies driving our manufacturing economy.

Visit our website and subscribe today!

www.EnterpriseMinnesota.org SUMMER 2021 ENTERPRISE MINNESOTA /

17

Four Questions Mike Brodsho, Chief Executive Officer, PROduction Workforce Professionals

P

ROduction Workforce Professionals is a Professional Employer Organization (PEO).

What is the PEO service model?

The PEO service model offers a couple of major benefits for small and mid-size business owners (SMBOs) to level the playing field. One, it gives them the ability to compete against larger organizations for the best talent and second, it allows owners and leadership to focus on profit opportunities, which facilitates faster and steadier growth.

We provide Human Resources expertise, talent acquisition and hiring, benefits, payroll, workers’ compensation management, safety compliance, worksite wellness, and more. As advisors to our clients, we become the “one stop shop” that relieves them of many HR-related issues, both administrative and transactional. They are still responsible for the common day-to-day activities and directives, while we’re responsible for payroll information, benefits administration, and a host of other HR activities. We even take care of annual handbook updates and help with coaching clients through different — sometimes sticky — employeerelated situations.

With the advent of the COVID pandemic, the PEO service model has shown the important role HR plays in the lives of employers and their employees. For example, we relieved our clients of compliance burdens related to COVID, we were instrumental in helping small businesses participate in the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), and we helped them manage their COVID-related leaves.

How would you describe the optimal relationship between an employer and its PEO? As a business owner, you are an expert in your field of business. You chose that industry because you have

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expertise in that field. However, it’s somewhat counterproductive to try and become an employment law expert or an expert on a certain technology platform and deal with many of the other employee administration burdens. It takes you away from your profit producing activities. A business owner’s time is better spent on expanding their markets and increasing their customer base. They have direct access to an expert in whatever area

INNOVATIONS

they need, whether that is workers’ compensation, safety, online onboarding, etc.

Because we provide an enhanced employment model — along with their participation in our economies of scale — it is not unusual for businesses, regardless of their size, to see a greater return for less than they could provide on their own.

How do you advise manufacturers to cope with the worker shortage as the economy emerges from COVID?

Mike Brodsho

Mike Brodsho studied accounting and computer science at Minnesota State University Moorhead. In 1987, he founded an IT company that implemented hardware and accounting solutions for clients in west central Minnesota. In 1990, he co-founded a Professional Employer Organization (PEO), PRO Resources. Mike is the acting CEO of PRO Companies of Detroit Lakes, Minn. (PRO Resources Corp., PRO Systems, Inc., Professional Workforce, Inc., Professional Employer Corp.).

Competition for good employees has never been tougher, and once they are part of your workforce you want to keep them on your team. That’s a big part of what we do. We help our clients appeal to top talent and retain good employees.

Talent acquisition and low turnover are linked to a company’s ability to offer benefits and provide services that fit their workforce. For instance, a little over 50% of small businesses offer any type of retirement plan to their employees, but all PEOs offer retirement options like a 401(k) plan to their clients. Through good HR practices, and policies, you keep your good employees. Focusing on the workforce itself — when leadership shows they care — has a far-reaching impact.

How did you grow a company with statewide and regional growth from a base in Detroit Lakes?

Our business model itself has evolved greatly over the years. Our primary marketplace is mainly in the Upper Midwest, but by leveraging technology, we have been able to expand our services to reach companies all over the United States and provide the same services to a business owner who is 1,000 miles away or our next-door neighbor. We have Minnesota-based clients who have one or two locations and/or have employees working remotely in another state, which allows them to be strategic with hiring.

While technology is a large part of why we’re successful, what makes us unique from other PEOs is that we are very hands-on. Our employees are extremely dedicated and willing to travel great distances, such as going on overnight trips away from their families to meet with our clients and their employees. Our clients like that we are engaging, and by doing so we improve the worksite employer’s overall HR operation and culture.

With a comprehensive service model that includes Human Resources, benefits, payroll, talent acquisition, workers’ compensation, employee assistance program (EAP), safety and wellness and online HR technology, we alleviate the administrative responsibilities that require a business owner’s attention. This has been a great fit especially for those in the manufacturing industry.

SUMMER 2021 ENTERPRISE MINNESOTA /

19

Growth

All Hands

ON DECK

By Brian Arola

Litchfield’s Towmaster is experiencing unprecedented demand for its high-end industrial trailers and truck equipment.

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SUMMER 2021

E

ven if you haven’t yet heard of

trailer. It works hard right along with them.”

The truck equipment side of the business, meanwhile, Towmaster, you’ve likely seen was insulated a bit from the pandemic’s negative effects.

It’s more of a contractual business with orders placed a its products. year or more out.

The truck side of operations now accounts for about One of the company’s trailers might have 35% of business. With how many contracts the company been underneath that big piece of equipreceives from municipalities across the state, on top of ment you saw being hauled to a construction site. Or the state contracts, there’s a good chance the trucks people company’s equipment might have been on the plow truck see clearing snow and ice from Minnesota roads came you saw clearing snow off the road following a Minnethrough Towmaster at some point before hitting the sota blizzard. pavement. The chances go up even higher Those scenarios highlight two integral if the truck is relatively new — look for parts of the Litchfield company’s operations: Towmaster’s name on the tailgate or mud trailers and truck equipment. Towmaster was flaps to confirm. founded more than 40 years ago to provide After receiving a bare chassis, the the former, while the latter emerged as it company installs the bed, plow and snow grew and diversified in more recent years. equipment on it, partnering with Little The company’s leaders strive for conFalls Machine on the latter part. Another tinued growth, an ambition helped by high Minnesota company, FORCE America in demand for its products over roughly the last Alexandria, supplies the hydraulics for year. the plows.

Towmaster experienced about a six-week “It’s very much a home-grown prodlull in trailer orders during March and uct,” Albers says.

April 2020. Since then, says General One of the company’s “If we could build more Manager Mike Albers, it’s been all hands newer offerings is a liquid on deck to keep up with what he describes we could sell more,” says anti-ice spray system built as the strongest business environment the onto a trailer for easier ice General Manager Mike company has seen in a long time. control on roads. The concept Albers. “The demand “If we could build more we could sell is meant to reduce the need more,” he says. “The demand is defifor road salt, saving money in is definitely there.” nitely there.” the long run.

Many of Towmaster’s trailer customers And although a proud Minare construction equipment dealers, although the comnesota company, Towmaster’s reach extends into all 50 pany has government contracts for trailers as well. The states. dealer networks sell construction equipment to buyers, who need a way to move heavy-duty pieces.

PERFECTING THEN EXPANDING Towmaster’s litany of product families for trailers Towmaster’s history dates back to the early 1970s, prove helpful for hauling loads running the gamut from when it started as part of Palm Industries. Owner Harlan 3,000-pound to 120,000-pound capacities. If buyers need Palm’s initial vision for the new company was to build low-deck trailers, Towmaster has them covered. A fifthtrailers with low deck heights so people could more easwheel drop-deck? The company makes it. ily move skid-loaders.

Ultimately, Towmaster wants to be known for quality From there, the company started making more lines products across all trailer types, Albers says. of trailers. They now have more than 10 trailer catThe trailers aren’t necessarily built or priced for hobbyegories, used by customers ranging from cities and landists who want to haul their snowmobiles or side-by-sides. scaping companies to construction companies, driving It’s more about providing trailers capable of standing the fleets and other industries. test of time for professional haulers who need reliable Towmaster split off from Palm Industries in 1994, transportation to daily move heavy equipment to a work moving its headquarters to the old Palm Industries site. manufacturing building in Litchfield. With the move “You’ll run into plenty of 20- and 30-year-old Towcame a plant makeover. master trailers that people are still using every day,” Modernizing the equipment paved the way for TowAlbers says. “We build for the guys who daily use that master to produce trailers in-house, including custom

SUMMER 2021 ENTERPRISE MINNESOTA /

21

When Meeker Memorial Hospital anticipated a greater demand for IV stands to meet the needs of COVID-19 patients last April, Towmaster’s welders, fabricators and drivers designed, built and delivered 50 of them.

