Worzalla, an employee-owned book printer specializing in printing high-quality children’s books, cookbooks, and hard-cover bestsellers, is donating 300 books to Books from the Heart and invites community members to make additional book donations now through February 10. This community-based book drive, in its 25th year, aims to provide every child in kindergarten through second grade in the Stevens Point area a book for Valentine’s Day.
“As active members of the Central Wisconsin community, Worzalla associates see the importance of celebrating reading. The titles we are donating to Books from the Heart are meant to inspire young people to see the world from another perspective,” said Kendra Robinson, HR Program Coordinator at Worzalla.
Worzalla is donating 100 books for each grade level: kindergarten, first grade and second grade. Titles include popular children’s books the book printer manufacturers at its headquarters in Stevens Point Wisconsin like a variety of “National Geographic Kids Readers”, “Step Into Reading” series, “Who Was” series and “Where the Wild Things Are”. Books from the Heart is organized by Sally Crane, Reading Teacher at J.F. Kennedy Elementary School in Junction City and is sponsored by the Stevens Point Area Educators.
“Books from the Heart and Worzalla both share the belief that books have the power to bring joy, comfort, and hope to those who need it most,” said Sally Crane, Reading Teacher, and Books From the Heart Coordinator. “We hope to make a positive impact on students’ love and enjoyment of reading by providing them with access to books that enrich their minds and spirits.”
Community members can donate to this year’s book drive by dropping off kindergarten through second grade reading level books now through Feb. 10 at J.F. Kennedy Elementary School, 616 West Second Street, Junction City, WI, made out to “Books from the Heart” c/o Sally Crane.
About Worzalla
Worzalla is an employee-owned printing company headquartered in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. Founded in 1892, Worzalla has over 130 years of experience in creating high-quality custom products for its customers. Worzalla specializes in the production of cookbooks, children’s and lifestyle books, and is dedicated to exceeding expectations for quality, service, and delivery. From small to large publishers, Worzalla is the printer the industry turns to for manufacturing high profile projects and award-winning books. With numerous industry awards for safety and workplace culture, Worzalla is consistently ranked as one of the top places to work in central Wisconsin. For more information, visit www.worzalla.com.
Media Contacts:
Erica Fetherston 10 to 1 Public Relations erica@10to1pr.com 480-676-9141
Brianne Petruzalek Worzalla Vice President of Human Resources 715-254-9717
We are excited to unveil our new $8 million investment in a second Western Container manufacturing facility in Janesville, WI.
In total we’ll be employing 15-25 at our opening.
We’ll continue to manufacture our existing product groups, at our Beloit facility, as well as additional capacity and specialization in high strength film cores at the new location. Two new cutting edge manufacturing lines, specializing in film core manufacturing with new fully automatic palletization capabilities, will be producing our quality products.
The new Janesville facility will have a total of 8 shipping docks to accommodate product distribution and material flow.
We are looking forward to opening in Fall of 2021.
SPL Consulting, LLC. was introduced to a prospect in late 2019. A salesperson I worked with previously had joined them and saw tremendous issues with leadership focus and performance that were holding them back on sales growth. We had an initial meeting where one of the owners said let’s go and how soon can you start. After that meeting the process stalled and met silence on follow up for the next month or so.
Ultimately, there was resistance to bringing SPL on by one of the owners. They had hired consultants in the past with no improvement. Their salesperson continued to champion bringing me on as he had seen the transformation created through my leadership firsthand. Eventually one of the owners said we’re bringing him on and the other acquiesced and our journey began.
Over the next four months, we conducted a number of Kaizens, created their first Strategic Plan and made significant changes to the Organizational Structure of the leadership team roles and responsibilities. SPL recognized the leadership potential of one of their mid-level managers and recommended a change. His promotion from Quality Manager and Head of Estimating to the Director of Operations was foundational for things to come. These and other focused actions generated thousands of hours of capacity in numerous departments. By following SPL’s guidance on how to effectively lead to ensure sustainment of results they recognized the fruits of their labor.
While on-site for another event, the owner said “I think something is wrong with our financials because our previous quarter net income is four times higher than any quarter in history. That can’t be right.” We sat down and in reviewing the numbers, showed how the hours we generated directly correlated to the reduction in labor as % of sales, lower waste and increased profits. Needless to say, they were ecstatic.
Even with the gains we accomplished, there were a couple major problems they struggled to overcome. One was frequent, daily break ins on jobs that were already on press, averaging 25 times per week. The other was nearly every square inch of open space was filled with WIP. Stress was high, on time delivery was low and they could not keep up with demand.
