The Greeneville Sun’s
Salute To Industry
A Special Section Highlighting Manufacturing In Greene County May 20, 2017
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The Greeneville Sun Salute To Industry Edition
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Saturday, May 20, 2017
SUN PHOTO BY KRISTEN EARLY
Forward Air employees answer calls in the corporation’s customer service branch.
Forward Air Sees Landmark Year With Expansion, Rebranding BY KRISTEN EARLY ASSOCIATE EDITOR An acquisition, rebranding, a new location and plans for a signiicant expansion to the employee base: It’s been a hallmark year for Greeneville-based Forward Air Corporation. In summer 2016, the state of Tennessee awarded the company a $1.16 million grant for building improvements in exchange for Forward Air maintaining a presence in Greene County, expending $4.3 million in capital investments to remodel a portion of a former Magnavox location, and add 105 jobs. The corporation, a logistics company based at 1915 Snapps Ferry Road — the Chasan Industrial Complex and former Magnavox Plant 3 location — celebrated the completion of building improvements in November. The additional employees are expected following the inal paperwork on the corporation’s acquisition of Atlantic Trucking Company Inc., Heavy Duty Equipment Leasing LLC, Atlantic Logistics LLC and Transportation Holdings Inc., together known as “Atlantic,” of Charleston, North Carolina. That acquisition should be complete this spring, Forward Air Vice President of Procurement Jef Taylor said in a recent interview.
THE EXPANSION Oicials lauded the trucking and logistics company’s decision to expand in Greeneville. “Forward Air has been part of Tennessee’s robust logistics and distribution industry for nearly three decades, and the company’s continued investment speaks volumes about our great business climate,” Gov. Bill Haslam said in August 2016. “Thank you to Forward Air for continuing to grow in Greeneville and Greene County.” Founded originally as Landair Transport in 1981, Forward Air has expanded to include an array of logistics services. “It is always exciting news when a company chooses to
SUN PHOTO BY KRISTEN EARLY
Forward Air Corporation, a logistics and trucking company, relocated to the Chasan Industrial Complex on Snapps Ferry Road. The company focused on Millennials when planning the design for their new office spaces.
expand in our state,” Boyd said. “There are over 263,000 Tennesseans employed in the transportation, logistics and distribution industry with 12 percent growth expected over the next 10 years. I want to thank ForwardAir for adding these jobs to this steadily growing sector.” Forward Air operates through four principle business segments: Expedited LTL, Expedited Truckload (TLX), Intermodal and Pool Distribution. The company is the 35th largest for-hire carrier in the U.S., according to information released by the state in 2016. “This is an incredibly passionate and supportive community, and we are excited to have the opportunity to expand and grow
with it,” Forward Air CEO Bruce Campbell said at that time. “We look forward to being in this area for years to come. Our employees are extremely dedicated, and we would like to thank them for their hard work and support over the years.”
THE NEW LOCATION With this expansion, Forward Air has built-out new data center space at the Chasan Industrial Complex, located in a former Magnavox building. Prior to that, it was at the Greeneville-Greene County Municipal Airport. “It’s a very diferent type of space,” Taylor said. “We were over at that location for 20-plus
years. Twenty years ago, it was right. As we have grown and acquired companies, the way in which we do business really changed. The building just was not structured to accommodate our change in business and growth.” Relocating 170 employees had its challenges. The change was intimidating at irst to some employees, he said. Features of the new location include modular oices well-suited to frequent restructuring and growth and break rooms designed with board game themes, vibrant colors and comfortable chairs for relaxing and texting. Throughout the oices, regional and vintage art is juxtaposed to the occasional “word wall”
featuring words that are key descriptors of what employees see as important in the job, such as: motivation, tenacious, action, success, commitment and thank you. And then there are the empty expanses waiting for more modular cubicles and oice spaces, enabling “signiicant growth,” he noted. “Even though our senior management resides mostly in Atlanta, there’s a huge commitment to this building,” Taylor said. “To bring this building back to life and see this parking lot full, it’s really a great thing, on many levels. Our employees enjoy walking the parking lot. They can be more SEE FORWARD AIR ON PAGE 3
Salute To Industry Ad Index Table Of Contents Forward Air Sees Landmark Year .... ...................................................... 2 SumiRiko Focuses On Safety, Productivity ........................................... 4 Wal-Mart Distribution Center A Hub Of Activity .................................... 6 CJ Designs Finds Successful Niche ...................................................... 9 Meco Adds Retail Customers, Employees .......................................... 10 C&C Millwright Offers Support To Industries ...................................... 12 Greeneville Machine And Iron Works Has Deep Roots ...................... 14 WSCC Troubleshoots Workforce Needs .............................................. 15 Greene Technology Center Building A Skilled Workforce .................. 17 Chasan Builds Upon Community Connections .................................. 19
A Services Group, LLC ................................ 17 American Greetings .................................... 16 CHASAN LLC ..................................................6 Eastman Credit Union ...................................7 Elwood Staffing ..............................................4 Gardner Paint Service ...................................9 Grand Rental Station ................................. 19 Greene County Partnership ....................... 19 Greeneville Federal Bank .............................6 Greeneville Iron & Metal ............................ 16 Greeneville Light & Power System ............. 12 Greeneville Oil & Petroleum ....................... 12
Jarden Zinc Products ................................. 10 Jeffers Funeral & Cremation Service .......... 8 KOYO/JTEKT ...................................................5 Laughlin Memorial Hospital ...................... 20 LMR Plastics ............................................... 15 MECO Contract Manufacturing .................. 13 Professional Vending Services .................. 17 Takoma Regional Hospital Medical Group ...............................................3 Takoma Regional Hospital ......................... 11 Town of Mosheim ..........................................4 Worthington Industries .............................. 18
On The Cover Sun File Photo : Greg Smith, executive vice president of supply chain for Wal-Mart U.S., serves as guest speaker during the 20th-anniversary celebration at the Midway Wal-Mart Distribution Center in April.
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FORWARD AIR CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2
active in the community, because you can get to things quicker. It was growth, and it’s good.”
THE WORKFORCE Part of the corporation’s decision to maintain its Greeneville location came down to the available workforce, Taylor said. “I do think we have such a great workforce in this area. Great schools (and a) great workforce, which is one of the reasons we’re still here,” he said. “Our school systems have been able to support the change and needs.” The main skills the company looks for are “really great communications and math and technology,” he added. “Our schools have done a great job with that. We like competitive people. We have a really great mix of people.” The modern facility’s design has the millennial generation in mind, but proved impressive and comfortable to Forward’s entire, multi-generational workforce, he said. “We’ve got a multi-generational workforce, so on the design side of it, there was a lot of thought that went into it,” Taylor said. “We have a lot of folks who have been here 15-20 years. We’ve got some second generations. At the same time, we’ve got a lot of younger people, too, as we’ve grown.”
SUN PHOTO BY KRISTEN EARLY
Forward Air’s new modular offices and cubicles allow for restructuring and growth. The company left considerable open space for additional employees in anticipation of significant growth.
REBRANDING With that growth has also come change and expansion to the corporation’s services. “As the company has changed, our service oferings have as well,” Taylor said. “We did a rebranding to better align to the services. It’s basically a better representation of our service oferings, because we have changed over the course of 20-plus years.” The rebranding changed the company logo and broke down a mission statement for each division. Each seeks “to deliver safe, time-deinite, damage-free transportation solutions” to their varying industries: • Forward Air Expedited Less-ThanTruckload, the original, core business unit for the company, delivers to the expedited industry. • Forward Air Truck Load Services, which includes the TQI division and handles expedited team services, delivers to the health care industry. • CST provides deliveries to the intermodal industry. • Forward Air Solutions, a national distribution and logistics services provider, specializes in deliveries to retailers,
health care distributors, publishers, the hospitality industry and others. “We’re truly a logistics company,” Taylor said. “We participate in all facets, whether we’re taking one pallet of refrigerated pharmaceutical, whether we’re pulling a container from the port to a distribution center, to our core airport to airport — our airline business — we cover it all. We don’t own airplanes and we don’t own ships, but in between, we do it.”
THE ACQUISITION The acquisition that is underway will add to the company’s Intermodal segment. Forward Air Corporation announced in April that its wholly owned subsidiary, Central States Trucking Co., entered into an agreement to acquire essentially all of Atlantic’s assets. “The closing of the transaction is subject to various customary conditions, including but not limited to, compliance with the covenants and agreements in the deinitive agreement in all material respects,” according to the announcement.
