According to Peplin, 2009 was a difficult year, but Talan’s fortunes began to turn in 2010 and 2011 looks to be a record sales year.  Part of this bounce back was fueled by the building maintenance market, but the largest driver contributing to Talan’s turn-around came from within.  Empowering employees to recommend shop floor changes created new efficiencies and reduced waste, which in turn, allowed company officials to control costs and re-capture lost market share. 

Talan also diversified its customer base, targetting growth areas like solar energy and LED lighting, to replace business lost in other market sectors.  Improving quality control has also played an instrumental role in Talan’s ability to remain profitable despite the challenges posed by a sluggish economy.  Peplin’s story of team-work, innovation, and vision as told by Shingler is a fascinating read, and it says much about one local manufacturing company’s ability to thrive in challenging times.  To read Shingler’s complete article, click here.

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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About IW-IndustryWeek uses print media and an online presence to connect C-level decision-makers within the manufacturing sector to share strategies that inspire action.  IndustryWeek is widely read and consulted among corporate and executive leadership; operations and plant management; along with engineering, research and development, IT, and purchasing and sourcing management.

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.

Sound Familiar? Then Benchmark this Company

None of the above-mentioned issues were a problem for executives at metal former Talan Products, in Cleveland, Ohio, where CEO Steve Peplin, President Pete Accorti and VP of manufacturing Pat Parziale explained their recent success implementing lean strategies. “We had been discussing a move toward lean methods for several years,” says Peplin. “We’ve always had a participative work environment, so we thought we had the right culture. There wasn’t much doubt in our minds that we could implement lean methods in our shop, but we also knew we needed help staying on track.”

Accorti adds, “We had actually made some small efforts to implement lean manufacturing methods in the past.  That experience told us that lean methods weren’t rocket science, but that they do take a lot of discipline to sustain. And, we recognized that we needed somebody from the outside to educate us and help us keep our noses to the grindstone.”

For outside expertise, the firm contracted with Chagrin River Consulting, also in Cleveland, bringing in Rick Bohan to help with implementation.  “The first thing Rick did,” says Accorti, “was spend a few days in the shop getting to know our people and operations. After that, we scheduled a series of planning sessions for the senior leadership, to set some targets and develop an action plan for rolling lean methods out across the shop.”

Planning Key to Getting Everyone on the Same Page

No lean-implementation project can be successful without careful planning, which Talan’s management undertook only after allowing Bohan to interview managers and employees about Talan’s operations. Says Parziale, reporting on early management planning sessions: “Our discussions showed that we had some differing views around the shop regarding prioritizing our efforts, but we were able to agree on what was important and what we should be working on. I think that helped management present a united team to the rest of the company and see that we were serious about this project and committed to it.”

Metrics a Must, Starting with 5S

The leadership team developed a set of measures used throughout the project to gauge performance improvement.  Among the metrics: inventory turnaround, measures of equipment, tooling, and personnel availability, scrap and direct labor efficiency.

“The work we did developing and refining our metrics optimized the effectiveness of the lean implementation,” says Accorti. “Some of our most energetic discussions as a leadership team involved metrics.  These discussions helped us understand that lean manufacturing isn’t just applying some tools to the shop floor and hoping for the best.”

The leadership team committed to posting, every month, easy-to-read charts to track the metrics. In addition, the team still meets to discuss progress on the metrics at the start of each month.

“The charts drive a lot of energy and action,” says Peplin. “They help us identify problems and opportunities early rather than when it’s too late to solve or take advantage of them.”

During the planning sessions, the senior leaders also developed a 12- month calendar of activities for the lean implementation. The team’s decisions were based on their own knowledge of what was needed in the plant coupled with the results of the consultant’s report. First, a series of 5S action workshops were scheduled; each press was to have its own 5S workshop. The workshops addressed two objectives: teach supervisors and operators the principles of 5S, and actually get the presses and the areas surrounding them organized.

Workplace Flow and Organization

The 5S tool addresses workplace flow and organization, focused on sorting, straightening, shining, standardizing and sustaining. More than a housekeeping program, 5S initiatives address a variety of important factors including workplace safety, material and information flow, preventive maintenance, standardized work instructions, inventory control and purchasing procedures. 

“We were very interested in starting with 5S,” explains Parziale, “to get everyone involved, develop a teamwork approach and make a visible difference.  The 5S workshops were a good start to the overall initiative.”

The 5S workshops highlighted the importance of preventive maintenance on presses and auxiliary equipment. They also focused on the importance of organizing and standardizing die change tooling. For example, the 5S teams put into use a series of die carts, and also color-coded clamps and other tooling.  “We also found that we had to audit weekly to keep the 5S program energized,” adds Parziale.

Creating a Visual Factory

The 5S workshops introduced visual factory methods at Talan Products. For example, operators were expected to record oil pressures each hour. In doing so, many stated that the gauges were too small and were located such that they were hard to read. As a result of 5S, the firm invested in larger gauges that were relocated so that they became easier to see and read. Operator compliance with the task of recording hourly pressures increased.