ADAPTING FOR THE FUTURE

options. Adding a 64,000-square-foot facility helped expand production.

The building is now used to produce several lines of trailers. It includes three paint booths and a finishing area as well.

For decades, Towmaster focused almost exclusively on trailers, building the reputation it still has today. Come 2008, 22

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SUMMER 2021

however, Towmaster took a major diversification leap into manufacturing and assembly of truck bodies and equipment.

Its work in both areas led to Monroe Truck Equipment buying the company in 2017. The partnership improved lead times while expanding Towmaster’s market base.

Like all manufacturers across Minnesota, Towmaster had to adapt once the COVID-19 pandemic hit the state. As Enterprise Minnesota’s 2020 State of Manufacturing® survey found, all areas of the industry were hit differently by the pandemic.

“Some manufacturers are gasping to keep up with skyrocketing demand while others are gasping to keep solvent,” said Bob Kill, Enterprise Minnesota’s president and CEO, while presenting the survey results in November 2020.

Even as Towmaster’s business proved resilient during the pandemic, it isn’t alone in facing hiring challenges. Finding more workers is the company’s main struggle at the moment, Albers says.

Many manufacturers are reporting harder times finding workers, especially in Greater Minnesota where the hiring pool isn’t as deep as more populous areas. As is, Towmaster boasts about 175 workers while it recruits for more.

Towmaster was recently looking to hire about 14 welders and six to eight truck installers. The company is willing to train people for any of the positions, but Albers says the application rate has been lower than usual despite outreach happening in

Litchfield and the surrounding 40-mile area.

As a longtime staple in the Litchfield business community, Albers and the rest of the company’s workers take pride in being community minded. They hold blood donation drives, stay active in the local Chamber of Commerce and sponsor community and school events.

Ahead of a high school graduation, for example, Towmaster worked with a local shop to make sure students received graduation gifts.

Another of the company’s recent community-outreach projects arose during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. The local hospital was anticipating an uptick in patients, so Towmaster responded to a need by designing and building IV stands to make sure the care facility was well supplied.

A team effort between welders, fabricators and drivers, the company ended up delivering 50 IV stands to Meeker Memorial Hospital in April 2020. The hospital showed its appreciation through a

Facebook post.

“Thank you to the staff at Towmaster Trailers & Truck Equipment,” the hospital posted. “We are overwhelmed with the generosity and support we are receiving during this unprecedented time.”

As a longtime staple in the Litchfield business community, Albers and the rest of the company’s workers take pride in being community minded.

Kill describes Towmaster as a success story in Greater Minnesota manufacturing.

Towmaster participated in Enterprise Minnesota meetings both in-person and virtually during the pandemic, with business leaders meeting to learn about strategic planning and lean leadership — which includes instilling a culture of continuous improvement.

The meetings are greatly helpful for networking, like a recent one that connected Towmaster to potential vendors on automation, says Albers. Another benefit, he adds, is how business leaders can bounce ideas off of each other.

“Sometimes you feel like you’re in a vacuum, so when you hear someone going through a similar situation, you kind of perk up and learn how they’ve dealt with it,” he says.

Looking ahead, Albers says he hopes to see continued growth at Towmaster as it remains a place where employees can find stable careers in the manufacturing industry. He’s also looking forward to more investments in automation and other new technologies, while monitoring how the rise of electric and hybrid vehicles could impact the market in the future.

The overall goal through it all, Albers says, will be staying on the cutting edge of a competitive industry.

“We have to not just keep up with the market but try and stay on the leading edge of the market,” he says.

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Stay ahead of your competition with 5-axis machining from Productivity Inc. We offer multiple lines of high quality 5-axis machines, and we’ll match the correct machine to your application. All this, supported by applications and service staff who are highly skilled in 5-axis technology. We’ll make sure you get the right machine, and get it into production quickly, with strong support and machine training.

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Life After COVID

RESILIENCE • AGILITY • HIGH EQ • DYNAMISM

Moving

Forward Focus on company values and four critical traits: resilience, agility, high EQ and dynamism.

By Michele Neale

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he 2020 edition of Enterprise Minnesota’s State of Manufacturing® survey revealed that 92% of executives statewide said the COVID-19 economy had either a major or modest impact on our economy and business climate; 70% said it had a major or modest impact on their businesses overall.

The COVID pandemic has challenged manufacturers in many ways this year. We’ve all weathered the storm. But our ultimate goal is to get our entire team rowing together, all on the same page, moving toward that same target.

I’m a firm believer that the executives whose employees productively navigated these fraught waters did so because they were continually guided by the company’s strategic values. A recent article in Forbes magazine described a way companies can traverse that long road to recovery. Building on values, it identified four essential traits that will launch you forward in 2021 — resilience, agility, high EQ and dynamism.

Why before how

will describe key strategies you need to consider to pay attention to Resilience is the capacity to cope with and recover from crisis-related all the moves. Look at your weight distribution and placement. It’s difficulties in ways that produce growth. But resilience connotes acessential to know how to shift the pieces. complishing more than merely bouncing back. It is the ability to gain Companies also need to pay attention to their different pieces, to knowledge and skills through adversity that enable you to bounce their people. They need to identify their strengths and weaknesses forward. I’ve worked with several companies that have reacted to and how to shift and react to their people. So, how do we create an changing circumstances by innovating new ways of working, producagile workplace? ing new product offerings, and envisioning evolving roles. Maybe • Improve skill sets. Use a skills matrix and a training matrix to they’ve elevated team members or created cross-functional teams. identify areas you need to develop through cross-training or Lori Tapani, co-president of Wyoming Machine, Inc., used iPads and team building. Yes, these can be technical, but they also might tablets so employees could communicate better. emphasize essential skills: listening, communication, selfThese tactics might even include helping team members develop awareness, conflict resolution and building relationships. personal plans to improve physical health, mental health or to find • Lead more, manage less. But leading is more about being effective tactics to work from home productively. It’s a better approactive instead of reactive. Inspire and motivate your team; proach than always being stuck in our old ways. Managers have to share the values and visions of your organization. Don’t empower others in times of change. They have to resist the temptaprescribe behaviors. Empower your employees by positioning tion to say: “It’s easier if I do it. It’ll take less them to succeed. time.” This reaction might be understandable, • Provide purpose. I work with many companies that align but in doing so, managers might inadvertently their employees with their strategic and organizational values.

Resilience is treat people like robots. They become taskThose employees tend to think, “Hey, what I do is important. the capacity to masters — “Do this, do this, do this, do this.”

My work matters.” Wouldn’t you want all your employees to cope with and It’s crucial to share the “why” behind our feel that way? decisions. Why are we doing what we’re Ensure your employees are part of your company’s misrecover from doing? Then we can think about the “who,” sion and overall strategy, that they know what they do matters crisis-related such as: Who should be involved, who should all the way up to the top. Like Jenga, we need to know how I connect with? And then it’s the “what,” to shift them into positions of strength so they can succeed difficulties specifically: What are your expectations and and the tower continues to stand. in ways that your tasks? Finally, it’s the “how.” We typically jump right to the “how,” but we first produce growth. need to discuss the “why,” the “who” and the “what.” Here are some quick steps we take.

• Think about the new buzz phrase called psychological safety.

Create an environment in which everyone feels included.

Show that we’re humans working in a safe place where employees don’t feel under attack, as if a judgmental finger is pointing right at them.

• Improve communication. During the COVID shutdowns, I’ve heard of CEOs making videos in lieu of company-wide meetings, shift meetings or daily huddles.

• Build relationships. Listen actively. Collaborate with teams in open forums, if only just to chat. It could be in a break room or on a Zoom call.

Michele Neale is a business growth consultant • Encourage new thinking. Learn new things. Look at personal at Enterprise Minnesota who helps manufacturers and professional development.

Workplace Jenga

As we reflect on resilience, be mindful of agility when confronting unanticipated challenges. As Minnesotans, we all know what it’s like to get stuck on the road in a sudden snowstorm. We get through it by preparing to react to changing circumstances. That’s agility.

Ask yourself: How does your company react to changing terrain, whether they are social shifts, cultural shits or economic shifts?

