< PreviousClearly, this strategy has paid off because the company is rapidly expanding. Last year, the firm had 170 employees. Today, FMI is “hovering around 190, with an expectation to be well over 230 by the end of the year.” All of this explosive growth is taking place during its fiftieth anniversary. As Miklos notes, “The single biggest challenge for us is finding talent. Not a lot of people know about the FMI story and the great things we do here. We’ve made talent management a core part of our strategy and it’s critical that we develop a culture that fosters innovation and encourages collaboration.” The company attends jobs fairs, has partnered with military veteran non-profit groups and “talks to vocational schools both at the high school level and the college level, to create partnerships and programs so we can grab these students before they graduate or have graduated but may not neces-sarily have a career plan. We want to create awareness for FMI so that students know that we exist and want to come work for us. That’s a big effort for us right now. We’re also really focused on the digital and social media side to create that awareness,” explains Marketing Communications Manager Kate Whitney. The company hosts a website and has a presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube. There are some significant benefits to joining FMI. In addition to “having the honor of supporting our nation, both for science missions and national defense,” employees can expect steady and rewarding work for a long time to come, says Miklos. Some of the programs on which the company works have thirty-year lifespans or longer, he points out. “We’ve set an objective to significantly increase the aware-ness of FMI both within the immediate area and even outside the State of Maine. Kate is working on expanding the pool of talent outside the immediate area. A lot of people don’t know how great the quality of life is in southern Maine. Biddeford is a coastal town in close proximity to the mountains and the ocean, and there are major cities within a couple hours’ drive. So it’s a pretty great place to live,” he says. “FMI has allowed me to diversify my skill set as an engineer and as a professional. It requires that I be creative and use the spectrum of my educational background. I am someone who enjoys hands-on experiences, and this company encourages its employees to be directly involved in the manufacturing of our products,” says Project Engineer Taylor Franklin.“I enjoy working for FMI because it is a Maine-based company. I like the idea that I’m helping bring business to my state and my community through work that is interesting and meaning-ful,” echoes Continuous Improvement Specialist Lynne Cooney.“Because we’re a fairly unique manufacturer, we don’t typically require our candidates to have industry experience,” says Miklos. “We very much focus on identifying talent, strong work ethic, somebody that has a focus on safety, and – the biggest thing – somebody that is willing to come into an organization and have the willingness and the desire to grow with the company. We spend a lot of time developing a culture that fosters career growth. We often promote individuals through the ranks, so there is opportunity, and we look for people who want to take advantage of that,” he says.“The company has been actively developing new materials, including ‘a ceramic matrix composite that acts as a structural insulator.’”MAY 201920“We’ve had significant growth driven by our customers’ need for higher performing materials,” he states. To a large extent, what customers are demanding are materials to perform in “extreme environments not previously served by any other materials,” for aerospace and defense applications, he adds. The company buys raw materials from suppliers then processes and customizes it. It has been actively developing new materi-als, including “a ceramic matrix composite that acts as a struc-tural insulator. This is a carbon-carbon silicon carbide material,” Miklos says.This new material is high-strength and highly-temperature resistant with “very strong thermal insulating properties,” he continues. “This allows our customers to design products in a much smaller footprint, saving space and weight. You can imagine what that means in the aerospace and defense appli-cations. That’s been a significant material development for us.”The company is also working on a new material, expected to be ready this year, “that exceeds the strength of titanium, but with half the weight,” adds Miklos. This is part of the industry-wide trend towards ‘lightweighting’ which underpins much of FMI’s work. The goal is to make airplanes, cars and other vehicles out of light but strong and durable materials to lower fuel costs and meet fuel-efficiency standards. Its enhanced marketing efforts are aimed in part at boosting the company’s name and reputation among young people looking for a good job. The company also continues to receive kudos from industry groups. The Maine International Trade Center (MITC) recently presented the firm with its innovator of the year award for 2018. The award was one of several that MITC handed to Maine firms “for their commitment to growing international markets,” reported an April 3, 2018 article in the Portland Press Herald. Over the next few years, FMI plans to expand its already impres-sive machining capabilities. “We’ve spent a significant amount of time developing our capabilities around advanced precision machining, particularly around ceramics,” says Miklos.The company’s many capabilities have played a role in its long-standing relationship with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). “Our team is excited about being part of the new Mars 2020 mission. [The new Mars rover] should be landing on the Mars surface in 2021. NASA is part of FMI’s DNA. We are a strategic supplier