“It is anticipated that the transaction will close prior to the conclusion of the second quarter of 2017.” Atlantic is a privately held provider of intermodal, drayage and related services. In addition to its Charleston headquarters, it also has terminal operations in Atlanta, Charlotte, Houston, Jacksonville, Memphis, Nashville, Norfolk and Savannah. During calendar year 2016, Atlantic generated approximately $62.3 million in revenue, the announcement says. Atlantic is expected to be accretive to Forward Air’s earnings starting in the fourth quarter of 2017. “We are pleased to add Atlantic to our Intermodal segment,” said Matthew J. Jewell, president of Logistics Services at Forward Air. “Atlantic has the management talent, leet size, customer base, geographic footprint and quality of operations that we have been looking for to serve as our Southeast beachhead, and to complement our Midwest legacy locations. There is very little overlap between CST and Atlantic’s service locations. Accordingly, this acquisition will enable CST to provide a greatly expanded geographic breadth of service to our customers. We are excited
to welcome the entire Atlantic team on board with us.” Atlantic President Kevin O’Donnel added, “This is an exciting opportunity for our team to become a part of one of the fastest growing and inancially secure companies in our industry. CST has an impeccable reputation and we are very much looking forward to contributing to their continued success.” The projected 105 jobs that the acquisition will bring will come in phases to each department, Taylor said. There is not yet a timeline in place for when that will occur, he added. Despite the busy year illed with changes, Taylor praised employees for pushing forward and continuing to achieve. “Forward Air has always been a high achieving, progressive company, and so it’s really kind of business as normal,” he said. “Election years make things interesting, because the economy is always like, ‘I don’t know if we’re going to stay or go.’ World economy and politics has an inluence, because a lot of what we do is imports. So it keeps you on your toes; it’s never a dull moment.”
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Safety, Productivity In Focus At SumiRiko BY KEN LITTLE STAFF WRITER Stop. Call. Wait. Safety comes irst at SumiRiko’s Midway facility. With that and other slogans associates take to heart, SRK Tennessee Inc. looks forward to continued productivity and success at its Midway and Tazewell locations. The facility at 199 Pottertown Road in Midway began production in April 1997, marking its 20th year of operation. In February, DTR Tennessee Inc. changed its name to SumiRiko Tennessee Inc. in an efort to take advantage of global branding, according to a company news release. SRK Tennessee-Midway’s focus on safety and eiciency helps pave the way for the manufacturer of anti-vibration, hose and sound-prooing products in the automotive industry. Primary clients of SumiRiko Tennessee remain Japanese automakers Toyota, Honda and Nissan. But the company services numerous other clients, including Ford, General Motors and Fiat. “We’re making parts for a lot of diferent vehicles,” said Webster Booze, executive vice president of SumiRiko Tennessee Inc. Teamwork is emphasized at SumiRiko. “One of the good things here is the openness of our oices and our availability,” Booze said. “Our associates are our most valuable resource.” The facility employs 830 associates and has a minimal 1.5 percent annual turnover rate among fulltime workers. The plant operates around the clock on three eight-hour shifts.
LONG-TERM ASSOCIATES Many employees have been at SumiRiko for 10 years or more. The average service time for full-time associates at the Midway facility is nine years. “There’s a lot of experience and we’re truly blessed to have that,” Booze said. It takes every associate to make the operation a success, and the company’s “open door” policy helps ensure positive communication, SumiRiko oicials said. “We always tell them if there’s anything we can do, we’re available,” said Mike Kelley, senior vice president of administration. The company continually upgrades equipment and technology at the facility. The demand for more aluminum die-cast products to lighten weight and improve fuel eiciency in vehicles is relected in the introduction of several new machines at SumiRiko-Midway. “We’re looking to grow that part of the business,” Booze said. Toyota is redesigning its popular Camry model and Honda is doing the same with its Accord sedan. Nissan is also undergoing redesign changes, so SumiRiko is making adjustments at its Midway plant to produce compatible components, Booze said. SumiRiko is in an extremely competitive business, Booze said. The parent company has manufacturing facilities all over the world. “We’re operating in a global marketplace now,” Booze said. Competition is also internal. The Midway and Tazewell SumiRiko facilities have consistently been top performers. “Not only are you working against business from Ohio, you are working against business from Mexico, India, China and Vietnam,” Booze said. “(Each facility) uses automation and a skill set to support that.” There is a constant efort to reduce costs and improve quality. Employees at the Greene County plant are a valuable asset in a constantly changing marketplace, Booze said. “Automation is one way to do that,” Kelley said. Potential clients who visit
SUN PHOTO BY KEN LITTLE
SumiRiko production associate Jessica Mooneyham, who has worked since 1999 at the Midway facility, operates a marking machine that stamps rubber hoses. SUN PHOTO BY KEN LITTLE
Mike Kelley, senior vice president of administration at the Midway SumiRiko plant, points out one of the newer pieces of equipment at the facility, a die casting machine that automatically loads aluminum ingots, which are melted in a furnace and then stamped into precision car parts.
the Midway facility “see multiple suppliers under one roof” relecting the different production functions SumiRiko is capable of, Booze said. “It gives us some lexibility to be able to compete and keep costs down,” he said. The “lean manufacturing” philosophy is emphasized at SumiRiko. “We’re constantly working with our customers and our peers to stay as lean as we can,” Booze said. “We constantly operate of a lean manufacturing philosophy. We’ve had good success and in being able to work with our associates to improve our plant.” Booze said cost reduction “starts at the associate level.” “(Associates) are the experts on that loor, so that’s where we need the feedback,” he said.
SAFETY EMPHASIS Associate input is encouraged. At the same time, workplace safety is
a major emphasis. That’s where the Stop-Call-Wait message, posted prominently throughout the facility, comes in. The message reminds associates who spot a potentially dangerous work area or diicult job duty to notify a supervisor, even if it means shutting down a production line until the issue is addressed. “One of the things we talk about is stop, call and wait,” Booze said. “If it doesn’t smell right, feel right or look right, stop what you’re doing.” “We start every meeting (with associates) with ‘stop, call and wait,” said Frankie Debusk, general manager of human resources. That may factor into the Midway facility logging over one million manhours without an accident or serious injury. At SumiRiko, “We go beyond government standards,” Booze said. SumiRiko has been recognized by the Tennessee Occupational Safety and Health Administration and
its federal counterpart, known as OSHA, for its innovative safety culture. Burns Phillips, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development,
SUN PHOTO BY KEN LITTLE
SEE SUMIRIKO ON PAGE 6
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Frankie Debusk, human resources general manager at the SumiRiko facility in Midway, points out “safety responses” written by employees suggesting safety improvements in plant operations. SumiRiko emphasizes the motto “StopCall-Wait” in its ongoing emphasis on safe operations at the plant.
announced in March that SumiRiko Tennessee in Midway was chosen to receive the Commissioner’s Award of Excellence for Workplace Safety. “DTR Tennessee has
demonstrated a strong commitment to maintaining a safe and healthy workplace,” Phillips said. “The evaluation criteria for this award are challenging, and this company has worked extremely hard to meet and exceed the standards the award requires.” DTR Tennessee qualiied for the Commissioner’s Award by working more than 1.7 million hours without a lost time workplace injury or illness, Phillips said. Booze, Kelley and Debusk all said the quality of the workforce is a major factor in the success of the operation. “If they didn’t have the ability and the technical skills and the ‘want to’ (attitude), we wouldn’t be here right now,” Booze said. Employees are asked to make suggestions on how to improve “hard-to-do” jobs, in addition to providing ideas in areas like “environmental feedback.” The suggestions are posted on bulletin boards throughout the plant. Those who actively contribute to the plant’s success could be in line for advancement within the company based on merit. Booze, Kelley and Debusk, all longtime SumiRiko employees, said they were promoted by the company in that manner. The Midway building covers 440,000 square feet and has undergone 10 expansions over the years. The plant underwent its last major expansion two years ago. SumiRiko has invested $215 million in equipment and the building since 1997. “We’re kind of out of room with our space here,” Webster said, making more eicient operation even more important.
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Local Plant Recognized for Quality Performance Gary Bourque, Senior Vice President – BBU, visited the Washington Plant on April 20th to present the 2016 Global JTEKT Quality Excellence Award on behalf of JTEKT President, Tetsuo Agata. Gary met with all associates of the plant on all three shifts to present the award and thank each person for their commitment to the “Safety First, Quality Always” mindset. Gary communicated how their actions, as individuals and as a team, over the last year epitomized the JTEKT Way values of Customer First, Ownership, Continuous Kaizen, Teamwork, and Innovation. After taking some questions from our associates, Gary closed by challenging the Washington Plant to achieve zero complaints in 2017. The Washington Plant is planning to celebrate their 2016 quality performance with an associate meal and giveaways later this month.
1st Shift Alisha Ray, Sandra Johnson, Travis Suenaga, Robert Metcalf, Jeremy Garber, Lori Fletcher, Richard Weatherly, Johny Wood, Joe Good, Lynette Tyree, Andrea Hilton, Becky Story, Doug Backus, Ashley Taylor, Gary Bourque, Miranda Whitson, Kim Morgan, Steve McCullough, Alan Holliield, Eric Bradley, Brian Salyer, Rob Lewis, Jef Welch, Alex Franklin, Chad Harvey, Paul Gibson, Gene Tipton, Tony Harris, Alan Mango, Joel Paden, Kyle Stocker, Roger Yonts.
