We are reporting all the time about jobs lost, plants closing, and more businesses left wondering how they are going to keep their doors open. So when drivers saw a huge piece of equipment being hauled to one Northern Michigan manufacturer that always seems to be cranking out new projects, they wondered how they are doing it.
The answers I found for them are the subject of this Fact Finder.
Most days at Eyewood Design, it is the trucks rolling out, full of custom cabinetry and carpentry headed off to customers, which create the buzz. But not on this day because parked outside was a semi loaded down with tons of industrial equipment that may very well chart out of the future of this shop. As Eyewood Vice President of Sales Randy Howard puts it, "this is not only a brand new machine but it's also an entry into different manufacturing process that we have switched to."
The Benzie County shop is unloading 10 thousand pounds of new machinery (precision cutting tools), imported from Italy with a hefty price tag. Think about that, in a day when most small manufacturers here in Michigan are cutting way back, this firm, to try and stay competitive is investing and redefining how they work. Why? Well it's not out of luxury. Howard explains it's out of necessity, "Nobody is able to raise prices. What we found is that we had to find a way to lower our costs and became more efficient and it's a bonus to be able to make stuff nicer as well."
It's important to note that Eyewood has not been unscathed by the economy. They rely on new construction more than most and that has certainly been slumping. So rather than watch their customer base shrink, they tried to find a way to turn lemons into lemonade. Howard says "we started taking a look at how we can improve our process almost 2 years ago we started the thinking and planning process." And the arrived at the conclusion that scaling back and producing less, wasn't really an option. Instead they decided to get more efficient so they could lower their bids on big projects because according to Howard "We are loosing projects right now by 1% or 2% so if we can pick up 5 in efficiencies it should net out to us acquiring new projects."
And while this latest 10,000 pound addition will allow them to turn out more products, faster and cheaper, Eyewood says it won't cost anyone their job. Howard says "what our goal is overall with this project is to increase the amount of work we do. There is a lot of it out there, we want to get more work so while one machine may do the work of three machines in the past, the employees that are running those two machines can move on to other tasks."
And Eyewood says, there will be other tasks for those workers, if this machine helps them in their search for efficiency because "there is quite a bit of work out there its just so completive bid right now that you have to have your pencil sharp, you have to be accurate so these are the steps we are taking."
Do you have a good news economy story to pass along? What is your employer doing to try and rebound from the recession? Let us know, post a comment below.