How did you respond to the pandemic? Or, for some of you in the Twin Cities, George Floyd’s death?

You’re probably familiar with Jenga. The object is to remove a block from the middle of a tower and place it on top without causing the structure to topple — which ends the game. Jenga gurus

implement talent and leadership strategies that build strong company cultures and develop effective leaders. Before joining Enterprise Minnesota, Michele served as a human resources leader for Massman Automation Designs, LLC in Villard, Minn. and as a senior leader in training and development for Tastefully Simple in Alexandria, Minn. She earned a B.A. in speech communication at the University of Minnesota-Morris and an M.A. in communication at the University of North Dakota.

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Building Resilience 1 2 3 4

Achieving emotional intelligence in the manufacturing world just requires a concerted effort on the part of executives and managers, and eventually, the rest of the company’s employees.

Increase Psychological Safety Increase Communication Build Relationships

Encourage New Thinking

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC

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27 emotions

We’ve all heard of IQ, or intelligence quotient. It’s how smart you are. EQ — emotional quotient — refers to emotional intelligence. This concept dates back to 1991, when psychologists John D. Mayer and Peter Salovey defined EQ as having the ability to recognize and understand emotions in ourselves and others.

Psychology Today calls emotional intelligence “the ability to identify and manage one’s own emotions, as well as the emotions of others.” Sounds simple enough, right? Well, no, not exactly. If it were so easy, everyone would already be doing it, and no one manufacturer would have this particular competitive advantage over another.

Achieving emotional intelligence in the manufacturing world just requires a concerted effort on the part of executives and managers, and eventually, the rest of the company’s employees. It can mean a significant boost in your company’s bottom line — almost 35%.

Your company will experience more success when you develop high-EQ leaders. High EQ improves decision-making, problem-solving and communication. One study surveyed manufacturing supervisors who had attended EQ training. They reported that: • Their companies reduced lost time due to accidents by 50% • Formal grievances decreased by 20% • Plant productivity surpassed its goal by $250,000 • Profits at plants with high-EQ managers increased by 34% Here are the components of EQ: • Self-awareness. Can I name my emotion and recognize it? It’s more than, “I’m fine.” It is, “I’m angry. I’m frus26

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reliever if needed? Do I see conflict as an opportunity to grow? Do I ask for feedback?

This, in a way, brings us back to two key factors of resilience — increasing communication and building relationships. For both, you need to ask questions and — trickier — you need to really listen to the answers. We need to use our ears two times as much as our mouths.

trated. I’m fearful. I’m excited.” Does my face turn red? Do I get a lump in my throat, a pit in my stomach or a tightness in my chest? When you’re self-aware, you recognize your own emotions and how they affect your thoughts and behavior.

• Self-regulation, sometimes referred to as self-management. Do I think clearly? Do I make good decisions?

Do I need to step away and pause for a minute? Am I open to new thinking? Do I compromise outcomes and results because I’m too quick to respond?

• Social awareness. You have empathy.

You can understand the emotions, needs and concerns of other people.

You might be quick to pick up on emotional cues, feel comfortable socially, or recognize the power dynamics in a group or organization.

• Relationship management. Am I versatile? Do I know how to modify my behavior? Do I use humor as a stress

The dazzling outcome

Combining resilience, agility and high EQ leads to being dynamic. Being dynamic in response to employees, customers and the community will prove vital in the face of any challenge.

When your team responds to change with positivity and action, they’ll deliver positively, even when they’re under pressure. It starts with creating a positive ripple.

Your daily actions and decisions must have a positive impact on your team. Think about what might happen after the implementation of something new. You need to be strategic in your decision-making as it will affect culture.

Create an Agile Workplace

1 2 3

Increase Skills Lead More, Manage Less Provide Purpose

This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC

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Emotional Intelligence (EQ)

Also consider that your organization is experiencing effects from previous deciWHAT IS EMOTIONAL sions, including maybe a few mistakes.

INTELLIGENCE? Think about a recent action or decision that you’ve made. Perhaps it’s hiring new Using this emotional employees; perhaps it’s signing a new cusunderstanding to make decisions, solve problems tomer, modifying a continuous improveand communicate with ment process, or even implementing ISO others. standards.

Your actions will impact your company, and it could be positive or negative. Think about how a tiny drop in a pool ripples out. That same thing can happen with your decision. It ripples out and affects other teams. When it flows out and down the river, what we think is a good thing can negatively throughs. Be visible. impact a department.

Go where your people Ask yourself: How This phenomenon shows Greet them while does your company are. the importance of building they’re eating lunch relationships. I emphasized or taking breaks. If react to changing earlier that you should you’re working in a terrain, whether engage with your employvirtual environment, they are social ees, but it bears mentioning get out of your virtual again. office. Call them and shifts, cultural Do you know the names just ask, “Hey, how’s shits or economic of all your employees? For it going?” (Remember, those of you with large com“fine” might not be the shifts? How did panies, you don’t have to end-all, be-all answer.) you respond to the know all 300 employees, but If you haven’t done do you at least know your this before, it’s not too pandemic? Or, for direct reports? If you can’t late. Don’t be afraid some of you in the answer yes, I encourage you to learn from past to start there.

Twin Cities, George mistakes and failures.

Then there’s the next Robert F. Kennedy Floyd’s death? level: Do you know the once said, “Only those names of their spouses or who dare to fail greatly partners? Do you know the names of their can ever achieve greatly.” children, the activities they’re involved in, I encourage clients to conduct a “lesdo they have pets? sons learned” evaluation. Ask what went Make a point to schedule walkwell, what didn’t, and what we could do

Design a More Dynamic Company Learn from Failure ▪ Lessons learned

▪ “It’s OK!” Be Intentional ▪ Focus on small improvements ▪ Maintain a positive culture

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differently next time. As Norman Vincent Peale said, “Shoot for the moon. And even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.”

Realize, of course, that getting to the moon doesn’t have to happen in one shot.

Focus on making incremental improvements every day. One of my colleagues likes to say, “One little step every day will help you get to your goal.” Get out of your office and onto the production floor. Your employees will see you. They’ll work toward contributing to the daily process of improvement. Recognize this progress.

Commend them. Just an “atta boy” or “atta girl” can go a long way in an even longer process toward building a more dynamic company.

Bottom line

In the end, think about how you can create those positive ripples throughout the organization. I could want nothing more than to have all of my clients vying for the “Best Place to Work” award. So start with your team. Get them on board with the concepts in this article. Be intentional about building relationships and learning from failure. Analyze what you get from your employees. Do they have the skills, abilities and knowledge needed to help you become more profitable in 2021?

And analyze yourself! Are you ready to implement these changes? You are the coxswain of your crew. You are steering the boat. Are you motivating your crew and communicating with them every day?

If you are, you can count on that crew to adapt and bounce forward with resiliency, agility and increased emotional intelligence. And most importantly, when we put it all together — when we’re rowing at the same speed, with the same strength and moving in the direction of our goals and targets — we are dynamic.

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Q&A

Why Virtual Selling Is inYour Future Author Jeb Blount explains why manufacturers who don’t master virtual selling techniques will lose ground to those who do.

The COVID economy has forced many manufacturers in Minnesota to re-think how they deploy their sales teams in a culture that discourages personal contact. How does your book Virtual Selling prescribe solutions to their questions?

What’s your elevator pitch?

Most importantly, what we’ve learned over the last year is that virtual selling is here to stay. Early in the pandemic, many manufacturers did exactly what they did during the last recession. They shut everything down, cut costs as fast as they could, and just hunkered down to ride it out. That might have worked in other manufacturing cycles, but this recession isn’t like any 28

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we’ve ever had. Buyers have changed.

They expect more and they expect different. My pitch for manufacturers is that if you don’t start learning how to sell in a virtual environment, you’re going to be at a competitive disadvantage to those businesses that do. A recent McKinsey report on B2B [business-to-business] sales found that 77% of buyers prefer dealing with existing vendors in a virtual environment.

Manufacturers who are selling to existing customers should know that those buyers would prefer a virtual interaction than an in-person interaction.