of thermal protection systems and high-temperature materials. We fully expect to support NASA missions for a long time,” he states. “With our 50th anniversary this year we reflect on how we’ve supported major technological developments over the past fifty years, for the DoD [Department of Defense] and NASA. We now look forward to another 50 years of equally important innovation,” notes Miklos.Among other programs, FMI has worked on the heat shield for NASA’s Stardust mission, in which a robotic probe was launched into space in 1999 to collect comet particles. It also worked on a heat shield for a Mars rover space vehicle that travelled to the ‘Red Planet’ in 2012, a heat shield for a new Mars rover, and the Orion spacecraft, which will eventually take astronauts near Mars. The company has also provided materials for the military which have gone into nose tips for U.S. Navy missiles, among other strategic weapons. Products that use company materials and composites have to endure some of the most brutal conditions imaginable. A heat shield on a space vehicle, for example, will face temperatures in more than one thousand degrees Fahrenheit. A heat shield failure might mean the destruction of the spacecraft and the death of any humans inside it. Given this emphasis on aerospace and defense, it is no surprise that the company believes the sky is the limit when it comes to future growth. Within five years, Miklos anticipates that FMI will “need to continue to hire at the current rate, adding over one hundred additional employees in the next few years.” A desire to continually improve materials and composites “is going to drive the next fifty to eighty years of technology within high-temperature composites, particularly around thermal protection systems in aerospace and defense appli-cations,” he says. A new wave of long-term projects is on the horizon for FMI. “Our team is excited about being part of the new Mars 2020 mission.”21JN White™ is a manufacturer of labels, graphic overlays and complex membrane switch or user interface assemblies. Always up to the challenge, the company’s dedication and determination to provide its customers with a positive experience from beginning to end has earned JN White™ a reputation for finding and delivering effortless solutions.MAY 201922Written by Charline Cormier-PellerinJN White™ has come a long way from its humble beginnings in 1960, when it was founded by the late James Neel (“JN”) White. “He was a graphic artist in the screen printing business of a worldwide manufacturer of athletic clothing,” explains Ken Boss, Vice-President of Sales and Marketing for JN White™. “Because he was a graphic artist for them he became very familiar with the screen printing process and the products that it could yield.”23MANUFACTURING IN FOCUS Boss explains that, “He was also an on-the-road salesperson for a label and tag company. While he was out on the road, meeting and greeting his customers, he saw a need for higher quality screen printed labels,” he says. “So, he started JN White™ in a bedroom of his home, and began screen printing labels for the industrial marketplace.”Today, with a second generation at the helm – Randy White, President and CEO – and a third generation involved with the company as well, JN White™ is proud of its journey to diversifi-cation. “In 2000, as we were trying to break through a $5 million plateau,” says Boss. “We realized that we needed to expand, not only our product offering but mostly what were labels and graphic overlays at that time. Our regional presence – as we were very much a regional company – was doing business within a 200-mile radius of our manufacturing plant. So, with full-blown marketing and research, and the development of a sales and marketing plan, we started to expand both our capa-bilities and our sales presence across the United States and that really lead to a diversification in our manufacturing capabilities as well as our portfolio of offerings. This really started to drive us more toward the membrane switch, and then ultimately, to more complex user interfaces,” he explains.The company has enjoyed many significant milestones over the last two years including: revenue growth, customer acqui-sition and marketing investments. “In 2017, we surpassed our corporate goal in terms of sales revenue and in 2018, we grew that by close to 15 percent,” says Boss. “Last year, we acquired more new customers than in any other year, and we’ve put a large amount of effort into our entire marketing program to feed our top line revenue growth.”One of the aspects that sets JN White™ apart from its competi-tion is its dedication to giving customers the very best experi-ence, and the company is very pleased with its ability to satisfy its customers’ needs. JN White™ focuses on customer service; it has raised its customer net promoter score to be higher than many companies known for service orientation. “We’re very proud of that and it’s clearly a differentiator,” says Boss.“JN White™ also has specific marketing strategies, goals and programs to communicate with prospects and customers across the board,” says Boss. “We’re constantly focused on those initia-tives and driving them forward to enhance that customer experi-ence at the ‘effortless’ level, and we’re seeing results in a very sat-isfied response. They have been very effective programs for us.” JN White’s™ expertise is dedicated to helping its customers find solutions. “Our graphic arts and membrane switch teams work in collaboration to design and develop solutions for any customer specification. We stay on the cutting edge of tech-nology in relation to both the products we manufacture and the design work we do,” says Boss. MAY 201924 If JN White’s™ customer experience program could only be described with one word, that word would be: effortless. “Our C.E.V. (customer experience vision) is