9
W
henPlencoVice President of Manufacturing
Adam
Brotz
looks closely at the company’s ResinDepart-
ment, he sees significant changes that have taken
place over the last five years that have doubled resinproduction
capacity tomeet increased demand from the natural gas and
other sectors of theU.S. economy.
“We’re very excited to seewhere theResinDepartment will
be five years fromnow,”Adam told
PlastiScope21
. He attributed
Plenco’s ability tomove rapidly as conditions change to several
factors. “The role of all our in-house experts cannot be under-
estimated,” he said. “Many of our systems andmanufacturing
processes have been designedby our own engineers, and that is
a distinct competitive advantage.”
Adam citedhands-on companymanagement over the genera-
tions as another reason for theResinDepartment’s aggressive
development in response to changingmarkets. “Every day, we
areworking closelywith the Plenco team to anticipate andplan
for the future,” he said.
MikeBrotz
, PlencoPresident andCEO, is responsible for
muchof themanagement leadership andplanning that brought
theResinDepartment to itsmarket leadership since he became
president in 1994.
“There is no such thing as a ‘new’ phenolic resin,”Mike told
PlastiScope21
. “Phenolic resins have been around formore than
100 years.What is new aswe look ahead are the changes in
processes andproduction that allowPlenco tobecomemore
efficient, effective and creative inhowwe design, test, formulate
andmake resins tomeet newmarkets and applications.”
Inperfecting the company’s response tonew resin demands
onwhich future successwill be based, there is one essential
ingredient. “The very nature, commitment and intellectual
prowess of Plenco employees is themarginof difference
between continuedbusiness success and falling behind,”Mike
said.
“Working smarter (not necessarily harder!), using better
judgment basedon training and experience, andmost of all a
personal commitment to doing the best jobpossible by each
and every one of us, willmake all the difference in continuing
the progresswe all havemade together in the past,”Mike said.
“Our Plencopeople arewhatmake the difference, andwemust
never forget that.”
It wasMike, asVice President of Manufacturing 30 years ago,
who led themove toward including a cross-functionality of
Plenco employees in decision-making efforts to confront
challenges andmake changes through the PlencoActionBoard,
as it was namedby the late LouieKorb (WorksManager/
Manager of QualityAssurance) that covers eachof themajor
production departments of the company.
He recalledhow a number of “participatorymanagement
techniques” popular in the 1980swere researched and consid-
ered at the time such as “QualityCircles,” “Six Sigma,” and
others. “None seemed to fit the Plenco culture,”Mike said.
“Instead, the company’smanagement devised the PAB
framework for providing a channel for Plenco employees to
be directly involved inplanning, trouble-shooting and quality
assurance discussions and decisions.”
The PABwas an invaluable component of Plenco’s
continuous improvement program andwas essential in gaining
InternationalOrganization for Standardization (ISO 9001)
certification, theworld’smostlywidely recognized certification
system.
Another factor that differentiates Plenco is that it does not
rely on external service companies and vendors. “We knowour
production facilities better than any outsider,”Adam said, “and
ExcitingChangesTakingPlace
InPlencoResinDepartment
‘Cross-Functionality’Results inCustomizedEquipment,
Processes that ProvideCompetitiveAdvantages
What adifference60-yearsmakes! First resinbuildingpictured in1950 (left) andResin facility in2010 (right).