That represents a massive shift. Inperson sales are still the best way for us to

communicate. It just means that manufacturers and buyers see the same efficiencies in virtual relationships. Salespeople can have a greater impact. They can make more calls and have more conversations.

My elevator pitch is this: If you don’t start learning how to master virtual selling, you are going to be at a disadvantage in the next iteration of the economy.

Is it fair to say that the realities of COVID merely accelerated trends in sales management that should have been evolving anyway?

That’s exactly right. We’ve basically compressed about 10 years of innovation

Jeb Blount is the bestselling author of 10 books on sales, leadership, and customer experience. An in-demand speaker, he spends more than 250 days each year delivering speeches, workshops, and training programs to high-performing sales teams and leaders. Through his global training organizations, including Sales Gravy and Innovate Knowledge, Blount advises many of the world’s leading organizations and their executives on the impact of emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills on customer-facing activities, and delivers training to thousands of participants in both public and private forums.

If a buyer is given the option of video or phone calls in today’s world, he or she overwhelmingly chooses video calls. It feels more human and that’s what we want.

This was not true a year ago. into 10 months, and that innovation is going to continue to accelerate with the speed of businesses emerging out of COVID. Describe the path that led you and Sales Gravy into developing the virtual selling instruments in your toolbox.

Our path goes back a ways. We were preparing for a virtual environment back in the winter of 2018. We expected there was going to be a recession in the near future, so we sat down and decided to get good at this. When COVID hit, we had already finished our studio. And then we built three

more sound studios from the ground up so that we could run sales calls through training to everything. The studio I’m currently sitting in is one of five that we now have in our complex. During recessions, the SUMMER 2021 ENTERPRISE MINNESOTA /

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businesses that we serve in corporate America don’t quit training, they just quit traveling. And if you’re a training company that delivers everything face-to-face, you won’t make it. When COVID hit and everything shut down, we never missed a beat. By deploying our training virtually this year, we doubled the size of our company — both in revenue and in the number of people working for us. Suddenly, we could scale in a way that we could never scale before.

Your book devotes considerable space to the emotional discipline necessary to adapt to a multichannel virtual sales environment. Why is that important?

Emotional discipline is at the heart of selling. The human being who exerts the greatest emotional control has the highest probability of getting the outcome that he or she desires in every sales conversation.

Virtual selling can create a massive emotional disruption for most people. I have watched people who can easily command a room but lose the ability to speak when they get in front of a video camera and the red light comes on. They get so nervous.

We have to recognize that virtual selling is still selling. If you don’t learn how to manage your emotions in a virtual setting, it will be really hard to convey your message. You can come off as insecure or weak or passive — and that’s not a great place to sell from. You want to be relaxed, assertive, and confident, just like you would in a face-to-face meeting. By managing your emotions, you can influence the emotions of your buyer. These are meta skills for selling. They’re just so much more important in a virtual setting because of the way virtual selling tends to create deep insecurity and vulnerability in salespeople when they’re using those virtual channels.

A consultant at Enterprise Minnesota used to say that the biggest obstacles for progressive change in manufacturing operations come from what he called C.A.V.E. men: Citizens Against Virtually Everything. We all know these people.

They are experienced hands who have been around the plant for a long time and have had success doing what they do. And they like doing things the way they’ve always done them, so they resist 30

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Dress for a video call the same way you would when doing business in person. I see way too many people think that a video call means they can wear a hoodie or sweatpants. change. What are the typical C.A.V.E. men arguments against virtual selling, and how do you overcome them?

The first argument is that they don’t want to go virtual. We hear it all the time. I was just recently working with a group of manufacturers who said their clients don’t want to meet virtually. I show them that the data say that they do. The salespeople are telling you what they don’t want to do.

So, that’s number one. The number two argument is, “I’m not good at it. I can’t make the same connection on a virtual channel that I can face-to-face.” And the third argument is a fear of technology: “I’m not really good at this, and I’m just going to mess things up.” These are basically just excuses. No one is going to argue against the fact that face-to-face is the best way for humans to communicate. But the problem is that it’s not efficient.

And we all know that the history of manufacturing consists of trying to drive efficiency into the system. We want to reduce variables and increase quality, right?

We want to get more out of the investments in machines and buildings and people.

Virtual selling is about choosing the right sales channel that will give you the highest probability of getting your sales outcome at the lowest cost of time, energy, and money.

The C.A.V.E. men have to realize that in

face-to-face sales, they can do at most two sales calls a day because you have to get on an airplane or get in your car and drive out there.

But if you use video, you could do 10 calls a day. All of a sudden, you’ve increased your output by five times simply by changing the channel. Sometimes you do have to be there. You have to walk through a customer’s environment or meet his or her designers.

But sometimes you have to make sure you’re investing your time and efforts in a way that will get the highest return on investment. The sales team has to start thinking about its production efficiencies in the same way others are thinking about the manufacturing processes. How am I getting the most out of this?

That’s what a virtual system does. Customers are telling us en masse that they prefer virtual. In fact, another good statistic is that 71% of customers say they prefer that the early conversations with new vendors be virtual. Why? Because it’s a lot more efficient than meeting someone you don’t know, bringing them in, going through security, having a cup of coffee, and spending an hour in your office only to find out that this is not the right fit for you.

Your book talks a lot about how to blend synchronous and asynchronous sales tools. How much of a virtual system depends on the art of finding a working equilibrium between them?

A good bit of it is art. Finding the right mix depends on your experience. Let’s go back to your C.A.V.E. men. The good thing about C.A.V.E. men is that they are experienced. If they can step out of their selfimposed limitations, they can start making really good, nuanced decisions based on their perception about what’s important to this customer. What’s the best way to convey this message? How do you do this?

When do you do it? Why do you do it?

My message to sales organizations is that virtual selling is selling. There’s a system.

The science of selling hasn’t changed.

Run your system. The art’s going to be in finding the best communication channel for a particular customer in order to achieve a particular outcome.

Is there any danger that increased reliance on technology dilutes the concept of relationship selling?

No. Selling is human to human. The re-

lationship comes first, which is why I spend so much time on emotions. We can’t allow our relationships to be diluted by distance or thinking that distance-remote selling removes the importance of the relationship.

There are similarities between in-person and virtual selling, but I imagine there are also differences, right? Things like managing eye contact or reading body language. What advice do you offer virtual salespeople about how to comport themselves on video?

Our number one goal is to use video to create the closest facsimile possible to inperson communication. Another interesting recent stat is that if a buyer is given the option of video or phone calls in today’s world, he or she overwhelmingly chooses video calls. It feels more human, and that’s what we want. This was not true a year ago. And that includes dressing for a video call the same way you would when doing business in person. Way too many people think that a video call means they can wear

There is nothing that we’ve done here that you can’t learn on YouTube.

It’s simple. a hoodie or sweatpants. There’s something in the human brain that says a video call is like a throw-away. It isn’t. You have to dress for business. Be natural, but dress for success.

And this is not for everybody, but I like to stand up on video calls because we want the person to see all of our body language.

Every time I move on screen, it captures your attention. I pull you in, even at the subconscious level. I want to make eye contact. I want to make sure that people can see me from the torso up so they can see my hands. It gives me an ability to demonstrate through my body language that I’m paying attention and to create emphasis through gestures.

What about the technical aspects of virtual selling, particularly on video? What do you advise?

Make sure that the person who is watching you feels good about having a conversation with you. Make sure that you’re in a good environment, that you’ve got a good backdrop, good lighting and good sound.

If you do a really nice job on video, they’re

going to want to schedule the next video call. There is nothing that we’ve done here that you couldn’t learn on YouTube. It’s simple. But there is a cost. What I use is not inexpensive, but you can get a TV at Walmart for $600, a webcam for $300, put your laptop on a stand for $49, spend $70 for a good ring light. And there are multiple ways to run microphones. My book, Virtual Selling, has some links to different resources for doing that.

I’m guessing that some people might undermine their presentation with inappropriate backdrops.

You want your backdrop to be professional. It needs to connote your personal brand.