2nd Shift April Shelton, Justin Goering, Beth Thompson, Angela Shaw, Theo Baker, Daniel Lane, Kevin Truglia, Will Savell, Jason Brown, Seth Bradburn, John Butler, Trevor Bauer, Travis Suenaga, Sherry Ottem, Jimmy Cutshall, Wendy Moncier, Justin Harris, Bronson Buech, Jamie Pruchnic, Judy Burpitt, Gary McCamey, Jeannie Walters, Steve McCullough, John Howell, Gary Bourque, Donna Majors, Mike Elder, Terry Broyles, Linda Gouge, Phillip Payne, Jimmy Harrison, Ivelisse M Colon, Lynn Hill, Mike Ward, Kayla Bales, Jeff Schwartz, Shawn Younce, Melissa Ashley, Jeremy Widener, Ray Hoyt, Richard Sauls, Robert McDonald, Tommy Kenyon, Keith Collins, Tim Davis, Marty Shipper, Jennifer Jones, Chris Wilson, Brian McCullough, Rudy Miller, Seth Shimizu, Kiyosuke Tada, Roger Yonts.
3rd Shift Rose Evans, Mark Brooks, Leslie Renner, Chad McGee, Sarah Young, Jennifer Whitson, Brandi Loftis, Wesley Kincaid, Travis Suenaga, Pam Blair, Sandra Hensley, Shane Etheridge, Aaron Harvell, Marsha Parks, Troy Owens, Nikki West, Robbie Weems, Mark Painter, Tabatha Spears, Vickie Milhorn, Stephanie Rice, Eddie Wright, Vanessa Bowers, Gary Bourque, Steve McCullough, Jeremy Lunsford, Ron Sloan, Sherry Darnell, Jason Payne, Roxanne Donovan, Chuckie Dryer, Henry Woodruff, Kevin Collins, Phillip Mayhew, Zak Haire, Ryan Perkins, Brooks Furches, Ben McCray, Chet Carmack, David Shipley, Cliff Miller, Stacy Jones, Elizabeth Madden, Chris Broyles, John Whitton, Richard Maynard, Kandy Johnson, James Hawkins, Roger Yonts, Sean Varner. Not Pictured: John Benny, Geoff Blevins, Brian Bowman, Russell Clark, Annie Cloyd, Sanders Collins, Perry Cox, David Creasy, Rebecca Cutshall, David Dalton, Michele Deakins, David Dolce, Keith Dorton, John Fagon, Jeff Fannon, Terry Franklin, Ashton Garber, Gary Grassman, Johnathan Greene, Paul Henley, Kevin Hinkle, Vickie Johnson, Sue Joslin, David Lowe, Isaac Mango, Paul Manning, Rick May, Devon McCravey, Robert McIntyre, James McQueen, Tory Morton, Mike Mumpower, JD Nickels, Edgar Nitcher, Francois Odenthal, Frank Ormsbee, Kathy Ormsbee, Shane Parks, Chris Pelter, Michael Peterson, Brittany Pruchnic, Craig Reynolds, Rebecca Russell, Masa Sakaguchi, Robert Shelton, Kevin Smith, Keith Stanton, Kody Stanton, Heath Starnes, Shoun Stevenson, Ryan Summey, Delores Taylor, Beth Thompson, Ken Wilson, Rebecca Winslow, Michael Woody, Thomas Workman.
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Wal-Mart Distribution Center Hub Of Activity BY KEN LITTLE STAFF WRITER The Wal-Mart Distribution Center in Midway is like the hub of a giant wheel, with spokes extending out across the region to surrounding states. The facility at 1655 Pottertown Road recently marked its 20th year of operation with a series of milestones achieved by Wal-Mart associates and drivers. The Midway distribution center employs 941 people, including 226 drivers and transportation-related associates. A measure of employee commitment is illustrated by the fact that 167 associates have worked at the distribution center since it opened in April 1997, including 128 distribution center associates and 39 transportation associates. The distribution center provides merchandise sold at 110 Wal-Mart stores, up from about 70. New stores are added to the list every year. “We’re servicing more stores than when we opened,” said Brian Bragdon, distribution center transportation manager and a Greeneville alderman.
SUN FILE PHOTO BY KRISTEN EARLY
Wal-Mart Distribution Center Transportation Manager Brian Bragdon speaks during the center’s recent 20-year anniversary celebration.
WIDE COVERAGE AREA The distribution center serves eastern Tennessee to about Crossville, western North Carolina, southwest Virginia, southern West Virginia, southeast Kentucky to the Lexington
area and a small section of northern Georgia. Drivers have completed more than 1 million trips from the distribution facility, covering well over 344 million miles. The inside of the distribution center is a beehive of activity, which employees loading trucks with products destined for Wal-
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‘PRIME LOCATION’ Geographically, the plant is in a “prime location” in proximity to suppliers and customers, Kelley said. About $15 million a year is spent at SumiRiko-Midway in new equipment and technology, he said. Customer sales totaled $500 million in 2016. Greene County is at the center of the employment base, with other employees living in surrounding counties. Temporary, or “contingent,” workers make up about 10 percent of the associates at SumiRiko. Booze estimated about 60 percent of the associates in the plant started as contingent workers. “I think our associates know what kind of opportunities they have here,” Debusk said. Eforts are being made to retain a higher percentage of good workers as full-time staf members. The employees at the facility have bought into the Japanese philosophy of “collective thinking” as opposed to individual action, Booze said.
Mart stores in Tennessee and surrounding states. “This distribution center has always been very productive and safe and leads the region in innovation in getting things done,” said Bill Parrish, general manager of the Midway facility. Bragdon said he has frequently heard the same “from our home oice in
“If people weren’t following or buying into it we wouldn’t have the workforce we have right now,” he said. “We’re all going to work together to get better as a group.” Job security is strong at SumiRiko. “We’ve never laid a person of,” Booze said. Jessica Mooneyham, a production associate at SumiRiko, said she has worked at the facility since 1999, or about 18 years. “I would highly recommend it with the way they treat people,” Mooneyham said.
NAME CHANGE On Oct. 1, 2014, Tokai Rubber Industries LTD, SumiRiko Tennessee’s parent company, oicially changed its name to Sumitomo Riko Company Limited. There name change signiied no change to ownership, management or daily operations of the facility, “and they will continue their eforts to be a Global Excellent Manufacturing Company,” the release said. In order to accelerate entrance into new markets, Tokai made the decision to change its name to combine the global brand “Sumitomo” with the Japanese word “Riko” (physics, chemistry and engineering), which represents the company’s core technologies, according to the news release.
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Bentonville (Arkansas).” “It’s considered one of the most successful in our network,” Bragdon said. “I’ve always attributed it to the work ethic of this area and the quality of our associates.” Parrish readily agreed. “You just tell them what to do and they get it done. We do a great job and
make it safe,” Parrish said. Bragdon is particularly proud of the drivers and other personnel operating out of the Wal-Mart Distribution Center. “There are state competitions for maintenance technicians and they inished irst and second for the whole state,” Bragdon said. “One of my drivers just
Tokai Rubber Industries’ equity was acquired by Sumitomo Electric Industries LTD in 1937, and the company has had an 80-year history with Sumitomo Electric, it adds. In addition to strengthening existing business, the company has been actively
got selected as the Tennessee driver of the year,” Bragdon said, referring to employee Joe Dean. “There’s a lot of individuals as well as team performances that have either broken the record or set the record and set those bars,” Bragdon said. SEE WAL-MART ON PAGE 8
accelerating business development in new industries, the news release says. As part of the company’s 2020 vision, it will focus on four kinds of markets: automotive, electronics, infrastructure, and housing environment and medical and nursing health care.
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SUN FILE PHOTO
Wal-Mart Distribution Center associates are involved in many charitable activities in the community. In this photo from December 2015, a truck leaves the Wal-Mart Distribution Center to deliver wreaths ahead before the annual national Wreaths Across America event.
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Consider that since the distribution center opened in 1997, Wal-Mart drivers operating out of Midway have covered nearly 344.7 million miles, or more than 721 trips to the moon and back.
NUMEROUS AWARDS The Midway transportation oice has been awarded the Wal-Mart Transportation Oice of the Year three times, and is also a one-time winner of Safety Oice of the Year. In 17 out of 20 years the Wal-Mart leet was awarded the Safest Private Fleet in Tennessee recognition, inishing second place the other three years. Ten Wal-Mart drivers working out of the Midway distribution center have driven 2.5 million accident-free miles, while 14 drivers have over 2 million miles, 30 have 1.5 million miles, 32 have a million miles and 20 have 500,000 miles. Technology on the trucks has helped improve overall driving safety, Bragdon said. Eiciency is also a hallmark of the Midway Wal-Mart Distribution Center. Bragdon said that 20 years ago, each trailer averaged 1,100 cases of merchandise. “We’ve probably doubled that,” he said. Eiciency has also helped Wal-Mart improve its supply chain. “We are able to process merchandise quicker, almost to the point of just-in-time inventory,” Bragdon said. About 725 trucks per week are sent out from the Pottertown Road facility, or about 125 trucks per day. That number increases considerably when other companies are added into the mix, Bragdon said.
