Well, I’m down to my last two articles for the Advisor. Over the years, there’s been times when coming up with a timely topic to write about wasn’t always easy and required a lot more thought. I’m happy to say that has not been the case for my final two which, let’s just say, were no brainers.
In June, I will close out reflecting on my time here at NWIRC as the President and CEO. For May, I wanted to do one last tour and feature a manufacturing company to share their story and highlight their uniqueness and accomplishments. But for this final spotlight tour and article, I wanted something extra special. There has been a lot of talk about the resurgence of U.S. manufacturing and the importance of ‘Making it in America’. Many are acknowledging the critical role that small manufacturers have in domestic supply chains and the relevance of their contributions to economic growth and national security. Along with these reasons, I also wanted to feature a smaller, family-owned manufacturer which our 13-county region has many of and, of course, a company that was doing some cool, innovative things and experiencing impressive growth. I know I was looking for a lot and found even more when I visited Hi-Tech Plating in Erie PA.
What I observed at Hi-Tech was two generations of the Zechman family, father Harry and sons Kip and Will, operating their small manufacturing company like an enterprise 40 times its size not only excelling at the fundamentals but deploying world-class strategies and best practices. Before I get into how they do things, here is a little of what they do.
Hi-Tech Plating specializes in injection-molding and tooling-focused coatings including electroless nickel and nickel boron nitride, hard chrome, and Techalloy™. The company’s newest product offerings are its Hi-Performance Films that are highly engineered coatings with superior properties that include industry standards such as Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC), Tungsten Carbide Carbon (WCC), Titanium Nitride (TiN), and Titanium Carbo-Nitride (TiCN).
As a finisher, Hi-Tech is the last stage in the manufacturing process for their customer orders. As the last stage, sometimes they are thought of later rather than earlier, or after issues develop upstream in the manufacturing process. The team at Hi-Tech sees this as an opportunity to shine. Going by their Key Performance Indicators and performance of 91% of all orders completed within 24 hours, 99% on-time and in-full, and 99.5% customer satisfaction, I would have to say they are right. Add their 3X increase in productivity and 2X growth in the last 5 years, and the company’s future is bright.
Harry Zechman purchased the company 6 years ago and is onsite one day each month to lend his input and support. Kip and Will are at the helm working on the business and managing the day-to-day operations. They also can be found working in the business, side-by-side with members of their team, on the plant floor wearing standard-issued blue overalls.
It did not take long onsite to recognize the benefits of solid planning and sound execution that has been happening at Hi Tech for the past 6 plus years. Harry shared the driving principles of the business: 1) make decisions with the long-term in mind even at the expense of short term goals; 2) continue to improve the technical systems because having the right processes will produce the right results for customers and employees; 3) continue to add value by growing people, your team, and your partners; and 4) drive organizational learning through relentless reflection and continuous improvement by excelling at problem solving.
Both Kip and Will are engineers and worked previously for multi-national companies. Kip joined the company when Harry acquired the business in 2019 and Will joined a couple years later. Kip’s primary focus is sales, working with existing customers and developing new business opportunities. His chemical engineering background lends nicely to the highly technical finishing properties of their offerings. I was especially impressed with Kip’s sales approach and processw hich was based on solving each prospective customer’s specific problems.
Will is a mechanical engineer with a strong background in coaching which blends perfectly with the manufacturing company’s identity as problem-solvers and the servant leadership culture that the Zechmans drive at Hi-Tech. A culture and the Hi-Tech Plating Way of doing business founded on two ageless guiding principles with a slight variation of focus – treat others as they want to be treated and lead by doing. A culture that retains talent like CJ Amann, whose grandfather started the company many years ago and has been working at Hi-Tech for 10 years. The Hi-Tech Plating Way of doing of business through growing strong relationships with other companies like Peters Heat Treating and by participating in NWIRC’s Lean Together cohort of manufacturers focused on shared learning and mutual improvement while strengthening manufacturing in the region.
I found enlightening the organization’s compass, or “True North,” guides decision making for the hard targets of sales, profits, cashflow, etc. and the heart targets of growing people and developing relationships. I found fascinating management’s “Waterfall” concept which recognizes that tasks move in a linear fashion from one phase to the next like a cascading waterfall. They use A3s not only for problem-solving but also for business planning. I could go on, but don’t have the space other than to say thank you, Hi-Tech Plating for making my last spotlighted tour and article very, very special.