Backdrop replacements don’t work very well and result in poor lighting. You need to have good lighting in front of you, not behind you, or else every time you move, you break the background. There’s nothing wrong with a background replacement, you just need to get your lighting right.

How much of an obstacle is integrating demos into these video presentations?

Let’s just say, I’m in a plant, doing a demo. I would probably grab an Osmo — a hand-held apparatus that attaches to an iPhone to provide steady camera shots. Or you could have someone just hold a GoPro and carry it around with you. You take me on the line and you’re going to show me what you’re doing and how you are doing it.

If I turn around or if I’m in front of it, I may have someone else hold it. Then I have the camera facing me, as I can turn the whole camera mechanism around so I can see your face and you can see me. And then we just walk through a demo, which you can do in your office, you can do anywhere.

You could even put it on a stand. If you’re by yourself and you put the gimbal on the stand, it uses facial recognition. Once it’s set up and you’re moving around, it will follow you around in your office.

Being able to do demos is especially important in manufacturing. Our clients who sell machine tools and manufacturing tools, they’re doing the same thing. They’re bringing manufacturers in and they’re doing hands-on demos of machines using technology like this. But at a minimum, if you don’t have such an apparatus, get a buddy to hold the phone. So, you shouldn’t let anything get in your way of doing demos. And if you’re on a Zoom call with somebody, they can ask, “Hey, can I get a closer look at that?” Yes. “Can you hold that up for me?” Yes. If you get good at

virtual, it allows you to cut down any geographic barrier and you can sell anywhere in the country, anywhere in the world, because now you can do demonstrations to anyone.

You are a fan of video messaging sales tools. Talk about that.

Video messaging just works. One of the reasons it’s powerful is that not a lot of people are doing it. Everybody uses video.

Most manufacturers probably have video on their websites. They show their processes, systems, and maybe their executives talking about the business they do. It’s meant to be viewed by a lot of people. It carries a wide message and can be seen anywhere in the sales process. Say, for instance, you ask for an appointment. You could then send a video message to say, “Hey, looking forward to meeting with you.”

It’s a one-to-one video that is made specifically for you. It’s powerful because it’s personalized. It’s powerful because it connects with people. That’s why video works so well. When you create a personalized video message, you grab attention that rises above your competitors. People respond. Just a couple of weeks ago, we were doing a session for a manufacturing company. One of their reps said he didn’t know if he could do a video message. I challenged him to create a video message and send it out. Seven minutes later — while we were still in session — the company got a response from a prospect who wasn’t returning any of their calls.

It was that powerful. I suggest everyone learn how to use video.

In the midst of discussing all of this technology, your book has a chapter titled, “Pick Up the Damn Phone.” Are you suggesting that salespeople tend to forget the value of the telephone?

No doubt. Alexander Graham Bell kicked off modern virtual selling when he made the very first phone call in 1876 saying, “Watson, come here. I need you.”

The phone has been the salesperson’s number one tool for well over a hundred years. And it will continue to be our best tool because it’s the easiest, fastest way to connect with people. There’s one of these things attached to almost every human being on Earth. So, yeah, pick up the phone and talk to people. We can get hung up on all of these other things and forget that if we just pick up the phone and call our customers, those conversations, in many cases, can turn into revenue.

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Profile

Necessarily Nimble

Hibbing’s L&M Radiator has developed a culture of efficiency and employee empowerment within its massive new plant on the way to becoming a $100 million company in a cyclical marketplace.

By Peter Passi 32

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In designing its Hibbing facility, L&M drew on its recent experience building state-of-the-art plants in other locations, including one in Antofagasta, Chile and two more stateside operations that have since closed — one in Las Cruces, N.M. and another in Independence, Iowa.

H

ibbing businessmen George Range. We like the Range. And we’ve been Langer and Clay Murray joined successful with the workforce that we’ve had forces to launch L&M Radiahere,” Chisholm says. tor Inc. in 1957, inspired by a Yet Chisholm notes that Range customers unique radiator on a Scottish Euclid truck that today probably account for less than 2% of caught their eye while visiting a Canadian L&M’s total direct sales. He quickly acmine. knowledges that figure doesn’t fully represent The truck drew on technology developed in the amount of business L&M derives from the heat of World War II desert warfare, after northern Minnesota mining operations, howthe discovery that a single bullet to a British ever, as the company is an original equipment tank’s radiator could stop the machine dead in manufacturer (OEM) supplier of radiators to its tracks. The Brits addressed that vulnerabilmanufacturers of large-haul trucks — 240 ity by engineering a new type of radiator with tons and larger. a series of single tube heat exchangers held “So, any time the mines up here are... in place with shock-absorbing purchasing new equipment, rubber seals. If damaged, these new trucks, they will come “We have individual tubes could quickly be with our radiators. And we diversified into certainly look after the mines replaced in the field.

Langer and Murray obtained a other industries up here,” Chisholm says. license to build similar but larger Ekholm says it’s difficult and into other Withnell-style radiators for the to say exactly how much of mining industry. Soon, Murray’s L&M’s business is domestic opportunities. son-in-law Alex Chisholm joined versus international. She But there’s no the team, and as he surveyed the explained that about 75% mining scene he quickly recogof L&M’s North American industry out nized international opportunities business comes from directly there that fits for L&M. supplying OEMs. “And from there, most of our core niche GLOBAL PLAYER that gets shipped overseas. and can fill a In North America, L&M initially But in terms of what we down cycle when directly ship overseas, I’m found eager customers in Canada.

Then in 1967, it opened a plant in there’s a mining guessing maybe 30 to 35%. It Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico. In varies,” she says. boom or bust.

1972, Chisholm packed up and Ekholm says that L&M moved his family to Perth, Auskeeps its financials “pretty And that’s the tralia, where he launched a third close to the vest,” adding that same with oil production facility in another typically annual sales run promising market. around $100 million “with and gas.”

Dan Chisholm, now L&M’s lots of ups and downs.” president, was six years old at the time, and his sister, Laura ROLLER COASTER (Chisholm) Ekholm, now the Mining continues to drive most of L&M’s company’s executive vice presibusiness, but energy sector sales have come in dent, was 11. a close second, especially with the growth of “As kids, we didn’t have a fracking. Chisholm explains that the mining vote,” he says of the two years and energy industries tend to accelerate and his family spent in Perth. “I slow in tandem. So, L&M’s business is prone cried when we left and cried to cycles. when we came home.” Alex “Chicken one day, feathers the next. That’s Chisolm died in 2013, but how those industries go,” he says.

L&M has continued to thrive “We have diversified into other industries under a third generation of famand into other opportunities. But there’s no ily leadership. industry out there that fits our core niche and Despite the company’s global can fill a down cycle when there’s a mining footprint, its headquarters reboom or bust. And that’s the same with oil main firmly planted in Hibbing. and gas.”

“We grew up on the Iron L&M has learned to be nimble. When busiSUMMER 2021 ENTERPRISE MINNESOTA /

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ness was hot, the company often scrambled to acquire production space in Hibbing, eventually operating out of five buildings there.

“When we were growing, it was easier to acquire existing space rather than add on to our current space,” Chisholm says.

GROWING PAINS

As the fracking industry shifted into high gear in recent years, demand for L&M’s cooling equipment surged, and it became unclear if the company could keep pace, as the paint shop at its Yankton, S.D. plant neared capacity.

The company planned out for a new 6,000-square-foot paint shop in Hibbing.

But the project snowballed.

“We decided, if we’re going to add 6,000 feet, let’s just blow the whole thing up and reconfigure and get everything under one roof. And let’s do that while we’re still manufacturing, because we can’t afford to be down and miss ship dates for current customers,” Chisholm says.

Thanks to Max Gray Construction, “it was a choreographed dance that we were able to continue manufacturing while they built the new facility around us,” Chisholm adds. By 2019, and about $25 million later, L&M was operating out of a single 145,000-square-foot production facility in Hibbing. The fortunate timing of the project allowed L&M to fulfill growing orders from fracking customers along with meeting continued demand for mining equipment.

DRIVING EFFICIENCY

The new Hibbing plant has enabled L&M to take great strides as an operation, Chisholm says.

