SMALL CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS
Creating Efficiencies, Sometimes Requires Major Change
In an effort to stay technologically advanced and at the forefront of the plastics injection molding industry, you might notice a few projects as you tour through our building over the next few years. Right now we’ve been working on shifting part of our tool room, to make a new hallway that will allow mold tables to move from the tool room to the new clean room area more efficiently. Teammates no longer have to go out of their way through the Secondary department. They will now have a straight path through their own room, reducing move time and easing the physical stress put on their backs pushing heavy mold tables.
We already completed an additional level to our warehouse racks, making room for new customer growth and taking full advantage of vertical space. As always, we have the safety of our employees, customers, guests and sub-contractors in mind, so we apologize in advance if any of our updates cause an inconvenience during your walk-throughs.
Customer Portfolio Evaluations
As is the case in all normal business operations, contract manufacturing companies must be able to evaluate both their suppliers and their customers to ensure they have the appropriate portfolio mix to be successful. In addition to our supplier performance initiatives, Polymer Conversions must consider the following:
Industry Mix: to stay true to the complexity, precision, and critical-to- lifeTM aspects of the areas we excel in, Polymer made moves to drop automotive work in 2016, and as of this summer no longer services that industry. We took care in making sure that our customers’ molds transitioned seamlessly and carefully, and gave them enough time to place transitional stock orders and make plans with other molders. We have always done our best to provide long- term security and service to all of our customers. Rest assured that if we choose to review other non-medical work, that we will always lead with honesty, integrity, respect, and open communication well in advance (with the utmost sensitivity in regards to industry eyes & ears).
Risk Mitigation: a few of the many questions we need to ask ourselves: Do all of our customers have healthy business models & portfolios themselves? Do they seek to excel & grow in their industries? Where do they fare against their competitors? As for product life cycle management: Where do our customers’ parts fall? Do they have the capital to thrive, create new product lines and pay for quality performance from their suppliers? We must also consider: Do they work hard together with the Polymer team towards a long-term, win-win relationship? Do they treat their own people well? Is our world-class reputation well protected by our customers and the products they sell?
S.W.O.T. Analysis: As we re- define our Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats to accommodate technological & physical growth, we need to also keep in mind the upcoming election & what the economy will look like a year from now; 5 years from now. Who will be president? What will happen overseas with both allies and those that do not hold the U.S. in high regards? What will happen with terrorism, both foreign and domestic? What will happen to the healthcare system in America?
As you well understand, there are many more things to consider as a corporation. We take a hands-on approach to customer selection and building the right relationships, and to us it’s all about partnerships, it’s about partnerships. It’s about community. It’s about re-investing in infrastructure, automation and most importantly incredible people.
Wellness Initiatives & HMNYS
Did You Know… that Polymer helped create a manufacturing healthcare trust a few years ago?
Polymer was instrumental in working with Lawley Insurance, to create “Healthy Manufacturers of New York State” (HMNYS). This healthcare consortium allows qualified manufacturers to pool resources prior to going out for health care bids, in order to get the best rates & healthcare services portfolio. There are about 10 manufacturers involved in the group so far, and this past year we actually had our rates go down for the first time ever! To learn more visit: www.hmnys.org.
As a result of the creation of HMNYS, Polymer had also started putting its own wellness initiatives into place. We now enjoy friendly competitions for weight loss, cook-off contests, and other more serious programs like “stress-less” and learn your biometrics. It’s all about education. The more we know, the more informed our decisions will be. A healthy & happy workforce translates into continued excellence in helping our customers achieve their goals.
We also created a trial library where employees can “checkout” health and wellness related DVD’s, CD’s, books & cook books just like a real library. There is also a “wellness bucks” program being finalized right now. For each program/contest/initiative they volunteer to be a part of, they will receive wellness bucks that they can later turn in for free wellness-related gifts they get to pick out of a catalog of prizes we created. Both programs will be rolled out to employees for 2017.
SILICONE MOLDING UPDATE
Director of Silicone Operations, Patrick Meheran, has completed the silicone Quality Management System and is in process of scheduling an ISO13485:2016 audit by our registrar, NSF. We are doing some final, internal testing with new silicone business, so that we can ensure that our silicone QMS is just as robust as Polymer’s. (We will give another Silicone update in the December newsletter – our goal is to be fully ISO13485 certified by then.)