According to Steve Peplin, President of Talan Products, “2011 was a year of records for our company.  Talan set new performance records for many categories including, sales, profits, efficiency, employee turnover, and quality.  We are pleased that other business owners in the area took note of our accomplishments and we are honored to receive yet another NEO Success Award.”

Will Talan’s 2012 eclipse the records set in 2011?  “It is still too early to say, but we are on track and look to have another fantastic year of growth.  If we keep focusing on the basics and strive to improve each aspect of our operations, the records will take care of themselves,” says Peplin.

Talan Products is a metal stamping company serving the world from Cleveland Ohio with custom quality metal stamping and supply / fabrication of aluminum extrusions. Talan Products is a quality conscious ISO 9001 certified vendor utilizing the latest in precision manufacturing technology.

Did you know that Talan Products is celebrating its 25th anniversary this Fall? The company was started in 1986 by Steve Peplin. Partners Pete Accorti(President) and Pat Parziale (VP, Manufacturing) joined soon afterward. Initially housed in a 3,000 square foot space, Talan has expanded three times. Talan’s current home of 15 years is a 145,000 square foot manufacturing and warehouse space on the East Side of Cleveland. Currently a $25 million company with 50+ employees, Talan still has all four of its original customers. “It’s one of the real keys to our success,” says Steve. “We invest in our customers, and they’ve been loyal to us.”

Originally in the commercial roof products area only, Talan now makes products for a number of industries including automotive, construction, and appliance, and also the fast-growing solar and LED markets. It has developed particular expertise in both high-volume progressive die stamping and aluminum extrusions fabrication, and has earned ISO 9001 certification. “We are particularly proud of our extremely low PPM numbers, and our value-added-per employee is 150% of the industry average,” notes Steve.

Talan has been named to the national Inc. 100 list, the national Inner City 100 list, and has won numerous local awards for both growth and sustainability.

Stay tuned for more insights into Talan’s future plans

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During these challenging times, all metal stampers are continually looking for ways to positively impact profits. At the same time, high quality, consistently  stamped parts are critical to the work flow of Talan’s customers. Therefore stamping companies like Talan Products look to identify ‘What is the Total Cost of Quality?’

The PMA’s annual  Benchmarking Report calculates the total cost of quality as a percent of sales by combining the costs for prevention, appraisal, internal failure and external failure, all measured as a percent of sales.

Talan’s own quality assurance manager, Mark Netzel, was quoted in the article. Mark states: ” A quality product is the first order of business. It even outweighs making a ship schedule due date.” Talan Products was cited in this article because of our improvement  by benchmarking methodology.

Marks goes on to say: “We have numerous management meetings where we review performance metrics such as efficiency,scrap, availability incidents, customer complaints and performance to budget, as well as a number of business process metrics (QMS metrics). One example would be our APQP process where we look at first run being 100-percent on time to customer due date, zero quality issues during the first run, and first-run cost performance against quoted numbers.”

To read the entire text of the article discussing the link between total cost of quality and profitability, click here.

The column contained excerpts from a chat between Peplin and Plain Dealer reporter Robert Schoenberger. The overarching theme of the talk? “We trust our employees enough to be open with them.” Here are some brief excerpts and below is a link to the entire article.

The Question: How do you maintain a culture of mutual trust as the company grows?

The Answer: You have to have people who have your philosophy, your care, your attitude. Because you can’t be everywhere.

People have to be able to make their own decisions and do things their own way . . . but they have to know how we do things.

The Question: Talan has grown from a startup to having more than $25 million in annual sales. How do you craft a strategy to guide the company from an entrepreneurial phase to a professionally run company?

The Answer: You have to set your goals carefully. In the early days, it was all about growth.

We knew we had to grow the top line quite a bit. In our business, you have to have about $25 million to $30 million [in sales] to justify the costs.

A few years ago, we decided it was important to have our own product line instead of being a contract manufacturer. So we set that as a strategy and looked for products that fit. [Talan formed GoPro in 2008, a company that makes aluminum brackets for building staircases.]

The Question: You’ve said that as the company has grown, you’ve filled in weaknesses by hiring people with specific skills. Is that a strategy that can work as the company matures?

The Answer: There’s always opportunity in change. Last year, even though we shrank 30 percent, we managed to not lose money. We managed to expand, hiring a new plant manager. We had to right-size our workforce, but we added to the office.

When times are tough, it’s not necessarily a time to cut back. You can add if you’re adding for strategic reasons.

To read the entire article click here: http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2010/11/bosses_need_to_trust_employees.html

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Talan products is a Cleveland based metal stamping company specializing in producing large-volume metal stampings utilizing progressive die stamping. They work with a variety of metals including aluminum, steel, stainless steel, brass, Inconel, and copper.

On the show, Steve pointed out that the state of manufacturing in Northeast Ohio  is not as gloomy as some think it is.  In regards to his own metal stamping company, Steve pointed out that many major companies constantly need metal stamping services during assembly of their own products.  Machines at Talan Products produce thousands of stamped products an hour, and these products include everything from paint trays to door latches.

Steve also talked about some of the recent ups-and-downs he and his company have faced during this touch economy.  Regarding 2009, Steve said, “We were down 30% in ‘09.  We had our first layoffs in 24 years — which was pretty traumatic.  But then, 2010 has been fantastic.  The recovery for us started pretty late in ‘09.”

Talan products is a small company that employs only 65 people.  However, a promising sign is that 20 of those employees are new hires.

To listen to Steve Peplin’s appearance on ‘The Sound of Ideas’ or to read more about it, visit http://www.wcpn.org/WCPN/news/32682

On the show, Steve discussed issues relating to the state of manufacturing in Northeast Ohio, both from a broad perspective as well as from the perspective of  his own Cleveland-based metal stamping company.  Steve touched on the fact that in general, manufacturing in Northeast Ohio is seen by many to be a dead industry, but the reality is that this is not the case.

Steve also talked about the ups-and-downs he and his company has seen through its 25 year history, including how the recent downturn of the economy has impacted his business.

The Sound of Ideas’ is a Northest Ohio based radio news show that airs every weekday at 9:00 on 90.3 FM.  For more information about the show, visit the show’s homepage.