“Under one roof, we noticed better efficiencies. Those efficiencies made us realize we could do more with fewer people,” he says. Ekholm says those efficiencies have been quite helpful, as skilled labor on the Range has been hard to come by, especially when area mines are hiring at hard-to-beat wages.

“So, achieving a more efficient flow, having more technology, more advanced equipment, has helped us keep up,” she says. “We’re hiring all the time, but there just aren’t enough people to meet the need.”

L&M has utilized Enterprise Minnesota for a variety of consulting services since 2012, with financial help from the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB). Whitney Ridlon, a community development representative for the IRRRB, 34

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“We’re a cyclic industry,” says Randy Tupa, L&M’s quality assurance manager.

“So, we have our ups and downs. But when we’re on the way up, we’re trying to get people in the door and trained up fast, so they can be productive.”

says its grants enable local manufacturers to afford services that might otherwise be beyond the financial reach of many Range companies, including enlisting front-line production staff to promote continuous improvement.

“If you have an idea, sing it out. You guys are the ones who are doing this every day.

Let’s look at how we can work together to be more efficient,” Ekholm says.

In designing its Hibbing facility, L&M drew on its recent experience building stateof-the-art plants in other locations, including one in Antofagasta, Chile and two more stateside operations that have since closed — one in Las Cruces, N.M. and another in Independence, Iowa.

As the fracking industry shifted into high gear in recent years, demand for L&M’s cooling equipment surged, and it became unclear if the company could keep pace, as the paint shop at its Yankton, S.D. plant neared capacity.

“Every time we built a new facility, we got smarter. And that, plus the advice we got from outside consultants like Enterprise Minnesota, led us to design a facility that really took advantage of everything we’ve learned,” Ekholm says.

Chisholm says Enterprise Minnesota provided valuable perspective.

“The advantage of fresh eyes is they can come through and look at things and ask: ‘Why are you doing it that way?’” he says.

Chisholm says the workflow in Hibbing has improved tremendously.

The new facility is designed with a capacity to manufacture $5 to $6 million worth of product per month, but “we’re not quite there yet,” Chisholm says.

EMPOWERING STAFF

Randy Tupa, L&M’s quality assurance manager, says the company began working with Enterprise Minnesota in 2012 to improve training.

“We’re a cyclic industry. So, we have our ups and downs. But when we’re on the way up, we’re trying to get people in the door and trained up fast, so they can be productive,” Tupa says.

He says Enterprise Minnesota helped L&M improve its job instruction and safety protocols. It also helped the company’s supervisory team learn how to build strong, effective relationships with staff.

“The biggest thing we learned was how to break a job down, train people by demonstration, and then have them do hands-on training with more frequent follow-ups than we were used to. We learned to give them little parts of a job instead of dumping the truck on them so we could get them productive faster,” Tupa says.

“We’ve seen a huge improvement getting people on the shop floor and getting them working and producing within the first week or two, where before we were having them shadow somebody for at least a couple of weeks before we trusted them to do anything,” he adds.

Tupa also credits Enterprise Minnesota for conducting useful safety walk-throughs of the Hibbing plant.

“It helped us identify things that may not be harming us now but could down the road — just the cleanliness of the shop, the flow and where everything was stored,” Tupa says.

LEARNING TO LEAD

L&M has a long tradition of promoting

from within, and that can come with certain challenges for those moving into positions of greater authority.

“Sometimes, all of a sudden, they’re leading the boys they used to go drinking with,” Tupa says.

“I’m an example of that,” he continues, noting that after a 2020 start in assembly he worked in almost every department before landing a management job.

Sometimes, when good, hard-working production workers are promoted, they unfortunately face a steep learning curve, says Jim Schottmuller, a business development consultant for Enterprise Minnesota.

“That’s really where we shine — we help manufacturers take their good employees, move them to the next level of leadership and provide them the necessary skills to become good leaders, not just good workers,” he says.

“Sometimes, especially with employees who have excelled in their position, when you put them into leadership, it can turn into a situation where they say, ‘Don’t ask me questions. That’s very easy. I was just doing that.’ So, they may start to talk down to new employees because the job was easy for them,” Schottmuller adds.

He says that with coaching, however, folks can learn the soft skills that enable them to be thoughtful and caring supervisors who lift people up instead of putting them down.

“There’s the golden rule: Treat others how you would like to be treated. But the ‘platinum rule’ is: Treat others how they want to be treated,” Schottmuller says.

The leadership training at L&M has involved both supervisors and people with no direct reports who nevertheless are viewed as leaders on the production floor. That’s a smart approach that builds cohesion and also enables the company to develop a deeper talent bench, says Michele Neale, a business growth consultant for Enterprise

Minnesota.

Schottmuller credited L&M with extending the leadership training to the upper levels of its management structure.

“While the higher-ups at a company that size obviously have leadership skills, we recommend that if you’re going to put your line leads and supervisors through a leadership development program, the high-up leadership should go through it too, so they understand what’s being asked of their line leads and supervisors,” he says.

Neale says the training also sends a powerful message to workers that L&M believes in them.

“With trying to find and hire people as crazy as it is right now, I think it is so important to invest in your people so that you can retain them,” she says.

RIDING OUT THE PANDEMIC

As the COVID-19 pandemic struck, L&M was able to hold on to its workers from April through mid-August, thanks to a forgivable loan it received through the federal Paycheck Protection Program.

But as the public health crisis dragged on, L&M was forced to furlough about 65 people between its Hibbing and Yankton plants, all while maintaining employee benefits.

As business picked up, the company quickly started recalling people in October.

“By the end of the year, we pretty much had everybody back, and we started looking for more people. So, for us, it was a really short cycle,” Ekholm says.

She expressed confidence the recovery will continue, pointing to increased demand for copper, iron and petroleum products.

“It has to come out of the ground,” Ekholm says.

But L&M still faces headwinds.

“The two big issues are material shortages and labor shortages,” Chisholm says.

“Lead times are being pushed out be-

cause they can’t get material, or they do not have the labor to fulfill the orders that they have. And we also have some suppliers who are not taking any more orders for the next several months, because they are as booked as they can be,” he says.

As of late March, L&M employed just over 200 people in Hibbing and about 450 people worldwide.

Ekholm says L&M needs more workers, with 25 to 30 vacancies between its Yankton and Hibbing plants.

“We’re desperate for people,” she says.

Also as of March, L&M was operating with two production shifts at its Hibbing and Yankton plants. Chisholm says he would like to add a third, if the company can muster the requisite staff.

“We definitely have the work. We just need to find the bodies,” he says.

FAMILIES FIRST

As a family-run enterprise for the past 64 years, it should come as little surprise that L&M also strives to nurture its workers’ families.

“We really pride ourselves on being family-friendly,” Ekholm says. “We have a lot of young families who work for us, and we try to be accommodating. If you want to go to your kid’s choir concert, go for it, and you can make up that time during the pay period,” Ekholm says.

L&M encourages employees to be involved in the community and has readily accommodated the schedules of staff involved in coaching local youth athletics.

Neale says such opportunities also serve the company.

“Those skills are transferable,” she says.

“So, if you want to get into leadership at L&M, doing things like coaching Little League or hockey or whatever the case may be builds skills.”

Neale says the company regularly organizes employee events and recognitions.

For example, she noted that this spring L&M gave its employees hams and Easter baskets to be shared with children or grandchildren.

“In manufacturing, that’s very atypical, and it’s one of the things that L&M does well — they celebrate and recognize the families, as well as the employees,” Neale says.

“So many manufacturing companies are so focused on production and processes that they forget about their people,” she says.

“What I really appreciate about L&M is they recognize the importance of investing in their people.”

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The Workforce

NEXT GEN

How Minnesota’s technical colleges are training the next generation of industry specialists.

By R.C. Drews

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SUMMER 2021

Across the state, manufacturers compete for well-qualified candidates in automation and mechatronics.

Meanwhile, instructors like Jeff Thorstad of Hennepin Technical College are finding innovative ways to partner with industry while attracting non-traditional students.

