[ Music ]
>> At kind of a base level, we make plastic parts, injection molds, and assemblies
but I like to think we manufacture solutions.
The history of the company, it's kind of neat.
It's a family owned business is how it started.
And my dad started it back in 1984.
>> When I started it, I wanted to make something.
That was the thing that really was important to my soul [inaudible].
I wanted to make a product.
I got started in plastics in '72 with an injection molder.
I was there for 9 years so I had the mechanical engineering background
from the University of Michigan.
I had production experience.
I moved around and went to a prototype for about 3 years and then I got a call and they wanted
to know if I'd like to start a company.
We grew the company from there and then we got a second building and Jeff came.
And things were really exciting at that point and time but then something happened.
The year 2000 rolled around.
The industry was changing but I was -- everything was going good, you know.
We saw that and then the economy went berserk at that point and time.
Things started to go all over the place, you know.
Where did my -- where my did Hewlett Packards go?
Where did my, you know, Xerox go?
Where did computer companies -- where were they because they were our customers.
>> We'd always been a market leader on the prototype side and we had kind
of a proprietary concept of how we were able to build molds.
And we had some mold inserts that we could do very quickly
and the company grew like crazy as a result of that.
However, the market was beginning to change
and customer requirements were becoming a little bit more in-depth
than what they had been before.
So what was acceptable over that period of time
for prototype parts really started to hit a new level.
So we didn't have quite the competitive advantage that we once had and then when you hit
that with the slow market, everything turned to being a cost driven.
And so what we had to do is kind of look at the business
and say okay, where we can see this going?
How can we restructure?
And those were kind of the beginnings of looking at yes we're in Detroit and yes,
Detroit is known for automotive but what's not known is that this area also has a lot
of other opportunities for other markets.
One of those being the medical market.
>> It was during a time where we said we need to be the kind of company that's moving
and innovating, continuous improvement.
The MMTC was a natural choice for us.
We had heard about them.
They've had a really good reputation in our area.
>> We identified a tremendous amount of opportunities in many different areas both
from a business perspective, a financial perspective meaning pricing gross margin,
costing, and also from a gross perspective of market diversification perspective.
>> More than anything it's really helped my thinking [background music].
As much as -- I'm not going to say oh yes they came in and they said hey here's our --
here's your business and this is how you must do it to be successful.
It was more about sparking the ideas until you get the concepts down
and then you gather a good team with a lot of core concepts
and suddenly you come up with some good ideas.
And some ideas that aren't so good and you work through those ideas
and you say what makes sense and what doesn't.
They're always there with new ideas, new opportunities, and new input.
>> At the end of the day, I think it's a big world with lots
of opportunity, with lots of innovation.
Advanced manufacturing to me is what we have to be doing as American manufacturers.
You have to be taking the technologies and using them to their full advantage.
And we're still learning.
We're still growing.
Again, haven't arrived, right?
But that is definitely the direction we're headed and where we're making our investments.
Advanced manufacturing begins to give us some advantage if we integrate right.
It's all about speed.
It's the confidence that says you know what we care about your program.
We're bringing the best to the table and we're going to reduce your lead time and we're going
to minimize hassles because lead time and hassles cost money.
No one has any time to mess around these days but I think at the core
of any successful business is they're out there.
They're serving people in a valuable way.
They're innovative.
That always -- innovation is the number one wealth creator for any business.
You have to go out there and be innovative.
You have to try new things and then having the determination
because you will run into road blocks.
>> There is always a push to do things faster and better.
And because of that there is a technology out there not only to manufacture better and faster
but then the stuff that we're manufacturing is helping people do things
that are better and faster as well.
So that's all -- it's very cool.
It's exciting times here.
It's fun to think about the clients that we have and the impact
that they're having not only on our business.
And that's cool.
We certainly love our business to grow and to get better but the fact that we're working
on products, we're helping people bring the market.
Just products that are really going to impact the world.
>> Every business needs to be solving a problem, right?
Some of these problems are very, very interesting and we're working on products
that are going to change the world.
I would say if you really believe it's this old Ford assembly line, you haven't been staying
in touch with manufacturing these days.
It's much more dynamic, much more technically demanding,
and I think it's also got a lot of rewards for a lot of people.
Manufacturing has a home for almost everyone.
If you're good with people and you can sell, there's a home for you in manufacturing.
If you are technically really, really bright or you like to work with your hands,
there's a home in manufacturing for you.
You can find a job in manufacturing.
Maybe you're saying I'm great with computers, right?
Guess what?
There's a home for you.
I mean the way manufacturing is setup, it welcomes so many people
from a community or from our United States.
It can put so many people to work that it's, to me, the place we want to invest
and the place we want to be strong in as a community and as a country.
[Music]