Independent Can Company What’s New November 2014

What’s New- November 2014 -

The busy season is moving very quickly. The leaves are changing, the weather is turning cooler and the Holiday Season is almost upon us.

In my last What’s New article I reported that we were late on most all of our deliveries and were struggling to catch up. I must say that we are in much better shape as it relates to lead-times now then we were in August. This is the busy season and consequently certain stock items are running short or are out of stock so please allow 2-3 weeks on most orders or have a substitution item in mind when you call.

If you have a rush custom order that you would like to discuss please call and challenge us to respond. I cannot promise an immediate turnaround although we are in pretty good shape to deliver quickly.

In the printing division: Today the lead-time in the printing and coating division is 4-5 weeks on repeat jobs and 5-6 weeks on new jobs.

The long lead-time challenges this year were the result of an exceptional influx of printing volume that was much higher than forecast. We have been planning for growth for high quality printing and this is reflected in our expansion of our printing capacity in Belcamp, Maryland and the opening of the new plant in Vandalia, Ohio.

The Vandalia, Ohio printing plant began operations in June of this year and has operated as planned. The crews have 5 months experience at this point and all is running smoothly.

In Belcamp, Maryland we will be installing a new printing line which should run its first sheets by December 31, 2014. This line gives us new capabilities and will be our 3rd printing line in this plant.
With the addition of the new Ohio plant and the capacity being added in Belcamp we will have nearly doubled our printing capacity this year and increased coating capacity by 30 percent.

In the Can Plants: While the can plants are running at a very high level we are well underway with engineering plans for equipment and process improvements being designed for installation in the spring of 2015. The realignment of can line to provide cost reductions and more efficient material flow takes significant time so we are staging the changes we want to take on after the first of the year.

We will be able to discuss some of the changes as we approach the spring time.

General comments: These are exciting times in the United States for manufacturing. The low- cost nations that have challenged the United States and Western Europe for global competitiveness in manufacturing have seen very high rates of inflation in labor costs and difficulties in maintaining their supply advantages.

Through investments in automation and the development of flexible manufacturing systems, Independent Can and hundreds of other domestic manufacturers have reduced costs and lead times to respond to the needs of retailers both specialty and the mass market retailers. The consumer wants good quality, good value and they want it now. The retailers do not have the luxury of buying from halfway around the world and being able to restock the shelves in the holiday season. Having the right products on the shelves provides the consumer with their desired items and reduces stock outs and end of season closeouts which are extremely costly to the retailers.

http://www.independentcan.com
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For more info on this Blog or Independent Can Company please contact
Ryan D Huether
ryan@independentcan.com

What’s New- Independent Can Company- September 2014

What’s New- Independent Can Company- September 2014

Looking back at the last What’s New Article I did not realize that it had been a year since I wrote the last article. I apologize to everyone who reads this for the long delayed update. In this world of instant information we need to make routine updates.
The past 12 months have been extremely gratifying and challenging. The specialty can business has returned to levels not seen since 2006 and 2007. Independent Can Company (ICC) has worked hard to get ahead of the growth with some truly remarkable accomplishments and some true failures along the way.

What have we done to get ahead of the market growth.

First a commentary on “Manufacturing in America.”- Manufacturing is returning to the United States at a rapid pace and many are asking “why?” We all know or thought we knew that China was taking over all manufacturing because of America not being competitive globally. For those of us who are over 60 years old we thought that Japan was going to make everything when we were growing up. All low cost labor areas eventually develop into higher wage areas as workers learn the potential and value of their skills and abilities. China’s workers want the same benefits and material things that any developing or developed population wants. The labor wages, along with safety and environmental costs, are rising very rapidly in Asia making the goods produced there more expensive to export.
Another important factor is that China with the huge population they have and the wealth they are accumulating is becoming a consumer-driven economy. In the future China will consume more of the products being produced in country and less will be available for export.

America is becoming a nation where manufacturing can again drive economic success and a more economically advantaged middle class.
Our advantage is our creativity and technology and if we can marry this with enough skilled workers we can be a huge powerhouse and growth engine again in the global arena. Our challenge is retraining and developing a new generation that takes pride in making things
How does this tie back to Independent Can Company’s remarkable achievements and failures?
Remarkable achievements:

• Over the past 7 years we have invested between 20 and 30 million dollars on improved technology allowing for productivity improvements and flexibility in production.
• Since 2009 our annual growth has been comfortably into double digits.
• The new products we have added have been accepted remarkably well for a mature and no growth market.
• We have hired 80 plus individuals over the past 12 months (many of whom are engineers and middle managers) and opened a new manufacturing plant in Vandalia, Ohio.

Failures:

• People- We are having a very difficult time finding the depth of skills we need to fully benefit and operate the technology we have installed.
• The challenge we have, along with many of the other business owners I speak with, is having an employment population that sees a future career in manufacturing.
• As a manufacturer we need young people that want to be electricians, machinists, mechanics, line operators and middle managers that will cultivate the skills and abilities in manufacturing.

This year, 2014, has been a struggle. We have hired many people and are training them in the many disciplines mentioned above.

With that being said, we have not done a very good job of servicing our customers this year and we apologize to everyone. We have invested continuously in our people and we expect these investments will bear fruit in 2015. The manufacture of specialty tins requires not only skills in various disciplines but also intuition, creativity and experience that come only with time.

The greatest surprise this year has been the demand for flat sheet printing. Over the past 5 years we have doubled our capacity for printing and coating and this year we will again nearly double our capacity for printing. One line began producing printed sheets in June (2014) and a second line will come online in December (2014).



Our challenge today is to find and train skilled printing press operators, coater operators and shift managers who are able and willing to cultivate a culture of Safety, Quality, Respect for one another and Productivity.

As a company we will be working very hard to train the newest additions to the ICC family of employees and to develop processes that will train the can makers of the future.

The tin can is back and is in a significant growth mode again. No package has 100% recyclability, the advertising surface (permanent advertising), product protection and the integrity and perceived value that the tin can brings to market.