I

t was four years ago now. Doug Wickstrom had worked for over a decade in manufacturing, most of it spent at a custom machine company that serviced the cheese industry. He supervised projects ranging from four-figure tune-ups to multi-million-dollar expansions and construction. He was versatile, able to take on any role from installation and training to project management — and he soon opened his own company after reaching a comfortable six-figure salary. But he was also a family man and farmer seeking a life that included more time at home, and he was intrigued when he received the phone call from Pine Technical & Community College about a total career transformation.

The college’s president, Joe Mulford, says the school is always looking for innovative ways to expand its offerings.

There was a hole in the manufacturing department, and three attempts to plug it had failed. To be competitive, the institution needed an automation program, and they had spotted Wickstrom as their man for the job.

“Automation was somewhat easy,” recalls Mulford on the decision to add an entirely new program to the campus. “You can’t be in manufacturing and not be in automation. It’s like being in technology and not having cyber[security]” — another program added in the past few years.

Reviewing his college’s offerings, Mulford explains that every program exists as a spoke in the school’s many “wheels,” automation within the wheel of manufacturing, and cybersecurity within information technology, for example. By adding one new program, every connected degree path is enriched through new opportunities to cross-train students or offer multiple majors. Automation was a perfect fit.

When Wickstrom agreed to create a new program, he feared the college couldn’t support the cost of the specialized manufacturing equipment required — robotic arms, automation software, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), computers and 3D printers. The costs can add up pretty quickly. Luckily, the school had already acquired a portion of the necessary gear before Wickstrom arrived, and he says Mulford and the college’s leadership supported him in everything he needed. They gave him the workspace and a budget; he responded with a custom-built curriculum and by recruiting

an advisory board composed of industry experts, hardware vendors and alumni.

A new home

After Wickstrom evaluated the school’s equipment, he decided to build the machinery rather than purchase costly “trainers.”

The machinery, he says, gives students an authentic working environment while also saving the college thousands of dollars.

Even with vendor discounts, the price tag

With 15 years of experience, Doug Wickstrom has built a competitive automation program in a town of only 3,100.

was hefty. A donation from the Frandsen Foundation, headquartered in nearby North Branch, was met with matching funds to carry the load, and piece-by-piece the program took shape.

Now in operation for three years, Pine Tech’s automation program illustrates how innovative technical colleges are stepping up to develop the next generation of wellqualified industry specialists. Wickstrom’s students are tasked with constructing their own control panels (he makes a point of not referring to them as “trainers” — these are just as real). Then, rather than plod through a lecture-heavy curriculum, he and his students conceive projects that his apprenticesin-training will be asked to execute to completion. These have included a “torch track,” which navigates an oxyacetylene welding torch from one pre-programmed point to another, a full-scale auto racing simulator with actuators under the seat to mimic the road conditions in the simulation, and even a Chia Pet greenhouse.

SUMMER 2021 ENTERPRISE MINNESOTA /

37

Incidentally, the latter is being scaled up to create an automated greenhouse capable of growing a sizable crop of produce (peppers for now) entirely through automated lighting and hydration.

“It’s all started just as you would start anything in industry. There’s no canned curriculum; it’s run as a project,” Wickstrom says. “We focus on problem solving, learning how to learn, learning how to find your answers and being independent.”

It’s that moment after a student hits a wall and then learns to climb over that keeps Wickstrom coming to work every day. The thrill of constant change and new challenges keep him busy rewriting his curriculum, even as he’s sacrificed pay to work as an instructor for nine months of the year.

Mulford says it takes the right person to teach — someone with a desire to mentor and apprentice others. Even with fringe benefits like summers off, he knows many of his manufacturing staff take a pay cut to work for Pine Tech, but there’s something about the sort of person who would sacrifice to improve the lives of others that brings the right candidates.

Keeping the lights on (and plugging in more!)

“It’s about creating value. [Our manufacturing partners] are stepping up and showing they look at this as an investment.”

Dr. Annesa Cheek has served three years as president of St. Cloud Technical & Community College (SCTCC). Speaking on the school’s manufacturing programs — and especially automation for this conversation — she says the college is always looking for new ways to support growing and emerging fields. On the cusp of a roughly $5 million expansion, she’s showing that this mid-Minnesota tech school is making an investment as well.

Like Pine Tech, St. Cloud’s technical college relies on industry partners to guide their curriculum development and introduce new certification programs, painpoint-driven training, and a new wave of employees who are as diverse as the communities they represent. Every program in the college’s manufacturing branch is overseen by an advisory board — totaling more than 300 industry experts and representing some 70 companies and institutions.

“Every academic area in our technical side has an advisory group of business and industry leaders,” Cheek explains. “Our faculty members are working closely with them so they understand what’s going on 38

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SUMMER 2021

At St. Cloud Technical & Community College, Aaron Barker (middle) ensures his students work with purpose-built automation and robotics trainers from industry-leading manufacturers.

from a curriculum perspective. They’re looking at our equipment, they’re looking at our labs and our facilities, and they’re making sure that the environment and the experiences that we’re creating here are going to appropriately prepare students for what they’re going to experience in the real world.”

As Dean of Skilled Trades & Industry, Mike Mendez has the college’s advisory boards on speed dial. He says the school encourages their advisors to be critical of its programs to foster improvement. On the materials side, the programs maintain an “ask list,” which they present to board members as a way to procure new training equipment either as a donation or at a reduced cost. Finding the dollars and cents to keep the SCTCC automation program running is about creative problem solving.

“We’re always looking for different ways. Are we leveraging internet resources? Are we working with our advisory boards? There’s no one magic bullet. It’s about being resourceful and seeing who we can reach out to and who can help us along the way,” Mendez says.

And that $5 million expansion? SCTCC received a $2.5 million grant from the Economic Development Administration (EDA) after the St. Cloud Electrolux plant closed in 2019, eliminating 760 jobs. Some of those left jobless turned to SCTCC to retool their resumés, and the EDA grant combined with $2 million matched by the college will be to the benefit of the automation, mechatronics, machining, machine tool and welding programs, according to Lori Kloos, vice president of administration for SCTCC. Kloos says the school’s new “Advanced Manufacturing Lab” will open in fall 2023 and offer as much as double student capacity in the impacted programs while bringing new equipment, cross-training between disciplines and more options for custom-tailored training designed for

manufacturers looking to “upskill” existing employees through an accredited program.

Which all begs the question: What kind of person wants to work in automation, anyway?

Work wanted

In the 2020-2021 school year, 60% of the 94 automation students at Hennepin Technical College (HTC) are part-time students.

The average age? 29.

As an instructor for HTC’s Automated Robotics Engineering Technology and Manufacturing Engineering Technology departments, Jeff Thorstad resembles the students he teaches. Thorstad nabbed his first degree in social studies and secondary education from St. John’s University. Problem was, that first teaching job never came around, so he took a position as a software analyst instead. He switched paths, selling technical training products to schools and businesses and found himself teaching teachers how to teach with technical and manufacturing equipment. A master’s degree in information security followed, and one day — as he was working on some machinery at the HTC campus — a staff member told him the school had an opening for a teacher.

“Good for you!” Thorstad had said.

But he couldn’t avoid the pull. He applied and took the job, managing another degree in automation and a second master’s in technical education. He still refers to the whole thing as an “accident.”

“Some of the best careers aren’t necessarily a cognitive decision,” he says. “All of the sudden you’re almost literally standing in the right place at the right time and someone asks, ‘Hey, have you ever thought about this?’ and changes your perspective.”

It’s a life path that matches many of the students in HTC’s automation program.

Thorstad says many have tried something, gained experience and maturity, and then

turn to automation seeking better pay and a better future for their young families. This demographic provides a challenge, however, with many holding down a job and caring for children, so the school has had to adapt. Each program at HTC is offered one day per week, with three start times per day — including nights. Even with so many passing through the school’s door, Thorstad says the market is hungry for more.

“I could literally double the number of students we have in the program and still have more than enough jobs for them.

There are a lot of jobs out there for qualified individuals who are willing to look at something other than what they’ve already seen,” he explains.