VOLUNTEERISM Closer to home, distribution center employees make a diference in the community, volunteering hundreds of hours of time and donating money to causes like the Children’s Miracle Network, Habitat for Humanity, area food banks, volunteer ire departments, youth intervention organizations, youth sports activities, veterans groups and the Greeneville-Greene County Humane Society. “The whole campus has given over a million dollars,” Parrish said. “It’s a testament to the employees.” Wal-Mart is glad the decision was made 20 years ago to locate in Greene County. “We’re very pleased in Greene County because of the quality of the associates,” Bragdon said. He said many of the managers at the distribution center started as hourly employees and advanced in the company. “There is opportunity here,” Bragdon said. Parrish said the center has had $42 billion in sales since its 1997 start-up. Since 2001, it has received more than 1.1 million cartons of inventory. The center has received numerous awards, including six-time winner of Distribution Center of the Year, and also was twice recognized as Safety Distribution Center of the Year. “We have no issues at all illing the job (openings) with quality people,” Parrish added. “They’re just good, quality motivated people.” Deana Gilliland, human resources manager for the WalMart Distribution Center and an associate since the facility opened, said she moved to Greene County from Georgia with the intention of eventually returning. That never happened. “This is like my family. This group is very tight,” she said. Gilliland appreciates the people she works with. “To me, it’s the work ethic of the associates,” she said. “I like helping people and I hope I’ve been able to help people, too.” The future is bright for the Wal-Mart Distribution Center in Greene County. “We’re excited to be here another 20 years. We’re excited what is on the horizon,” Bragdon said.
SUN PHOTO BY KEN LITTLE
Deana Gilliland, Wal-Mart Distribution Center human resources manager, and Brian Bragdon, general transportation manager, stand by a tractor-trailer cab outside the distribution center in Midway. About 725 Wal-Mart trucks per week are sent out to deliver merchandise to stores from the Pottertown Road facility.
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Saturday, May 20, 2017
The Greeneville Sun Salute To Industry Edition
Page 9
SUN PHOTO BY LISA WARREN
Marcos Villegas is busy placing upholstery fabric on a chair being manufactured at the CJ Designs facility in Mosheim.
SUN PHOTO BY LISA WARREN
CJ Designs can design and manufacture seating in all shapes and sizes for its commercial business customers.
SUN PHOTO BY LISA WARREN
This piece of furniture designed and manufactured by CJ Designs has a laminate top.
SUN PHOTO BY LISA WARREN
Founder and President of CJ Designs Stewart Long, far left, is shown inside the assembly area at the company’s Mosheim facility.
CJ Designs Finds Niche In Furniture Business BY LISA WARREN STAFF WRITER Stewart Long has been in the furniture industry longer than he cares to remember. Yet, the Michigan native’s company, CJ Designs, is relatively new in Greene County. The company, which is rooted in the commercial furniture business, was founded by Long in 2015 in Bean Station— a tiny Tennessee community located on the Hawkins and Grainger county line. It didn’t take long for the company to outgrow the small building in which it got its start, so Long decided to relocate to a larger building in nearby Morristown. Growth still continued for CJ Designs and, within a year at its second home, Long knew it was time to begin looking for an even larger facility in which he and his employees could design and build furniture for their customers. This search brought him the company’s current loca-
tion at 7660 Blue Springs Parkway, in Mosheim. “We’ve been operating here since February,” Long said during a recent interview. “This facility is about twice the size of the building we had in Morristown.” Long explained that CJ Designs is a contract funiture manufacturer for commercial businesses. He said he decided to start CJ Designs as a way “to ill a need” within the furniture manufacturing industry. “There was a need for people behind the scenes helping somebody who had a line of furniture, but they didn’t have this type of furniture in their capability and they wanted to outsource it,” he said. “We don’t make home furniture. Rather we make upholstered furniture for commercial customers,” he explained. “We also make tables and a few other things.” Long said that his company is selling a brand of furniture. “Our brand is our ability
to support our customers,” he added. “So typically our customers are furniture companies who don’t do their own upholstery.” For example, one of CJ Designs’ customers has a major presence within the K-12 school market. They make student and teacher desks, chairs and other classroom-type furniture and accessories — “all of the diferent things that you can think of for a school when it comes to furniture,” Long said. The diference with CJ Designs, however, is that those types of furniture and accessories never had “soft seating” until now, he added. The company has designed unique pieces with various shapes and sizes, and, if the customer desires it, soft padding and/or laminate tops can be added. The coverings can all be easily wiped down and sanitized, making it particularly desirable for schools, hospitals and other types of facilities. SEE CJ DESIGNS ON PAGE 10
SUN PHOTO BY LISA WARREN
CJ Designs seamstresses are hard at work sewing together upholstery fabric for several furniture pieces being made at the Mosheim facility.
SUN PHOTO BY LISA WARREN
Donnie Jefferson works on a furniture frame at the CJ Designs manufacturing facility in Mosheim.
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The Greeneville Sun Salute To Industry Edition
Saturday, May 20, 2017
www.greenevillesun.com
Meco Adds Retail Customers, Employees BY LISA WARREN STAFF WRITER America has a love afair with backyard cooking — and Meco President Mark Proitt is happy it does. This keeps his workers busy turning out grills and grilling products at Meco Corporation’s manufacturing facility in Greeneville. According to Forbe’s magazine, at least 75 percent of U.S. adults own a barbecue grill or smoker, and chances are high that many of those were made right here in Greeneville. Among the grill and smoker brands that Meco produces are Americana Grills, Easy Street Electric Grills, Aussie Grills and Southern Country Smokers. Being a U.S. manufacturer of grills and grilling products has been a major advantage to Meco, Proitt said in a recent interview.
“What invariably happens, Chinese suppliers will fall down for some reason and have trouble making a shipment, and then the U.S. retailers will call us and say, ‘Is there something you can do to ship us some product? We’ve got an ad breaking, and we don’t have a product.’” This scenario has already happened several times this year alone, Proitt said. “Because of that we’ve picked up extra business,” he added. In addition to picking up new customers during the past year, Meco has also hired some additional workers. The Greeneville manufacturing facility currently employees around 150 individuals. Most of those work the irst shift at the plant, while a smaller portion SEE MECO ON PAGE 11 SUN PHOTO BY LISA WARREN
Andrew Dinkins, left, who leads one the assembly lines at Meco, is shown with John Henson, the manufacturing engineering manager.
SUN PHOTO BY LISA WARREN
This Southern Country Smoker and Aussie grill, shown in the Meco Corporation’s front lobby, are ready for backyard grilling season.
CJ DESIGNS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9
Several pieces that his employees were recently working on will be shipped to Georgetown University, Long said. The company has also provided pieces for sports venues, such as the Carolina Panthers, the Cleveland Browns and the Pittsburgh Pirates. “Last year, we did a pretty good order for the New Orleans Superdome,” he added. “Those are fun to do and fun to be involved with,” he noted. In such cases, the customer wanted designs that were sturdy enough to hold big, burley athletes of up to 450 pounds in size, he noted. When Long approached the company with the idea, they loved it, telling him that many of their customers had repeatedly asked about upholstery options, but they had never been able to provide it. “We designed a whole collection of about 60 diferent products that we developed and now produce for them,” he explained. “So that’s another part of what we
SUN PHOTO BY LISA WARREN
These grill grates are standing ready for assembly and backyard cooking.
do,” Long continued. “We help people design and develop something and that covers the whole spectrum. Some people have a product that they have already designed and they want you to make it. Others don’t have a concept in mind and want us to help,” he explained. “Some customers have a basic idea in mind, but they want to make some modiications. CJ Designs can do that as well,” he said. “It’s really all over the place what we can get into. It’s everything from an oice to a school to a sports stadium. Almost anything you can think of,” Long added. CJ Designs currently employs about 25 individuals. However, Long noted that this number can luctuate. The skill sets of his employees range from assemblers and frame builders to sewing and upholstery workers. “I also have a product development person and a technical person in the oice who works our CAD (computer aided design),” he added. “We do all of our designs for the frames that we build everything from and the foam that we use, the patterns. We put it on the computer because that’s how its communicated
to the people that run those products. We buy our foam from a foam fabricators and our frames from a business that has automated machinery to run the parts for us. So they are always consistent, computer driven. We get to be involved with a lot of diferent materials — from vinyls to fabrics,” he added. Long’s entire career has been about furniture making. “I was in commercial furniture when I got out of college with a large company called Herman Miller up in Michigan, where I grew up,” he said. In 2003, he and his wife moved to Tennessee when he was part of the Falcon companies. He later decided to start his own business in 2006, but eventually got recruited to move to Chicago and work for another major furniture company there. He remained there about seven years, but Tennessee kept calling him and his wife back. “We got tired of the big city,” he said. “We decided we wanted to move back and simplify — so we returned to Tennessee in 2015.” —— SUN PHOTO BY LISA WARREN For more details about CJ Designs, CJ Designs employee Dallas Tharp cuts upholstery fabric for a piece of furniture being made at the Mosheim facility. visit cjdesignsmfg.com.