Fast forward one year. Through continued dedication of the leadership team to execute the Strategic Plan, change some leadership habits and having made hard choices to remove a small number of employees that refused to support the new direction, they turned the corner with culture. In a call this month, they shared they now have essentially no WIP and they can feel the positivity from their team. This has translated to significant increase in profitability.
The owner shared this as a reference for SPL. “I was the one who resisted bringing you on. We had used consultants in the past and they could tell us what was wrong, but not how to fix it. Once we started this process, it is the best thing we have ever done.” SPL’s emphasis on leadership of change was the difference maker. The Kaizen or Strategic Planning processes are the easy part. The hard part is establishing a leadership culture with a steadfast, team-based dedication to execution.
Brian Van de Water CEO SPL Consulting, LLC. 414-588-3008 vandewaterb@outlook.com
By Susan Stansbury, Industry Consultant Reprinted with permission from www.PFFC-Online.com
Converting’s Leap Into Technology
This is Part Three of our series: Rust to Tech. This episode is a reminder that converting and associated industries have made a leap from the old rust belt days into a world of technology and forward motion. Here I observe examples of the latest converting technologies with notes on their associated markets.
We cannot look at the state of the industry without first commenting on workforce issues. Manufacturing, like almost the entire U.S. labor force, is in dire need of workers. Both individual companies and organizations are working to bring in new employees.
Some companies are going to high schools and technical colleges themselves. Others work with groups to reach workers. According to Ann Franz of the NEW Manufacturing Alliance, “We are targeting both new workers and ‘upscaling’ workers for better jobs such as data analytics across industry in HR, IT, the plant floor and more.” There are some 300 member companies.
In recent years, there was some irony in companies wanting to automate, eliminating certain workers, with accompanying negative news about fewer jobs available. Now, the combination of automation and a leaner workforce seems like a win-win. Automation and improved workflow steps portend a future with a smaller workforce. Being lean and productive has kept the Midwest converting hub globally competitive.
There is further encouraging news for the converting world which many say is “headquartered” in Wisconsin. Madison, with a population of 250,000, led a list of the top 10 cities that retained tech talent from December 2019 to May 2021, according to LinkedIn analysts. In addition, Green Bay, the scene of so much converting, is growing along with industry. The engineering talent pool in the Midwest is also a positive factor supporting manufacturing. (In spite of one recent narrowly focused study, Wisconsin has hundreds of converters often found in business parks from Green Bay to Milwaukee along the “Converting Corridor,” a term I coined more than 10 years ago.)
Looking at aspects of the converting industry, from slitting-winding, coating, printing, production processes, packaging and more, a major focus is on efficiency. According to Maxcess International, web handling experts, in a recent webinar, “Optimizing your converting yields better quality output, faster speeds, and decreased scrap. The key to optimizing converting is not simply proper guiding or tension, but it’s about the interplay of all these tools.”
“Companies are spending money on new equipment and expanding production in many of our core markets. We also see an uptick in companies taking proactive steps for preventive maintenance and upgrading existing equipment,” according to Mary VanVonderen, Marketing Manager, The CMM Group. Providing industrial ovens, conveyorized dryers, and pollution control equipment are key aspects of the company’s business.
Like many others, The CMM Group is increasingly examining ways to cross-learn and develop between its diverse divisions. One of its newest offerings grew out of the ovens segment. Now, for example, Infrared (IR) cheese pre-melters play a vital role in the frozen pizza manufacturing process, ensuring that cheese and toppings stay in place during the flash-freezing and packaging process.
For each converting process, providers are offering improved equipment. Beginning with slitting-winding, there is no standing still. At Elite Cameron, “Our turreted slitter rewinders combine both efficiency and flexibility.” Recently, Elite Tape introduced its new CAT 729 fully automated surface rewind slitter. It was custom built to meet market demands. And others are doing their part with custom solutions.
A 2021 State of the Industry U.S. Packaging Machinery reported that U.S. packaging machinery shipments rose 14.7% between 2015 and 2020, with a packaging order backlog increase of 22.3%, and a converting order backlog increase of 12.2% in the same period. This was a welcome to backlogs!
Companies in health care disposables such as dry and wet wipes are rolling out new products like masks and reusable wipers. Associated raw materials have evolved with the unique product designs. In market niches ranging from pizza packaging to retail and automotive, growth and backlogs prevail in 2022.
Automation, RFID, lighting, recycling, intellectual property, and sustainability are simultaneous factors during this period of innovation. Examples:
Measuring sustainability at Menasha Packaging happens in many ways — including in number of trees saved!