to provide an effortless experience to our customers at all levels,” says Boss. “We monitor it through customer satisfaction surveys, through our customer service team, and through our outside sales team. It’s a constant focus that is talked about enterprise-wide on a regular basis.”JN White’s™ ethical principles and standards have earned the company the respect of both its customers and employees. “These principles guide the decisions we make on a daily basis,” says Boss, who has been with the company for 31 years. “And to be quite honest, the solutions we provide our customers and the feedback we get from them is very rewarding.” To be sure, JN White’s™ future is looking bright with additional plans for investment and growth. “We’re here, and we’re capable; we’ll make your experience a positive one,” says Boss. “Positive and effortless – whether that means design recommendations, or how we provide daily updates on the information you need – however you define effortless, we’ll work to provide it.”“We can design and develop a solution to almost any customer-specified difficulty.”U.S. Corrugated is a packaging giant that is taking cardboard packaging and corrugated sheeting from frumpy and ex-pensive into the next generation. The company’s attention to detail, customer service and brand new, high-end digital printers have set the packaging market alight with great quality imaging and even better savings.Written by Pauline MüllerHeadquartered in Washington, Pennsylvania, U.S. Corrugated manufactures point-of-purchase displays, industrial cardboard boxes used in the food and beverage industries, and specialized packaging inserts. The com-pany’s international footprint stretches all the way to Mexico with two affiliates here representing a sheet and foam plant respectively, and another fresh acquisition that is waiting to be added to its well-established facilities portfolio. Then there is its super plant in Santa Fe Springs, California, as well as a sheet plant MAY 201926Written by Pauline Müllercustomer-centric. “We care about our customers. We want to help them to do as well as they can in their businesses by providing them with top quality corrugated packaging at the best price possible,” says David Ortiz, Executive Vice President of Sales and Marketing. Although good relationships are the mainstay of this business, the company is very proud of its next-generation tech-nology. “We could print 20,000 boxes and not a single person will touch even one of those – from the beginning of the in Cerritos, California, that does small to medium runs and houses one of its digital printing operations. In addition, the East Coast is home to yet another of the com-pany’s super plants based in Covington, Georgia, while a display affiliate operates from Tullahoma, Tennessee, and still another corrugated sheet plant is situated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Unlike a lot of other operators in the field that are often mainly focused on systems and machinery, U.S. Corrugated prides itself on being decidedly fabrication process all the way to where it is loaded onto the truck. Everything is automated and we use a lot of robotics,” says David. Apart from the classic brown, corrugat-ed cardboard boxes that we all know, U.S. Corrugated has invested heavily in digital technology, and owns multiple sheet bed digital presses. These presses are printers that allow the company to extend to its clients two large benefits: speed and quality printing. That is because firstly, it is fast. These machines 27MANUFACTURING IN FOCUS One of these high-tech presses can be found at the compa-ny’s facility in Tennessee, another in California, and its Mexican facility will soon be the third facility to be outfitted with this equipment. Additional presses may be added to possible Dallas and Indiana facilities in the near future. “No one else in the U.S. has these presses,” shares David. “Our goal is to have five digital printers supporting the high graphics market. This is something that is new to the industry and as such, we consider ourselves early adopters of new technology. So far, it has been a splendid success and our customers absolutely love it.”One of the greatest aspects of working with U.S. Corrugated is that customers have only one point of contact thanks to a dedicated account executive who takes care of all printing runs on their behalf, no matter how many facilities a client may have. Even companies who have deliveries in multiple U.S. states and in Mexico only have to deal with one account executive at U.S. Corrugated. “Our goal is to have five digital printers supporting the high graphics market. This is something that is new to the industry and as such, we consider ourselves early adopters of new technology.”can print a limitless number of images straight onto cardboard within a fraction of traditional lead times. Secondly, these machines print high definition images as they appear on the computer screen without distortion or pixelation. “These machines turn lead times from months into days and the quality is on par with offset lithographic printing, only at a much-reduced cost as there is much less waste and no setup costs,” explains David. With lithographic printing, images are transferred from metal plates onto rubber rollers and onto a substrate, whereas the printers allow images to be printed straight from the computer file onto cardboard surfaces. This new digital printing method also allows for quick design changes as there is no setup process. This means that packaging can now be highly customized – no matter the size of the printing run. For instance, instead of having to pay additional setup and tooling costs to print the same box in three different languages, getting another design or new copy onto the printing line is as easy as selecting a new image and clicking ‘print.’MAY 201928 Next >