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MECO CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10
work a second shift. Proitt said Meco is currently in negotiations with a large retailer for a new product line, which will ofer “signiicant growth to the company.” While this product is not new to Meco, it is new to the retailer, he noted. While Meco is known for its grill making, the company also extends into other services, including contract manufacturing and distribution services. In fact, Meco’s contract manufacturing capabilities have also recently added new customers as well. One of those involves a new product launch, Profitt said. Called the EZ Lift Clamp, the product is a tool designed to help construction industry workers safely and more easily move large sheet materials on a job site. Proitt said Meco will be providing the distribution services for the new product. Another contract job in the works at Meco is for a large consumer products lawn and garden manufacturer, Proitt added. In addition, the company is also working on a project through the contract manufacturing business for a worldwide lighting company. Proitt noted that Meco actually got its start doing contract manufacturing. Today’s Meco Corporation has roots in Greeneville dating back nearly 60 years. At its start in Greeneville in 1959, the business (which was established as Metals Engineering Company) was a metal-stamping company that made television chassis for The Magnavox Company and for RCA. The company’s name was changed to Meco in the mid-1980s. According to a 1989 article by The Greeneville Sun, the company’s original
SUN PHOTO BY LISA WARREN
The Meco Corporation’s Greeneville facility has a variety of grills and smokers on display in its front lobby.
SUN PHOTO BY LISA WARREN
These Meco workers were busy packing finished grills in boxes for distribution.
SUN PHOTO BY LISA WARREN
Wesley Holloway puts the finishing touches on a Greeneville-made grill at Meco Corporation.
to consumer products exclusively. “From there, we migrated to a lot of other products and, ultimately, ended up in the furniture and grill business,” Proitt said. “Now we do all of that, plus the SUN PHOTO BY LISA WARREN contract manufacturing.” A pallet loaded with Greeneville-made grills are packed and ready for distribution — just in “As more of the older time for this year’s backyard grilling season. companies have moved out of Greeneville, I think executive vice president of stockholders included: a lot of folks thought that pany was also extensively Robert C. Austin (Sr.), Tom The Magnavox Company we were going to as well,” involved in government of Tennessee, the article N. Austin, E.C. GreenProitt said. contracting in its early added. Today, people are relieved years. wood, C.B. Burns, N.R. In 1989, when The to hear that Meco is again Its products in those (Nat) Coleman Jr., Wylie Greeneville Sun published a years included, for examhiring and growing in new Milligan, E.B. Smith, Sam special section on famiareas, Proitt said. Calvert Jr., and John M. ple, canteen cups for the “That has been our goal,” and Arne Jones. U.S. Department of Defense ly-owned businesses, Meco he added. Later, Robert C. Austin and bomb ins used by the had some 900 employees. The Greeneville plant became the primary owner The number has varied over U.S. military during the no longer makes the metal of the company. Vietnam War, as well as the decades as business Metals Engineering’s boat trailers, store-shelving chairs that were once a conditions have changed. staple of the Greeneville irst president was William and wardrobe lockers, the When its operations bemanufacturing facility. H. (Bill) Graham, then a article noted. gan in the late 1950s, there “We still make them in resident of Greeneville, In succeeding years, the were only 25 employees, China,” Proitt said. who had previously been company shifted its focus the article noted. The com-
“The Chinese still continue to manipulate that environment so that it’s not proitable to bring that product back to the U.S. for manufacturing still today,” he noted. “But we still look at that every year in an attempt to bring that back, but right now it’s just not doable. As long as China is still manipulating the cost of the currency and the cost of steel – and our government is putting the wrong tarifs on the wrong products – then it will not be able to come back,” Proitt said. “But, on the other hand, everything that we continue to make here, which includes all of the grill products, all of our contract manufacturing services that we ofer to other companies, is going well,” he added.
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The Greeneville Sun Salute To Industry Edition
www.greenevillesun.com
Saturday, May 20, 2017
SUN PHOTO BY KRISTEN EARLY
C&C Millwright has grown over the years. Among those in leadership are, from left to right in the front row: Vice President Fred Blake, Owner/CEO Jimmy Cansler and President Jerry Fortner. From left to right along the back row are: Construction Vice President Rick Greene, Project Manager Chuck Mathews, Controller Conrad Friede, Operations Manager Brenda Knight, Senior Project Manager Kenny Rednour, Project Manager Doug Weller, HR Manager/Safety Director Darius Peedin.
C&C Millwright Offers Full Range Of Support To Industries BY KRISTEN EARLY ASSOCIATE EDITOR Behind many of Greene County’s major industries is a company that keeps its customers’ equipment running, up-to-date and housed in the space the industries need. Since 1973, C&C Millwright has worked to build and provide the structure a company needs to get up and running and stay that way. “We only guarantee our employees two days of, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day,” President Jerry Fortner said during a recent interview. “I’ve worked those, too,” replied owner Jimmy Cansler with a laugh. His wife Annie agreed. Cansler began the business with partner Jerry Chapman, hence the name “C&C”. But Chapman tragically died as a young man after an automobile accident just four years after the business began. His photo still hangs on the board room wall at the C&C oices. “Jimmy took him because he was a good, hard worker,” Annie Cansler recalled. That it Cansler’s motto, because his wife said he never knew anything but work,
having grown up on a farm and having taught himself through experience how to millwright. “He had an innate ability to tell you how to do it,” his wife recalled.
DEDICATION Fortner recalls hearing a similar motto when he irst joined the business in 1974 and rejoined in 1982: “Don’t ever say no.” That means when a client running shifts 24/7 calls at 2 a.m. to say their equipment just failed, C&C Millwright heads to the job, Fortner said. And the industries they work for conirm that. SumiRiko Tennessee Inc. President and COO Randy Rumbley said his facility has relied on C&C since it started 20 years ago. “They’ve done work for us since we’ve been here,” he said. “We’ve been through about 10 expansions in that time. They’re always excellent to work with. We could not have survived here and done the things we’ve done without C&C. “They’re always on time and always meet budget,” Rumbley added. “They’re just fantastic. Day or night, they’re one phone call away.”
Fortner saw that dedication irst hand when he returned in ’82 and started on a project in Knoxville. He expected eight- or nine-hour days, but everyone worked 12to 15-hour days, Cansler included, he said. “He was hands on. He was a hands on person,” Fortner said. Cansler stepped back from the business in the ‘90s after at least 25 active years in the business.
just three years out of high school. “When I irst started, we were all young, Jimmy (Cansler) included,” Blake said with a laugh. “We used to go out and (people would) say, ‘You guys are too young to do these jobs.’ Now they say, ‘You’re too old!’” “But we’ve got young people working!” Fortner was quick to add.
LONGTIME EMPLOYEES
CHANGING TIMES
Working alongside Fortner is Vice President Fred Blake and a host of other longtime team members. The average tenure for employees is 35 years, Fortner said. “When C&C started to mushroom (in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s) … some of the people who are here today in management were with C&C and have been ever since,” Fortner said. “(Cansler) took a core group of people that he had befriended in his life. Jimmy (Cansler) had the mechanical and engineering ability to igure the job out and he knew what had to be done to secure the work. They bought in and said, ‘We’re going to get the work done.’ “We’re fortunate,” he added. “It’s been a good core group of people.” Blake started with the company in 1976,
The company president also noted that the work is far less labor-intensive now than it once was thanks to advancements in technology and the company’s ability to change with the times. Among the largest projects the company has undertaken was moving Dotson Wheel Corporation in 1988 from Akron, Ohio, to Saltville, Virginia, Blake said. The project took about a year to complete and featured moving presses weighing 1.2 million pounds when fully assembled. The presses were for manufacturing of-road wheels for earth-moving equipment. It was the largest load ever permitted on the highway in the state of Virginia up until that time, SEE C&C ON PAGE 13
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The Greeneville Sun Salute To Industry Edition
Page 13
SUN PHOTO BY KRISTEN EARLY
C&C Millwright prepares the foundation and containment system for two new plating lines in an area previously used for warehousing and shipping operations at Jarden Zinc, where a $7.2 million expansion is underway. The containment floor is sloped to each side, requiring precision forming and concrete finishing.
SUN PHOTO BY KRISTEN EARLY
PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE SUN
This hyphenate 6,000-ton press is one of the items C&C Millwright has been tasked with moving over the years.
C&C Millwright provided skilled pipe fitters to install a new 4-inch back flow preventer, which is used to separate potable municipal water from process water at Jarden Zinc. This will increase the company’s process water capacity. At left is Jarden Zinc Senior Director of Engineering Michael Hopkins. At right is C&C Vice President Frank Blake.
C&C CONTINUED FROM PAGE 12
Blake said. Fortner described learning and adapting to advancing technology as a very “hands-on” process. “It’s not a formal process or educational process,” he said. “For the industries that we have worked with over the years, as that technology has come about, it’s been a partnership. We train with them most of the time for how to service (new equipment) and how to install it. Our supervisors have been willing to participate and learn over the years to be able to do that.” Cansler and Chapman began the business in a garage. Within six months, they were in a small and unimpressive location on Laurel Street with about 20 employees. They moved to their current Old Knoxville Highway location in 1980 and at their highest employment had 125 workers and on up to 250-300 with subcontractors. In the past, the company even took on international jobs, moving equipment to Europe, or traveling to Japan to survey equipment that would come to the United States. C&C has worked in every state other than Hawaii and Alaska. Today, nearly 80 percent of their work is regional (between Chattanooga and Bristol), while the remainder is in areas such as Atlanta, Georgia, Tupelo, Mississippi, and Portland, Oregon. The company today averages between 115 and 120 employees.
