Ovation 2013: Excellence in Manufacturing Honoring innovation, environmental stewardship, quality work environments, corporate philanthropy/citizenship, and consistent or extraordinary growth. E Com Seating Inc. Putnam County, seating supplier E Com Seating may not be a household name – and maybe that’s on purpose – but that doesn’t mean the company doesn’t take its dedication to customer service and quality seriously. E Com handcrafts made-to-order seating for office, laboratory, medical and more at its manufacturing plant on Mill Drive in Cookeville. Want to sit in an E Com-built chair? Head over to Tennessee Tech’s STEM Center, REI in Cookeville or Cookeville Pediatrics – just don’t expect to find the E Com name written all over it. The company, a private-label supplier, works hand-in-hand with its partners, including Fisher Scientific, for one, to outfit those seats with the partner’s specific branding, logo and packaging, which saves that company money, time and flexibility, since they don’t have to manage the inventory or upfront capital and overhead costs. E Com is often invisible to the end customer throughout. It’s a business model that’s seen growth: a 20 percent gain in 2012 and a 15 percent mark thus far in 2013, president Scott Ebersole said, largely due to a renewed marketing effort over the past two years. “What’s growing us is our customer service,” Ebersole said. “The people we partner with, they’ve spent years building their name, and we’ve spent years building ours. We want to make them look good. We want to ship quick and ship a quality product. That’s the thing that’s kept us in business.” Another kicker? E Com is celebrating 20 years. Ebersole credits that longevity to his relatively small, but dedicated, workforce. “We’re pretty proud of that (milestone),” he said. “I can’t brag on the guys I have enough.” 110 Mill Drive, Cookeville (615) 683-8000 MP Components Putnam County, inspection tooling MP Components made a big splash back in 2004 and 2005 when it expanded its Michigan base with a second location in Cookeville. Today, the company, which builds checking fixtures, which act like quality control tools to measure specific parts, mainly in vehicles, is still humming away. Their main customer continues to be automotive based, and that’s serving as a big driver – no pun intended – these days, with a recent growth in sales. John Schlatter, vice president/controller, and his brother, Joseph, purchased the company in 2003. The next year, they began to search for a second location to the Michigan operation. After paying visits to both Knoxville and Crossville, the siblings chose Cookeville and took up shop in the city’s Lemon Farris Industrial Park. “Ten years ago, the business was really slowing down (in Michigan). People were laying off, there wasn’t a lot of work. It seemed like a lot of stamphouses were moving south,” John Schlatter said. “We decided that, if we were going to stay in the game, we needed to spread our wings a little bit and be in a convenient location for the customers. Of course Cookeville was right smack in the middle of it all.” Since opening, MP Components has grown to 17 employees. Sales have boomed in the past two years. Schlatter said they used to be “lucky” to do $700,000 a year in sales. They’re looking to break $3 million this year. “That’s just craziness when you think it,” Schlatter said. “There’s a lot more work in the automotive industry in the last year, a lot of car changes, new car models have come out and there’s a lot of new plants, just a lot of investment by the automotive industry. It’s exploding.” That’s led the company to think more progressively as far as its future plans. MP Components has already invested several hundred thousand dollars in new equipment. There’s more to follow. “We really need to expand this building to fit more stuff,” Schlatter said. “If things keep going well, we hope to do that in a couple years. And then add on more people as we go.” 1805 Lemon Farris Road, Cookeville (931) 525-1600 Precision Molding Inc. White County, injection molding Precision Molding Inc. (PMI) began 26 years ago, using three small machines to produce five products in a 4,000-square-foot rented space. Since then, the company has never looked back. Today, PMI, a plastic supplier for automotive, appliance, medical and consumer products, operates out of its own 97,000-square-foot building on 32 acres in Sparta. There are 176 associates spread over three shifts, and those workers produce more than 600 different parts for more than 60 clients. Its largest customer sector is Japanese automotive, said Stan McGinniss. They secure business by way of RFQ, or requests for quotation. In addition to its current position, PMI has seen an additional 15 percent growth in work already awarded and will launch even more projects within the next 18 months. McGinniss expects the company’s worker total to hit approximately 200 by December 2014. “Our success comes (because of) our reputation,” he said. “Without a doubt (that’s because of) our employees. We have some of the smartest, most dedicated hard working employees available anywhere.” 5500 Roberts Matthews Highway, Sparta (931) 738-8376 Eaton Corp. Jackson County, manufacturer For more than 100 employees in Jackson County, Eaton Corp. is home. The Gainesboro operations, one of four manufacturing sites for Eaton Corp., are part of Eaton’s hydraulics division. It’s there that 115 workers manufacture fittings and adapters with one mission in mind: to be the most admired supplier for a division of the company that supports agricultural, vehicle and industrial customers worldwide. And it seems the Gainesboro plant is on the right track and is experiencing growth – approximately 10 percent, said Chad Robinson, manufacturing operations manager. Eaton runs two 10-hour shifts Monday-Thursday and a 12-hour weekend shift Friday-Sunday at the steel plant. The brass plant currently operates two 10-hour shifts Monday-Thursday. Employees are also long-standing members of the community and many have been active in charitable work for many years. In 2012, in partnership with other community groups, Gainesboro employees supplied Christmas angel tree gift sets to more than 350 underprivileged children and food boxes to more than 50 homes. “(Our) future is strong at the Gainesboro location,” Robinson said. “Our employees are the key to our success. Safety is priority one coupled with an empowered workforce that drives continuous improvements in our operation.” 1107 N. Grundy Quarles Highway, Gainesboro (931) 268-0283
Posted on: Sat, 07 Sep 2013 21:08:33 +0000
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