Menasha Corporation’s facilities, through upgrades to LED bulbs, save 375,000 kWh a year.
Georgia Pacific’s Palatka, FL, paper mill earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) ENERGY STAR Top Project for 2020. The mill’s kraft papermaking department team achieved a 40 percent water reduction.
According to AdvisorSmith.com reporting, manufacturing strongholds are often in mid-sized and small communities, such as in Indiana and Wisconsin. The top five small cities they cite include Colombus, IN; Sheboygan, WI; Lima, OH; Decatur and Kankakee, IL. The “Converting Corridor” is the innovation hub of this important segment of manufacturing.
The next part of this series will include more aspects and upgrades in converting. This article is reprinted with permission of PFFC-Online.com with some updates.
Attendees at the Green Bay Innovation Group (GBIG) webinar, “Stop Scaring Away Amazing Talent,” gained new insight into talent acquisition, employee selection, and job interview strategies. The labor-focused webinar was hosted by GBIG Executive Director Marty Ochs and GBIG Silver Sponsor Packerland Websites. The online event was a collaboration between GBIG and 15dots®. 15dot is a GBIG Silver Sponsor and a Neenah, Wisconsin-based company that trains HR leaders and organizational personnel to adopt a rigorous employee selection process that is repeatable, scalable, and teachable. 15dots refers to five ability tests and 10 behavior-based interview dimensions critical to employee selection.
15dots teammates Mike Quinn and Joe Nowlin shared interesting real-world stories from their years of working in Human Resources and employee selection, plus evidence-based hiring practices and expert advice. The audience got involved by sharing information about their organizations and asking questions.
Audience members also responded to polls – not always with the correct answers – which led to eye-opening revelations. The webinar polls pertained to abilities and skills. As a follow-up to the polls, Mike and Joe explained that an ability is established early (by age 16) and remains relatively stable. Thus, applicants need to have the abilities that a job requires in order to be successful. Abilities are the basis for picking up job skills. (Examples are mechanical or verbal ability.) Unlike abilities, which are static, skills wax and wane over time.
Other highlights of the “Stop Scaring Away Amazing Talent” webinar:
How to market your organization to a potential job seeker, even those not actively looking for work
How to control bias in hiring, so you don’t fall into the trap of hiring people because you “like them”
How to create a compelling Employee Value Proposition, so people want to join your team
What traits make an ideal job candidate
What are the right pre-employment tests (cognitive ability) and the wrong tests (personality tests)
Why a structured board interview outperforms a one-on-one interview
Why use a liberal screening process on the front-end of the hiring process
Why involve stakeholders, not just HR personnel, in hiring
Thank You to the Presenters
Mike Quinn
Mike Quinn, mike@15dots.com, has worked tirelessly internally as a Human Resources Manager and externally as a consultant for over three decades. As a 15dots partner, Mike helped to perfect the tools and precise methods to take the guesswork out of employee selection.
Joe “Doc” Nowlin
Joe Nowlin, joe@15dots.com, earned his doctorate from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business. A former business professor, Joe designed, tested, and installed proprietary employee selection procedures for manufacturing organizations, revolutionizing the way they do business. As a 15dots partner, Joe adapted these systems for medium-sized and smaller organizations of all types.
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Rabbit Hole Distillery, located in Louisville, KY, produces their own recipes of one-of-a-kind super premium American whiskey. Creating their extraordinary shipping cases with outstanding shelf appeal that helps sell this unique brand, is a fantastic collaboration with their partner Independent 2, a privately-owned and operated corrugated manufacturer.
Independent 2’s capabilities include designing, manufacturing, warehousing, and delivering corrugated and packaging that protect their customers’ products in transit and sells them on store shelves.
We caught up with Dac Austin, Creative Director of Rabbit Hole Distillery, to learn more about the business, the partnership with Independent 2, and the benefits of digital printing delivered by the Domino X630i digital aqueous inkjet corrugated press.
Austin begins, “We make one-of-a-kind original works of bourbon. Each one of our whiskeys has its own grain recipe that’s not like anything else on the market. One of the things that’s necessary for what I do, is having a partner that has the ability to do modifications quickly, efficiently, and in real time. One of the relationships that we’ve built is one with Independent 2, who is our ship case provider. Their responsivity that we receive from their team is excellent, and that really resonates with what we do with our ship cases, and what we’re able to produce.”
