Wausau, WI, July 17--Award Hardwood Floors of Wausau has been in business only since 1997, but even in that short time, the company has made many changes to its product designs and manufacturing processes.
That sort of flexibility is imperative for manufacturers, who must compete with low-cost labor in Asia and high-tech automation in Europe and the rest of the U.S., as reported in the Wausau Daily Herald.
Also important is developing a niche, and Award Hardwood Floors has succeeded in that effort. The company makes 128 designs of finished hardwood flooring from nine species of hardwood for independent retailers and for the private labels of home center chains such as Menards and Home Depot.
"We've grown from $10 million in sales to more than $30 million," said Susan Lang, vice president of operations at Award Hardwood Floors. "Along the way we've added a lot of complexity and a lot of people."
The company's sales growth means it has grown from 32 employees in 1997 to 142 employees today. It's a never-ending mission to do things better, faster and with less waste.
That's how Wisconsin and U.S. manufacturers have survived. According to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the number of people employed in manufacturing jobs has remained relatively stable for more than 50 years while those same number of employees have been producing six times more goods.
"Right now our manufacturers are really getting beat up by China and Asia," said Nick George, spokesman for Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce. "We can't compete on price alone. What our folks can compete on is they are flexible, innovative and risk takers. They are constantly adopting new technologies. They compete with higher-quality products and focus on customer service."
Award Hardwood Floors, like many other successful manufacturers, trains diligently and constantly. The new machines and new employees require a significant amount of training. The latest technologies improve efficiency, but only if the employees master them.
The company, which was nominated for the Wau-sau/Marathon County Chamber of Commerce's 2003 business of the year, has hired outside consultants to find inefficiencies in their processes. It has also hired the state and federally subsidized Northwest Wisconsin Manufacturing Outreach Center.
In 1999, the Northwest Wisconsin Manufacturing Outreach Center, a nonprofit group that helps mostly small manufacturers streamline their processes, helped Award Hardwood Floors with its manufacturing and scheduling. As a result, Award Hardwood Floors was able to cut the time it took from receiving an order to shipping it from more than three weeks to just six days.
"There's only a small amount of work in making a product that is value added - things like printing, painting, forming and assembly," said Jim Van Grinsven, the outreach center's project manager. "It's all those other things that add to the cost that we try to help people eliminate--from scrap, to rejects, defects and wait time."
Award Hardwood Floors is looking to use outreach center's services again, but this time to improve its factory layout to improve efficiency, said Lang. It all matters--from employee training, to where its machines are placed and to how much of the wood the company buys ends up in its final product.
"The discipline of holding good practices are the toughest for manufacturers to do," said Lang. "Some of the things are very simple."
Even with all the success, Award Hardwood Floors is not immune to competition and a slow economy. The company laid off about 30 employees earlier this year, and has since hired half of them back.