In yet another example of developing a visual factory, large charts were posted at each press so that operators can easily record, hour by hour, production statistics. The charts also provide space to write comments and problems.  And, not to be overlooked, the charts were designed to be clearly seen at a distance. Checking the charts throughout the day, supervisors and managers can see how each operator is doing and quickly identify any problem areas. “The charts have helped us identify and address operating problems much more quickly that we did in the past,” admits Parziale.

Talan also applied 5S methods to administrative practices. Says Accorti, “While I initially believed that the administrative 5S might be superficial, were able to standardize and better organize customer files. We also developed standards for keeping our shared drives organized so staffers didn’t spend as much time looking for what they needed. I think some of us originally thought that 5S would be mostly a housekeeping exercise, but it’s really about creating an overall environment where work becomes easier and less frustrating.  As a result, delays and errors have dwindled.”

Next Up: Quick-Change Workshops

Quick-die change (QDC) is another important lean tool, focusing on reducing eliminating delays and errors. Talan worked to reduce changeover times not by admonishing operators to work faster, but by asking for and implementing their ideas to simplify changeovers.

“We received good feedback after each of our QDC workshops,” reports Peplin, “which were all very hands-on and participative.” Parziale agrees: “The workshops didn’t just cover theoretical principles where we just hoped that our operators and supervisors would apply them at some point.

Instead, they actually went to the presses and conducted die changes, returned to the conference room to discuss ideas for improving the procedures, and then went back out to the floor to try them out.  “Being successful at lean is all about engaging the operators,” continues Parziale. “And the workshops went a long way toward accomplishing that.”

The QDC workshops illustrated the importance of coordinating activities between several departments within Talan Products. In the end, the company found that actually changing dies didn’t take a lot of time, particularly after implementing 5S activities and organizing die-change carts. Instead, big reductions in changeover time came thanks to coordination among production, tooling and quality control.

Last but Not Least—Value-Steam Mapping

With 5S and QDC initiatives successfully under its belt, Talan Products’ management team then set its sights toward value-stream mapping (VSM)— creating a process flow map that it can use to highlight and contrast value added and non-value-added steps. Having parts sitting on the shop floor awaiting material handling is a non-value-added step, as is waiting for a die to become available Following a brief introductory lesson on VSM, the firm’s steering committee chose a target product and selected a VSM team, which included Accorti.

“We had completed similar exercises in the past,” says Accorti, explaining why the company didn’t begin its lean journey by developing a value stream map, as some consultants suggest. “We were pretty confident that we knew where our opportunities for improvement were, so we started on those—5S and QDC. Then we started the VSM process, to identify other opportunities to improve.”

The VSM team, facilitated by Bohan, met weekly to gather information and develop a map for one of Talan’s highest contribution products. Says Bohan, “We happily found that raw-material and finished-product inventory turns for that product were very high and that non value-added time was being controlled, showing that the company had paid close attention to good flow.”

Concludes Peplin, “Since committing to implementing lean initiatives, we’ve seen all of the metrics we decided to focus on head in the right direction. I’m convinced we’re rebounding from the recession more quickly than we would have thanks to our commitment to lean manufacturing.”

This article writen by Brad F. Kuvin originally appeared in the February 2010 edition of METALFORMING.

Physical properties of Stainless Steel

Stainless steel (also known as corrosion resistant steel or CRES) is defined as a steel alloy with a minimum of 10.5 or 11% chromium content by mass.  Stainless steel offers better corrosion resistance than carbon steel, but it is not stain-proof.  There are different grades and surface finishes of stainless steel to suit the environment the alloy must endure. Stainless steel is used where both the properties of steel and resistance to corrosion are required.

Stainless steel differs from carbon steel by the amount of chromium present. Unprotected carbon steel rusts readily when exposed to air and moisture. This iron oxide film (also known as rust) is active and accelerates corrosion by forming more iron oxide. Stainless steels contain sufficient chromium to form a passive film of chromium oxide, which prevents further surface corrosion and blocks corrosion from spreading into the metal’s internal structure.

Stampings From Austenitic / 300 Series Stainless Steel

Austenitic Stainless Steel (300 series) is used for the vast majority of stainless steel stamping projects.  3oo series stainless steels are non-magnetic, and possess high ductility, low yield stress and relatively high ultimate tensile strength when compared to carbon grade steels.  Austenitic stainless steel also offers corrosion resistance in the atmosphere, in many aqueous media, in the presence of foods, and in oxidizing acids such as nitric acid. Non-magnetic properties combined with exceptional durability at a wide range of temperatures make 300 series stainless steels an excellent selection for a wide variety of applications.  The most common austenitic steel is Type 304 (also known as T304, 304, and 18/8 which describes the composition of 18% chromium and 8% nickel).  The second most common form of austenitic steel, Type 316 stainless is used widely for food, surgical and medical, and pharmaceutical applications.

Stainless Steel Applications

Stainless steel’s resistance to corrosion and staining, ease of care, and brilliant, shiny appearance make it an ideal material for many applications, including:

• Appliances
• Automotive
• Cookware and Food Grade Applications
• Medical and Surgical

Contact the Stainless Steel Stamping Experts

If high volume, low cost, progressive die stainless steel stampings made with ISO 9001 certifications are required for your project, contact the experts at Talan products.  To learn more about our stainless steel stamping capabilities, or to request a quote, contact, contact Talan Products to discuss your project.