RECENT PROJECTS In the past year alone, the company has completed a number of projects across the region. In Morristown, it undertook a project for Meritor, rebuilding a 2,500-ton press, including rigging, electrical and piping. There was also a food processing plant in Morristown where C&C installed mixing and bagging equipment, including ribbing, mechanical and electrical services, for the plant’s expansion. At SumiRiko in Tazewell, C&C managed the 66,300 square-foot expansion of the manufacturing area to include electrical, mechanical and installation of equipment. Another plant expansion project took place at Miller Industries, where the 20,000 square-foot expansion included three ive-ton cranes, electrical and mechanical services. C&C managed the construction of a greenhouse project in Chuckey for Sundrop Farms, including civil and site work and construction of a site building. At Jarden Zinc, C&C is providing the foundation for a new plating line, which will include installation of equipment platforms, miscellaneous equipment and process piping. Another project that is currently underway is taking place at Praxair’s future Midway location, on the site of US Nitrogen, where C&C is providing site work, equipment foundations and underground piping and electrical. That’s all in addition to “equipment installations, expansions, piping and electrical for numerous industrial clients in the East Tennessee area and nationwide,” the company said.
SUN PHOTO BY KRISTEN EARLY
An annealing oven at Jarden Zinc Products is used to heat treat the full hard steel blanks that are used to supply foreign coin blank orders. C&C Millwright installed this oven in 2011 and will be installing another in June to support the company’s expansion.
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The Greeneville Sun Salute To Industry Edition
www.greenevillesun.com
Saturday, May 20, 2017
PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE SUN
This old, undated image of the Greeneville Machine and Iron Company building shows the word “hacks” bricked into the side of the building. A hack is a type of horse-drawn conveyance and was among products manufactured by the Lamons Wagon Company, which once operated in the building.
Greeneville Machine And Iron Works Has Deep Historical Roots BY CAMERON JUDD STAFF WRITER Willis Bowman goes to work each day in a building that, in his distinctive way of putting it, “reeks with history.” That the educator-turned-industrialist is going to work at all is remarkable. Bowman, with a shock of white hair, pleasant demeanor, straight stature, and keen memory, was born in November 1924. He will be 93 on his next birthday. And unless he decides to give himself the day of that particular Monday, he’ll probably head into work at Greeneville Machine and Iron Works as he has every work day for decades as owner and operator of the company. Bowman’s summary description of his business is simple: “We fabricate steel for buildings and bridges.” Because the GM&I product isn’t a sort that tends to have publicly visible labels, most people are probably unaware that they have almost certainly come into contact with a product of the company. Anyone who has walked up and down the light of stairs in the Town Square Shopping Center has traversed upon the very irst project done by Greeneville Machine and Iron, which started up in the 1960s after the Lamons Wagon Company closed up shop and sold the building. They’ve done plenty more projects since then, too, and still are. Anyone who has entered Bojangles’ restaurant and laid a hand on the steel rails used to guide customers to the right spot to order was almost certainly touching a product of GM&I. They’ve also generated steel used in construction of Chick-ill-a and Hardees restaurants. The Chickill-a in the Turkey Creek center in Knoxville was built using steel made at GM&I, for one example. Steel columns from GM&I are part of Fort Sanders Hospital, also in Knoxville. Metal on bridges of the Clinchield-Ohio Railroad had origin with the company. Over the years, the company has worked over and over again with contractors active in the region and around the country. Those relationships have turned into something much like a friendship or a family-like loyalty, Bowman said. That, in fact, is the main thing that keeps him working even as he edges ever closer to a century of life: loyalty to customers and to his employees.
THE EMPLOYEES There are not as many employees as there used to be. In the heyday of the Austin Company, for which GM&I supplied steel for warehouses and other buildings, some 25 or so workers would be laboring day-to-day at the company. Now there might be three or four people working on a given day. If the employees are fewer, they are yet loyal. Alvin Greer, for example, has been working with the Bowmans for nearly three decades, having started about the age of 18. He still likes his job. Greer’s co-worker, Harry Robinson, who once raised and sold
Willis Bowman stands in the rear area of the Greeneville Machine and Iron plant on West Irish Street. The building visible behind him dates to 1864 and once housed the Lamons Wagon Company.
and bosses, the Bowmans. James Jordan is one. Jordan worked at the company from the mid-1960s into the 1990s, doing whatever needed doing, including making product deliveries. Jordan didn’t end his work career at Greeneville Machine and Iron. He was at Formex at the time of his retirement. As he looked around the front oice of GM&I during a recent visit, however, he summed up his feelings about the place. “Right here’s my heart,” Jordan said.
WILLIS BOWMAN
SUN PHOTO BY CAMERON JUDD
Harry “Spider” Robinson, a longtime employee of Greeneville Machine and Iron, works in the back lot of the old building on West Irish Street.
spiders to scientiic researchers and has numerous spider tattoos as a memento of that old job, is another faithful employee. Although the Bowmans said he has suicient means to not have to work, he does so because he just can’t give it up. When they talk about Robinson at Greeneville Metal, they don’t usually call him Harry. Due to his tattoos, he almost always goes by Spider. When Bowman looks at his own faithfulness to a job many would have laid aside at a much younger
age, and the similar persistence of those such as Alvin Greer and Spider Robinson, Bowman’s analysis is simple: “This work just gets in your blood.” Even retirees can’t seem to get Greeneville Machine and Iron Works out of their blood. With the number of full-time employees at its all-time low, the business frequently uses the part-time services of retirees who don’t mind coming back in to help get a big job done. Others just come by to pass the time with their old friends
Bowman’s own past did not follow a direct or carefully mapped track into the career that has kept him busy into his 90s. He’d expected that he’d spend his career in education. He’s done some of that, and other things, too. The Camp Creek native, a son of Russell Bowman and Bessie Gosnell Bowman, has worked with B.F. Goodrich, been a coach, a teacher, and for three years, principal of Ottway School when it was a high school. Along the way, he married in 1959 his wife Barbara, who to this day is at Bowman’s side as he comes to work with no specific plans regarding retirement. Barbara works the front oice and usually is the voice answering the phone. Their daughter, Cindy Bowman, is paralleling the school principal part of her father’s career. She is principal of South Greene High School.
BUILDING’S HISTORY Willis Bowman’s current workplace is one of those places many has seen but perhaps noticed only minimally. Located at 600 West Irish Street, near the railroad tracks passing through that inter-
section, the building is eye-catching only to those who appreciate older architecture and buildings that seem to nudge and whisper: “I have a story.” And this one does. Much like Bowman himself, the building is older than it appears, and was historic long before it became the iron/steel fabrication company it is now. That preceding part of the Greeneville Machine and Iron Works story belongs to an older manufacturer and business-builder, W.A. Lamons. Lamons established Lamons Wagon Company in 1868, manufacturing farm wagons. His headquarters is the same building now housing Greeneville Machine and Iron, and his showroom was the front room of the building that now is an employee lounge. At the time Lamons set up his company near the railroad tracks, the building was already four years old. It had been erected in 1864 and built with bricks made on-site, Bowman said. An interesting footnote to the story that Bowman likes to mention is how the Lamons company helped pioneer the concept of the school bus. Lamons in 1916 received a state contract to provide transportation for rural school children. It was called “The Tennessee School Wagon.” A shadow of the Lamons company remains on one of the outer walls of the GM&I building. On the side of the building facing West Irish Street, high up, is the name Lamons, and below, in much larger letters, the word “hacks,” a particular type of horse-drawn conveyances. Lamons manufactured and sold them along with their wagons. And thanks to the fact that Greeneville Machine and Iron has maintained the former Lamons building much as it was, those hacks are still being advertised more than a century or more past their day.
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Saturday, May 20, 2017
The Greeneville Sun Salute To Industry Edition
Page 15
PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE SUN
Sparks fly as students learn to weld in James Knight’s course at the Walters State Community College Workforce Training and Advanced Manufacturing Facility.
Industries Look To WSCC To Troubleshoot Workforce Needs BY SARAH R. GREGORY STAFF WRITER When area industries need help equipping employees with new skills or remedying issues, Walters State Community College’s Division of Workforce Training is ready to step in and troubleshoot. The division ofers area businesses a variety of solutions in its open enrollment courses, assessment services, workforce training programs and other initiatives. After moving from the Asheville Highway to the West Andrew Johnson Highway last fall, the college’s Welding and Advanced Manufacturing facility continues to serve as a hub of activity for workers looking to learn new practical and soft skills and companies seeking customized corporate training programs and other workforce solutions.