Thorstad says that manufacturers reach out throughout the school year in hopes of snagging that spring’s graduates, but they’re too late.

“The companies that are really being successful are working with apprenticeship programs, hiring interns, hiring production workers and then sending them to college to upskill. Companies need to work nontraditionally as well in order to find new workers. Simply listing a want ad is not going to get employees anymore.”

So where to begin? About 16 or 17 years old — high school sophomores, juniors, and seniors. Investing in their future early through scholarships and internships can foster company loyalty before a student has entered college, according to Thorstad.

Once they’ve graduated — with an associate degree in automation, mechatronics, or programming in hand — these students enjoy a seller’s market. According to the

Joe Mulford, president of Pine Tech, says increased awareness will bolster candidate pool growth.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median pay for an electro-mechanical technician (a job code that includes automation, robotics, and mechatronics) is $28.75 per hour, or roughly $60,000 per year. By way of comparison, Thorstad explains that the average salary of a student with a bachelor’s degree is around $50,000, and many students require five years to complete their four-year education.

Combatting stigmas, creating solutions

If there’s one statement echoed by every person — students, faculty, and administration — interviewed for this story, it’s that the old stigmas of tech programs as a “lesser education” still cling tight. Wickstrom, at Pine Tech, calls the hiring requirement of a bachelor’s degree nothing more than a “cheap filter” instituted by corporate America. He suggests instead that manufacturers should seek the person best able

Joe Mulford says it takes the right person to teach — someone with a desire to mentor and apprentice others. to do the work.

In St. Cloud, Cheek says her school continues to battle the perception that trade professions are “greasy, grimy” work.

Just as important is a battle against ignorance. Many students and parents, as Mulford explains in his office at Pine Tech, aren’t familiar with automation or mechatronics. Welders and machinists are common titles, but these new fields need time to gain traction, and he says sometimes it’s a matter of slow, steady investments in marketing to overcome oblivious apathy.

And while every college is taking a different route to public education, St. Cloud Tech stands out for their administration of the state’s VEX Robotics program — a competitive K-12 program where students work to design a robot (without blueprints) that solves a certain predefined challenge, such as placing an item in a box. The program is as much about robotics as it is communication and teamwork, explains Aaron Barker, an energy, mechatronics, and instrumentation instructor at SCTCC. Barker serves as tournament coordina-

tor for VEX Robotics in Minnesota in addition to his teaching responsibilities.

He was also named the 2015 Volunteer of the Year at that year’s VEX Robotics World Championship. The program runs competitions every weekend across the state, and St. Cloud plays host to the state championship. Barker says VEX serves as a messenger for automation, robotics, and manufacturing, and the scholarships offered to VEX students steer many to careers in engineering, electronics, and automation.

“We’re out educating the students, we’re educating the parents, and we’re educating the high school instructors to let them know that a two-year degree is a good option and [these jobs] have very good pay,” he says.

Since its inception 11 years ago, the Minnesota VEX Robotics program has grown from 24 teams to more than 500 teams before the coronavirus pandemic.

“We actually have more robotics teams in the state of Minnesota than there are hockey teams,” Barker says.

“That’s saying something,” Cheek agrees.

The VEX Robotics program is not only driving workforce growth for manufacturing and automation. Cheek explains that the program has strong participation from young women (37%) and BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) students.

Both are important demographics for SCTCC. Cheek says she has often interviewed female and BIPOC students in her college’s manufacturing fields and asked where and how they came to the careers they have. Almost without fail, it’s the referral of a friend or family member who held the influence, and Cheek is looking to let this best-kept secret out of the bag.

“We have to figure out how we create those opportunities and experiences for exposure so that we take advantage of the demographic shifts and leverage that; we want to make sure that employers really do have the talent they need,” she says.

While many colleges were impacted by the pandemic last year, most — including all those interviewed here — have found ways to return to a new normal.

Cheek, speaking for her own facility but reflecting the sentiments of her colleagues elsewhere, explains that, “We’re weathering the storm just like everyone else, but we’ve been using this time to position ourselves for what comes next, and we’re excited about that.”

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Final Word

Helping Manufacturers Help Themselves Enterprise Minnesota’s peer councils enable manufacturers to help each other work through the post-COVID economy.

T

he way manufacturers have used Enterprise Minnesota’s peer councils to help each other cope with the COVID economy demonstrates how these groups have evolved into one of our most effective consulting weapons.

Enterprise Minnesota’s peer councils were created 21 years ago. We recruited a group of non-competitive CEOs to meet in confidential monthly meetings to listen to a combination of topical presentations and open-ended conversations. Facilitated

by Enterprise Minnesota consultants, participants function as an advisory board for each other. Today, more than 58 manufacturing executives belong to one of our councils throughout Minnesota, and we’ve expanded them to encompass operations and human resources.

I have always thought about how peer councils enable manufacturers to combine the science and the art of managing their companies. Enterprise Minnesota helps with the company’s strategic infrastructure. Our consultants have a long history of helping manufacturers lean up their operations, develop cultural environments that enhance leadership and employee development, establish strategic priorities, improve their operations, and qualify for ISO certification. And there are many others. These are valuable, long-term efforts that help our clients grow profitably.

When COVID first started to disrupt our economy early last year, we saw manufacturers adapt that internal infrastructure to current marketing conditions. We were amazed at how quickly manufacturers convened ad hoc meetings of their peer councils — instead of the half-day, in-person sessions — to address all the COVIDrelated uncertainties. Phone calls quickly evolved into Zoom meetings that occurred as frequently as every week. They immediately talked about the CARES Act and the Paycheck Protection Program.

How should they handle masking and distancing? Should they take temperatures of employees every day? What about 40

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Lynn Shelton is vice president of marketing at Enterprise Minnesota.

policies for quarantined employees or parents with children in distance learning?

How should they address employee fears about job security? How can they possibly make reasonable business forecasts about their suppliers, customers and competitors within the almost surreal ambiguities?

Bob Kill, our president and CEO, emphasized at that time that our objective should be to lead the meetings and then get out of the way. “Our focus,” he said, “is not telling manufacturers anything but letting them share their own knowledge and experiences. That’s the power of peer councils.

The focus is on the manufacturers.”

It’s happening again. The challenges of COVID have affected manufacturers differently. And the only certainty within the post-COVID economy is that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions to its unpredict-

able quirks.

The chronic workforce shortage lingers on as probably the most consequential problem facing manufacturers. In the near term, manufacturers still have to contend with some employees wary about returning too soon to their jobs. Parents of school-aged children continue to cope with the responsibilities of distance learning or the COVID-related shortage of accessible child care. While the recession of 2009 forced many Boomers to rethink their retirement plans, the flourishing COVID-era stock market might actually persuade long-term employees to retire, taking their in-house experience and technical expertise with them.

And then there are government interventions. There is no future for me to make value judgments about the efficacy of government policies, but there are indisputable consequences for manufacturers. Very few employee-starved manufacturers aren’t frustrated by their perception about the number of potential non-skilled workers who delay re-entering the job market because of extended unemployment benefits or the federal stimulus checks.

These peer councils will undoubtedly discuss how the rebuilding of America’s infrastructure will affect the job market.

Who is going to build and repair those roads, bridges and rail lines? Construction companies, also hurting for employees, are going to provide stiff competition for workers, especially when armed with lucrative government contracts.

The bottom line: My experience tells me that resourceful manufacturers, working together, will persevere through all this and thrive once again. They always do! We at Enterprise Minnesota are pleased that our peer councils might have helped use creativity and innovation to get them there.

Manufacturing executives looking to learn more about peer councils will find the information at www.EnterpriseMinnesota.org/manufacturing-peer-councils.

Helping manufacturing enterprises grow profitably.

For over 30 years, we’ve been helping Minnesota’s small and mid-size manufacturers achieve sustainable profits and growth.

Enterprise Minnesota manufacturing experts can help you discover ways to reduce waste, increase revenues, streamline operations and grow profitably.

Let our team of experts become your trusted advisors.

www.EnterpriseMinnesota.org 612.373.2900 Enterprise Minnesota® is the official MEP center for the state of Minnesota.

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