The Dynamic of Digital
Proudly holding a corrugated shipping case produced at Independent 2 for Rabbit Hole’s Dareringer Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, Austin continues. “This is an example of some of the work that we’ve done. As you can see the clarity, the color, and the product is outstanding. You think about the digital application on a corrugated product. We are able to make edits with color, with typography… and see it within minutes. If we were to do this in a conventional manner, we would have had to shut down the press, take the plates off, remake the plates, reapply the ink, and wait for hours for this to happen.”
The Merger of Digital and Corrugated
Austin further explains benefits of digital printing. “All I had to do for this was create a new file, run it through the machine (Domino X630i digital aqueous inkjet corrugated press) and it’s instantaneous. There’s no mixing of inks, there’s no wipe-up or clean-up for the machinery. It’s just moving the board through, and it works effectively and efficiently. That is something that is magnificent in what we’re able to do. And it shows the merger of the digital and corrugated world.”
Domino is a leading manufacturer and distributor of digital printing and product identification solutions.
Celebrating its 45 th year in business, Domino is a global organization with world headquarters in the UK, and North America headquarters in Gurnee, IL. Domino has 25 subsidiaries, representation in over 120 countries, and over 3,000 employees worldwide. For more information on Domino digital printing, please visit dominodigitalprinting.com
When it comes to total cost of ownership and profitability, all pouch equipment is not created equal.
Reliability is the number one desired machine attribute for pouch converters, but this deceptively simple statement can sometimes be misunderstood.
“Reliability isn’t only about the sturdiness of the machine,” says Scott Fuller, Pouch Equipment Product Line Manager for CMD. “It means that production will be reliable; that pouches will be of consistent quality; that downtime, especially unexpected stoppages, are minimized. It’s about product going out the door, on time, at the expected cost.”
Similar to how we expect our automobiles to be reliable; to consistently run and give us as little grief as possible, converters expect reliability in their equipment.
What are some gauges for reliability?
1. The machine should be well-made – designed to provide process stability for many years – and to do so without frequent operator intervention.
Obviously, to achieve optimal payback the equipment should last for years, even decades. But in that time, the stability of the process should not degrade. Some of this comes from the overall build quality of the machine, the raw materials and the workmanship. Some of this comes from the design of the machine.
Some converters have the good fortune of having in-house experts that keep lesser-quality machinery running. They fix and tinker, adjusting springs and settings, sometimes even rebuilding sections of machines to get them to operate to the converter’s needs and expectations. This is a vanishing skill set, and more often than not, converters are faced with a shrinking labor pool of skilled workers. Entry-level operators and frequent turnover require a reliable machine that runs efficiently and effectively, day in and day out, without the need for frequent maintenance or monitoring.
The CMD 760-SUP Stand-Up Pouch system sports a new, compact, space-saving design.
“The long-term stability and sustained operation of the machine needs to be considered at the design stage, says Fuller. “Our machine includes a simplified mechanical design, with fewer moving parts resulting in fewer opportunities for wear.”
Fewer maintenance touchpoints mean that you spend less time with preventive maintenance tasks.
Those maintenance touchpoints that do remain have been completely re-designed to make the tasks much easier and faster to complete. (i.e., guillotine knife blade replacements in 20-minutes, simplified nip-roll changes, fewer lubrication points, easier access to the various workspaces on the machine, etc.)
2. The machine should offer low total cost of ownership A reliable pouch machine benefits your bottom line by offering truly shorter changeovers and a meaningful reduction in downtime associated with both preventive maintenance tasks, as well as unplanned downtime. The end result is that your machine will be producing sellable product for more of the time, resulting in a quicker payback and lower cost of ownership. “Being in tune with our customers’ goals, which most often included optimizing machine uptime – (that time when the machine is producing sellable product) – allowed CMD to offer a machine with the best payback and lowest total cost of ownership in the industry,” says Fuller.
3. The machine performs to expectations, which includes keeping scrap rates to a specified threshold. It must reliably produce consistently high-quality pouches The machine is an asset, a tool, that needs to deliver a specific amount of product in a specified amount of time (throughput.) It must have speed capabilities that will maximize productivity. Meaning, speed is important as long as quality is assured, and waste is minimized (efficiency.) It is expected to make a quality pouch, and is relied upon to play its part in getting orders out the door on time.
CMD’s unwind web clamp is one of many features that save waste and ensure precise web handling.
“CMD pouch machines have been designed with one goal in mind; to provide the most stable process available in the market today, requiring fewer operator interventions during a production run,” says Fuller, explaining that this results in less scrap during the run.