CUSTOMIZED CORPORATE TRAINING “We want to be the solution provider for industries,” said Dr. Anita Ricker, assistant dean of the division, during a recent interview. “We always want a face-to-face visit with them to say, ‘What kind of problems are you having? What keeps you up at night? What would this student look like when they come out of the program if we are 100 percent successful?’ Then we start to see the needs to plug in.” About 80 percent of the division’s work is company-speciic, with non-traditional adult learners and returning students making up the remainder. Roughly 2,500 students are taking non-credit courses at the site yearly. For many of those learners, corporate tuition or tuition reimbursements from the employer allow workers to gain the skills needed for job upgrades or new or expanded technologies. Companies are noticing the diference after workers are trained at the WSCC facility, Ricker said. “One company said, ‘We’re now getting people in the door that used to take us six months to get them to that level.’ They hire them and they go through an orientation here,” she said. “They’ve measured it and they’ve kept doing it for two years now. They’re saying, ‘There is no question — this works for us.’” Success stories like that are common from industries throughout Greene and the surrounding counties that WSCC serves. “They’re measuring hours. They’re measuring down time. They are looking for a return on their investment,” Ricker said. “The good news is, they’re coming back to us year
SUN PHOTO BY SARAH R. GREGORY
Welding Education and Training Director James Knight shows how to inspect a student’s weld at the Walters State Community College Workforce Training facility on the West Andrew Johnson Highway.
after year.” Companies are also using the division to train and assess employee safety. “We have a new safety assessment and we do a lot of assessment training for pre-employment or post-employment,” Ricker said. “It looks at how safe the individual is on the manufacturing loor, and there’s also a new driver safety assessment to tell if you are a distract-able driver.”
BOOSTING SOFT SKILLS While many students that go through the WSCC Division of Workforce Training are looking to pick up technical skills like welding, working with programmable logic controllers and other skills needed for industrial maintenance, programs at the facility that focus on soft skills are continually growing in popularity. The division ofers three
lines of supervisory skills programs, Supervisor Toolkit, STAR — Strategies, Tactics, Actions, Results — Leadership and Vital Learning, which is new in the last year. Supervisor Toolkit is a popular ofering that lets individuals in supervisory roles learn how to efectively communicate and lead, Ricker said. “It has been very popular this year. It’s usually three, six-hour days of training — a total of 18 to 20
hours of training — that’s really good for front-line supervisors,” she said. “It’s good at looking at communication and things you can do and can’t do as a supervisor.” The new Vital Learning program has 12 diferent modules that start with the essentials of communication and leadership and continue along additional tracks. Apps and other support tools continue to reinforce those skills after the course is over.
STAR Leadership, a program ofered by WSCC for 10 years, helps employees learn to help their companies reduce their expenses or increase their revenues. “It involves anything from communication to human capital to business inancials and involves a inal project where students are asked to almost serve as an internal consultant to the company,” Ricker explained. “They stand before corporate leadership and say, ‘These are our indings. This is what we recommend.’” Some of the success stories of the STAR Leadership program have had signiicant impacts on industries’ bottom lines, Ricker added. “Over the 10 years we’ve been doing it, our most successful was a company in Morristown. They identiied a $90 million new revenue stream,” she said. “They conservatively came in and said, ‘We think we can get $30 million of it next year,’ and they did it. They’ve done four groups with STAR Leadership and are seeing either reduced expenses or increased revenues as part of that.”
EXPANDED FACILITIES In October 2016, the facility moved from the Asheville Highway site where it’d launched in 2015 to a new accommodation on the West Andrew Johnson Highway near the Mt. SEE WSCC ON PAGE 16
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WSCC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15
Pleasant Industrial Park. Both sites were provided by Jerry Fortner and Jimmy Cansler of J&J Warehousing, but the move was required when the Asheville Highway location was sold for construction of a fast food restaurant. “We deinitely have to say thank you to Jerry Fortner, Jimmy Cansler and J&J Warehousing� for continuing to house the facility and handling the move, Ricker said. “We had classes over there on a Thursday and we had classes here the next Tuesday. My staf did not work that weekend, but theirs did. They moved all the boxes and equipment and we unpacked and put them into place. It was pretty much show up on Friday morning, tear it all apart and bring it over here.� Though 10 truckloads of heavy equipment like welding stations, a plasma cutting table and several PLC training modules is no easy task to move, ultimately, the change has worked to the division’s beneit, Ricker said. “I think it gives us room for program expansion, and this facility is more
contained. It’s not as noisy,� she said, explaining that the previous location’s classroom had to contend with road noise from the Asheville Highway and sirens from a nearby EMS substation. “This is much better. It’s much more eicient, with much more space, laid out much better,� she said.
SUCCESS IN TECHNICAL TRAINING As it was at the Asheville Highway facility, much of the division’s space in its new West Andrew Johnson Highway location is dedicated to WSCC’s welding programs. Instructor James Knight, a Greene County native and experienced welder and certiied welding inspector, has been leading that program since January and recording strong successes in a 100 percent class pass rate and expected 100 percent exam pass rate. The facility has been preparing for renewal as an Authorized Training Facility, with a planned shop loor audit from the American Welding Society. The division ofers testing for AWS certiication and was the irst ATF at a college in Tennessee. The program led by
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Knight has the capability of teaching any type of welding, though most students seek training and certiication in various types of MIG, or metal inert gas, welding processes, as used by many area industries. “We have the capability to give any type of a welding test,� Knight said. “If a person of the street wants a welding test, we can customize to their needs. If a company needed ive guys to come in and get a certiication on structural steel welding, we could do that and we can teach pipe welding classes and certiications on that as well. We have a lot of capabilities.� Other equipment in the shop Knight maintains helps workers get accustomed to automated processes, like using a plasma cutting table. Enrollment in that program has been steady and the industrial maintenance program is growing as well, with students coming not only from Greene County, but also nearby Cocke, Hawkins, Hamblen, Washington and Sevier counties, Ricker said. “In growth and revenue, we are up this year,� she said. “We’re getting good feedback and growing interest in new and existing programs.�
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SUN PHOTO BY SARAH R. GREGORY
Dr. Anita Ricker, assistant dean of the Walters State Community College Division of Workforce Training, shows how a programmable logic controller training module works.
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After operating on the Asheville Highway since January 2015, the Walters State Community College Workforce Training and Advanced Manufacturing Facility moved to the West Andrew Johnson Highway, near Mt. Pleasant Industrial Park, in October 2016.
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PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE SUN
Instructor Elliott GeFellers works with students, from left, Dakota Malone, David Burgner and Ian Kilday in his Machine Tool Technology class at Greene Technology Center.
Greene Technology Center Building A Skilled Workforce BY SARAH R. GREGORY STAFF WRITER Much like a relay race, there will be no slowing down with the passing of the baton at the Greene Technology Center. The center has found its new principal by looking to longtime assistant principal Randy Wells to take over for Jerry Ayers, who retired earlier this year after leading GTC for nearly a decade. GTC, on Hal Henard Road, ofers career-technical education programs in a variety of areas, like automotive service and repair, computer science, cosmetology, electricity, machine tool technology, health sciences, pre-engineering, robotics, welding and more. Wells has set what he admits are aggressive goals for the 201718 school year. His plans call for all GTC programs to lead students toward some type of career certiication and to continue emphasizing partnerships with area industries that can help students land jobs right after — and sometimes before — graduation. PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE SUN
SEE GTC ON PAGE 18
Instructor Brad Gentry, center, works with students in his pre-engineering class to build a solar-powered go cart at the Greene Technology Center.
SUN FILE PHOTO BY LORELEI GOFF
Greene Technology Center Principal Randy Wells has set aggressive goals for his first year as the school’s top administrator. Wells, a 25-year veteran of the center, was selected to succeed Jerry Ayers as principal following Ayers’ retirement earlier this year.
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PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE SUN
Michaelah Shelton works on a robot in pre-engineering class at the Greene Technology Center.
GTC CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17
It’s an approach the center’s administration hopes will not only continue attracting students, but help build the type of capable workforce that will attract more industries and improve the local economy. “The main thing I want to do is connect students with those industries,” Wells said in a recent interview at the center. “One of my main areas of focus is to increase the number of student certiications we have. That will improve our level of instruction and encourage students to challenge themselves. It’ll make certain that we provide the equipment and staf development needed to reach those certiications. We’re setting some lofty goals.”
SEEKING CERTIFICATIONS Already, certifications are available to students in many of GTC’s career-technical programs. Certified Nursing Assistant credentials can be obtained by students taking advantage of the center’s health science offerings and CompTIA A+ and PC Pro certifications from the networking systems program are also popular, as are Automotive Service Excellence certifications from the automotive collision repair, maintenance and light repair programs. Though many GTC programs can lead to certification, not all do, and students aren’t necessarily required to sit for the exams that lead to credentials. In the next year, Wells hopes to change that. “It’s easy to talk about student certifications, but it’s very difficult to actually pull that off,” he said. “Certifications are not intended for high schoolers, they’re usually for industry, after someone gets a job. We’re trying to adapt, make changes and get a foot in the door with industries. Just because it’s difficult, that’s no reason not to do it or try it.” So far, the effort to get high school-aged kids certified has been most successful in GTC’s health science programs, Wells said. “In the past, certification in courses has been optional. In our CNA class, it has been understood that students would sit for the exam,” he said. “We want to build that in each program, with the possible exception of criminal justice.” That’s because it’s unclear what type of certi-
PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE SUN
PHOTO SPECIAL TO THE SUN
Sparks fly as students learn to weld at the Greene Technology Center.