“Our proprietary registration averaging system means that fewer tooling adjustments are needed as the roll is consumed, and CMD’s patented Intelligent Sealing Technology provides the most consistent and repeatable sealing process available in the industry,” he adds. “In addition, our 3-D laser alignment step delivers the most consistent web-control available, while our proprietary web-tension management system allows the user to balance web tension from the roll to the cut-off, providing fewer instances of ‘feature-drift’,” says Fuller. All of these features contribute to a robust and reliable process that can be repeated from roll-to-roll and lot-to-lot.
4. The machine is reliably simple to operate and maintain
Keeping operation and maintenance simple is a sure way to cut costs and save money.
Quick seal die changes – most often in under 2 minutes – are one of CMD’s fast-changeover design features.
Easy to operate touch screen controls and machine adjustments contribute to product quality, minimize downtime and support a reliable process control. Pouch equipment has come a long way, and quick-change features, like CMD’s easily accessible seal dies for under-2-minute changes, significantly reduced start-up and changeover time.
“Challenges with recruiting and retaining operators makes simple set-up and operation imperative,” says Fuller. “Machinery that is straightforward to operate, with recipes and adjustments that are easily repeated, help mitigate the challenges converters face with operator turnover.”
Affordable/accessible spare parts and reliable, responsive service are also an important component to simplified, reliable operation. Converters look for low cost and accessibility for common wear parts. The OEM that provides reliable, consultative service, including providing the tools for preventive maintenance to avoid unscheduled downtime, is a valuable partner.
“Our customers have been pleasantly surprised by our spare parts pricing, choosing to purchase easily sourced parts through us, rather than a third-party supplier. This strategy of pricing spare parts competitively was deliberately developed as we defined our identity as a true supplier partner; that partnership means that our customers can rely on CMD as their ‘one-stop-shop’. Maintenance managers tell us they appreciate that they don’t need to manage so many different suppliers.”
CMD designs and manufactures high-performance equipment for blown-film and flexible package converting, including patented high-speed rotary drawtape trash bag lines, pre-made pouch packaging equipment, film and bag folders and winders. CMD also designs and manufactures systems, and provides station monitoring, training and service for the CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) and RNG (Renewable Natural Gas) refueling markets.
Custom engineering and product development are available from the 45,000 sq. ft. Technology Center. Experienced CMD technical service representatives are available for field service, installation and extended process validation.
A professionally staffed parts department offers quick turn-around to minimize downtime. An established supplier with more than 30 years’ experience, CMD serves a global marketplace and manufactures all equipment to exacting standards at USA facilities.
CMD Corporation By: Scott Fuller, Product Line Manager, Pouch and Intermittent-Motion Equipment
Versatile in-house capabilities deliver Made in the USA solutions
Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) rely on contract custom fabrication services from Robinson to minimize their own capital equipment outlays while leveraging the expertise of our Wisconsin workforce. As a single-source contract custom fabrication partner, we are able to control virtually every aspect of a project, provide regular project updates, and deliver orders on time.
“We see our role as an extension of our customers’ internal teams and capabilities,” explains Jeff Kroening, director of sales for Robinson. “Our contract custom fabrication services enable customers to focus on their core competencies while feeling confident in us as their supply partner.”
Robinson’s contract custom fabrication services provide end-to-end solutions beginning with design for manufacturability (DFM) discussions and continuing through factory acceptance testing (FAT), transportation and installation. Our teams fulfill orders ranging from stand-alone projects such as solar energy storage to ongoing, consistent supply arrangements.
Contract custom fabrication excels behind a growing workforce
Robinson continues to invest in facilities, technology and people in our commitment to lead the contract fabrication market from the front. Powered by a highly trained, growing workforce of nearly 600, we are a regional employer of choice that attracts and retains talented individuals. This results in contract custom fabrication services that are dependable and ultimately profitable for our customers.
We have the unique ability to leverage nearly 500,000 square feet of flexible manufacturing space across four locations in northeastern Wisconsin. Few manufacturers offer the array of expertise that we are able to bring to contract custom fabrication projects through a vertical integration model. Our diversified service offerings include machining parts, fabrication of weldments, product assembly, electrical and automation skills, paint and coatings, plumbing, HVAC and more.
“Our customers appreciate the simplicity of working with an American-based supplier,” Kroening says. “Our approach to contract custom fabrication reduces the complexity of projects from the customer’s standpoint and helps them retain a greater sense of visibility and control.”
About Robinson, Inc.
Robinson, Inc., is a single-source metal solutions provider based in De Pere, Wisconsin. Robinson offers design, manufacturing and production fabrication for a wide range of industries. The company employs nearly 600 people at four Wisconsin locations comprising 500,000 square feet of manufacturing space.
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