Student Nick Foster works on a training module in the Industrial Electricity course at Greene Technology Center.
fication could be made available through the criminal justice program, Wells explained. However, he added that certification as an unarmed security guard is a possibility being explored for that offering. Overall, the greatest obstacle the center faces in reaching its certification goal is cost. “Tests vary in costs. Some are quite expensive — some are $100, some are $200 up to $500,” Wells said. “Students are paying that cost now.” GTC has applied for $12,000 in federal Carl Perkins Reserve Grant funds to cover exam costs — dollars that could remove cost barriers for kids looking to get certified and go into the workforce. “Everyone needs a skill. They need to be able to do something. Graduating high school, I didn’t know what I wanted to do,” Wells said, adding that he ultimately decided to take machine tool classes at an area community college and worked 10 years for Philips Consumer Electronics before deciding to return to school and get licensed as an educator. “The (machine tool) degree was a terminal degree, but it gave me a success I was able to build on. That’s what we want to do — get these kids into some sort of program where they can have some sort of success,” he said. “They can get a steady job and have better wages than the jobs available to unskilled people.” Part of the effort to increase those opportunities
open to GTC students who complete CNA licensure without waiting. The school has also been in talks with officials at Walters State Community College regarding an articulation agreement that would build a pipeline for GTC Culinary Arts students to enter WSCC’s college-level program, hosted on its Sevier County campus. “There’s going to be a lot. This is going to be a busy year coming up,” Wells reiterated. “This is pretty aggressive, but if we don’t try, we’re never going to. We’ve never had a focus like we’re getting ready to push this year.”
for students is to continue building partnerships with postsecondary institutions, Wells said. “I want to also pursue more dual enrollment opportunities with the Tennessee College of Applied Technology. Many of our programs articulate perfectly with TCAT,” he said. Already, GTC has partnered with TCAT Morristown to serve as a satellite center for welding, machine tool technology and cosmetology postsecondary programs. A TCAT Licensed Practical Nurse program, available at Laughlin Memorial Hospital, is also
CONNECTING TO INDUSTRY Another key focus for the next year will be connecting students with industries, Wells said. In fall 2016, a nearly $1 million Labor Education Alignment Program state grant was awarded to a partnership that includes TCAT Morristown, GTC, Greeneville City and Greene County schools and school districts in Cocke, Grainger, Hamblen, Hawkins and Sevier counties. In addition to funding for technical training programs, the grant addresses work ethics, the National Career Readiness
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Certification and summer internships — initiatives Wells is eager to get GTC students involved with. “We are implementing the LEAP Grant fully with the WorkKeys assessment,” Wells said. That job skills assessment system, devised by ACT, measures foundational and soft skills. It leads to the NCRC, which surveys students’ skills in areas deemed critical for employability. NCRC is awarded at four levels — bronze, silver, gold and platinum — to indicate the percentage of occupations each individual holds the necessary skills to succeed in. Ultimately, the school systems and GTC may end up taking part in a larger overall initiative, called ACT Work Ready Communities, to provide actionable data and specific goals about and for the workforce in an effort to advance economic growth. “I think that’s important to the community. If we’re going to start recruiting industries using those career readiness certificates, we need to get as many people with one of those in their hands as we can,” Wells said. “We want to increase our students’ connection to industry.” The reason? Returning to the community’s roots. “I’ve seen students graduate high school who I know are bright kids, but they don’t go on doing anything after school. They go on not doing anything for years,” Wells said. “This is a work ethic community. We’ve always been hard working. We want to showcase what we can be. We can be a hard working community.”
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Page 19
SUN PHOTO BY CAMERON JUDD
The multi-paneled sign at the Chasan Industrial Complex shows names of tenant businesses located in the former Magnavox facility on Snapps Ferry Road, as well as telling the basic business functions that take place in the sprawling building: warehousing, logistics and property leasing.
Chasan Builds Upon Community Connections BY CAMERON JUDD STAFF WRITER When Ricky Shepherd talks about his work, one word repeatedly comes up. Connections. Shepherd, to whom in large measure fell the task of re-purposing a building that was foundational to the inancial and family lives of thousands of Greene Countians for decades, has relied on connections to make it happen. Marlin White, the still-new vice president of operations at the Chasan Industrial Complex in the former Magnavox Plant 3 building at 1915 Snapps Ferry Road, put it this way in a recent interview: “Every tenant here has a personal story that Ricky can tell you. I’m not kidding. Every tenant.” Ricky Shepherd, 55, is facilities manager at Chasan, which is headquartered in the huge facility that was home to Magnavox for years. Shepherd has worked at that building for nearly 40 years now, and knows it like an old friend. He went to work in that building fresh out of West Greene High School while he was still in his teens. Thousands of others in the Greene County area also know it well. At its height in the 1980s, more than 4,000 people held jobs there, putting out about 14,000 televisions a day, their cars illing the big parking lot end to end. Shepherd was there during the peak years, and there during the decline that brought Greeneville’s Magnavox era to an end. In one way, though, that era has not ended. To this day, Shepherd said, he
Sandra. It is pronounced like “chase-ann.” When he is talking about the complex to market it, Shepherd said, he almost always calls it “the Chasan Industrial Complex in the former Magnavox building,” which identiies the location to anyone familiar with Greeneville. After several years of trying to see the building used as a single-tenant facility, as it had been in the Magnavox period, White and Shepherd conferred and decided to turn it into a multi-tenant facility. It had proven too diicult to ind and keep a single tenant in need of such a large complex. They reasoned that it might be more efective to lease out portions of the building to a variety of long-term tenants. One of the best marketing tools Chasan has found so far, according to Marlin White, is a very old-school SUN PHOTO BY CAMERON JUDD one: the sign out front. Marlin White, Ricky Shepherd and Daby Dye, left to right, are Standing on a bank facing among a handful of people directly employed by Chasan who Snapps Ferry Road, the sign work in the former Magnavox building. Employees of tenant shows the Chasan name and firms in the complex, though, total roughly 500. lists current tenants. White and Shepherd said they have been quite cannot visit some busy local to market them. happy with the tenants they place without being buttonThe building has gone have, and have been willing through transitions of holed by former Magnavox name and function since its to physically restructure personnel who want to chat with him about the old days. peak years, but one thing, Shepherd said, has been He doesn’t mind it, he said, constant: the lingering Magbut when he’s pushed for time he’ll sometimes slip navox identity. in and out of a back door at “It didn’t matter if the Wal-Mart so he can keep sign said Taylor-White, or moving. Five Rivers, or North AmerKnowing that personal ican Philips, or Philips, connection that so many it was still the Magnavox locals have with the old building to people in East Magnavox facilities is Tennessee,” Shepherd said. something that guided Today, the name on the Shepherd’s thinking when, sign says Chasan Industrial post-Magnavox, he worked Complex, a name derived with industrialist Charles from combining the initial White to ind a way to bring part of Charles White’s irst new life to the facilities, and name with that of his wife,
parts of the interior to meet tenant needs. Lease contracts are longterm. “This isn’t going to go away anytime in the next two or three or ive years,” Shepherd said. Though Chasan LLC has only a handful of employees, the companies that lease space bring in about 500 workers a day to the historic old building and a few smaller Chasan businesses elsewhere in Greeneville. The main Chasan building encompasses 1.1 million square feet of under-roof space. With the smaller outlying Chasan companies added in, the under-roof square footage rises to about 1.5 million. “We’ve got 23 acres under roof right here,” Shepherd said. That amount of leasable space compares closely to what is available at the Mt. Pleasant Industrial Park, he noted. Word-of-mouth and networking has been the primary marketing tool, said Shepherd, who takes pleasure in seeing people involved in Chasan whom he has known almost all his life. Some of them are old WGHS classmates.
“The connections mean everything,” he said. “Our growth is all about connections.” “It’s been fun to see this place re-purposed from the TV business to what it is today. Manufacturing, oices, warehouses, logistics … all of that happens here,” Shepherd said. “People used to say this thing was just going to sit here and fall in and all that, so it’s been pleasing to me to see all that has happened.” White is also happy with Chasan. When he was announced just weeks back as the new VP of operations, he said: “Our team here is great and things run very smoothly. Since we are near capacity, a lot of what my time will be spent on will be looking for opportunities to growth and expanding the business. “We have experienced incredible growth over the last three-plus years, and I’m very fortunate to be joining a company that is as strong, healthy and in such a growth position as Chasan is. I learned very quickly after coming on board that Chasan has a true ‘can-do’ attitude here when it comes to our customers, both existing and potential.”
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Though the parking lot outside the former Magnavox location is much more empty than it was during the heyday of the television manufacturer, hundreds come to work each day at the facility.
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