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April 2023 Newsletter
One Maag America – Together, as a team, we can accomplish more Dear Team MAAG Americas, The first quarter of 2023 is behind us and we are seeing some challenges ahead. Orders have been trailing behind plan by 4%. March was a reasonably good orders month, yet we could not make up entirely for the very slow intake in January and February. Specifically, the recycling segment is currently very slow. Low virgin resin prices and high interest rates are temporarily slowing down investment in recycling. I do believe this will pass and we will pick up again later in the year. MAAG Americas is currently on par for shipments but behind in EBIT by 6% points. Our performance with respect to profitability is directly tied to how much we ship. March has been a good shipments month and if we can keep up the pace, we will make up some ground in the coming months. On the group level MAAG is about on plan for the first quarter – we win as a Team. We have made on time delivery improvements a major theme for 2023. MAAG Kent held last month their first Kaizen event to dig deeper how to improve such. As it has been discussed prior, it is clear that every team from sales to final assembly and shipping plays a role and there is significant room for improvement to keep systems on track. I am pleased with the action items that came out of that first event and we will start implementing changes in the coming months. The Eagle Rock team will host a similar event later this year. Currently they are focused on improving engineering and shop floor scheduling to get a much better handle on true capacities. This, in combination with lower order intake, is resulting in shorter lead times for our customers. Cheers - Martin
MAAG’s management team visited Witte in Hamburg, Germany March 21 st . Ueli Thuerig provided an update on MAAG and the integration efforts during a town hall meeting. Communication is key in all integrations, there are many questions, and it is never done within just a few months. We had lots of one-on-one conversations with the Witte team and all the employees appreciated that we visited and made ourselves available for Q&A.
Industry at a crossroads
Plastics recycling undergoing tremendous change
This is a resource!
Fernandina Beach, Fla. — The recycled PET sector, Alex Delnik believes, is at a crossroads. Make no mistake, Delnik is bullish on the business, as chief operating officer at Circularix LLC, which is planning a network of five PET recycling plants around the country in the next couple of years. Each one will process 75 million pounds of PET flake into new pellets. "There is no guaranteed success going forward," he said. "The industry has changed from our point of view over the last two or three years more dramatically than the previous 15 years." Societal forces play more of a role in plastics, and recycled plastics, than ever before in the United States . Countless companies have made environmental pledges to increase the amount of recycled PET used in their packaging, but the stark reality is that there simply won't be enough supply to meet all of the pledges, many tied to 2025 or 2030 target dates . "What we had prior to 2019, we had a fragmented group of companies," Delnik said. "Pricing was benchmarked to virgin resin. It led to extreme volatility. Virgin PET, highly volatile. It has tremendous periods of volatility, usually related to oil and natural gas pricing, but also in development of new capacity," he said. This led to a situation where recyclers were unable to forecast their own revenues because of the volatility of pricing. And that impacted existing businesses as well as the ability to finance recycling projects. "There was no reason to finance. No investor, no private investor, no institutional investor would do anything," Delnik said. "[Recycled] PET was considered an inferior substitute for virgin PET. It was kind of like PET, but not as good as virgin PET," he added. And customers demanded a discount off virgin resin pricing. Recycled PET, in the past, was also used in smaller percentages of finished products, so quality was less of an issue. That meant there was no reason to justify investments to improve quality. "That was the sorry state of the PET industry. Things have changed over the last couple of years," he said, starting in Europe, where higher-quality recycled PET became more normalized.
"Improving the quality of recycled PET is really difficult. Incremental improvement is not linear. It's more difficult with every increasing pound of recycled PET to meet recycled content. It's kind of an exponential scale of difficulty," he said. While increased demand for recycled PET has led to a decoupling of prices from virgin PET, Delnik said, market forces are still at play. "Demand is real and positive. But, clearly, this is not something that we can guarantee going forward," he said. "We do have a decoupling from virgin prices. We do have an acceptance of the premium that companies have, but those are not unlimited," he said. As the gap between recycled and virgin resin prices increases, despite the pledges, "the appetite from companies using recycled content goes down," Delnik said. A key to all of this, he said, is establishing a value for the used PET bottle. PET's recycling rate of about 29 percent in the United States, he said, is kind of a meaningless number to gage the market. States with bottle deposits have recycling rates in the 70, 80, 90 percent range, he said. States without deposits don't come close , he said. "The average collection rate is just under 30 percent. I would argue that number is absolutely meaningless. That number represents nothing. There's no state in the nation that has collection rate anywhere close to that number on either side," Delnik said. "What we need to realize is that unless we establish value to the bottle, unless the bottle has a value at any point of its useful life, we are not going to get collection rates — very simple," he said. Delnik previously operated PET recycler Verdeco Recycling in Terre Haute, Ind., a few hours from one of the most talked about rivalries in college football: Michigan vs. Ohio State. In his view, tailgating at both teams' stadiums serve as a microcosm for PET bottle recycling. PET bottles quickly disappear from Michigan's parking lots thanks to that state's deposit bill. Enterprising students can make some quick cash by collecting the discards of others. But Ohio State's lots are trashed with bottle debris due to a lack of bottle deposits there. "Everybody talks about it. I don't think anybody here disagrees that we need to increase collection. But I don't think that we fully understand that we can talk about it as much as we want to until the cows come home," Delnik said. "But unless we do something that works, nothing is going to change." "[The] recycled PET industry, from our point of view, is really at an important crossroads. And I think that what we need to do, we need to basically be intellectually honest and realize what's working [and] what's not. Learn from our mistakes in the past and move forward," Delnik said. "That includes really increasing collection rates through deposit return systems or reverse vending machines. Anything that assigns value to the bottle. We need to build recycle mandates" Source: JIM JOHNSON Staff Writer, Plastics News Staff
New Video
Want to know what happens with your detergent bottles if properly recycled? One of our customers ADS Drainage is using more than 550 Million lbs. of such bottles and turning them into highly engineered wastewater systems (pipes). Plastics as the solution to an urgent problem of updating US water infrastructure.
Welcome March New Hires It was a wonderful March as we welcomed many new employees. When you see them, check in, see if they have any questions, ask them how they are doing and give them a warm Maag Americas Welcome!
Jon Hanna Design /Mechanical Engineer Kent
Scott Harrington Field Service Engineer Kent
Ranger Clarkson Packaging/Crating Oper. Eagle Rock
Robert Green Material Handler/Assembler Kent
Chase Higgins Fabricator Eagle Rock
Madison Hix Die Plate Sales Eagle Rock
Hannah Wolfe Design Engineer Eagle Rock
James Markham Packaging/Crating Oper. Eagle Rock
Farewell We wish the following people who left in March the best of luck in their future endeavors: Kent: Raymond Nichols Eagle Rock: Greg Newcomb, Andrew Fridley Charlotte: Juerg Hassler
March Raffle Winners Kent: Kevin Stephenson & David Trout EGR: Todd Leonard & Jason VanNess
Congrats to our winners! Tickets for April are Orange Good luck to everyone!
Taco Bell Breakfast Burritos are always a big hit!
Effective Leadership Development Graduation Congratulations, Team Leaders!
In March, this group of 12 Team Leaders in Eagle Rock completed a 9-session Effective Leadership Development program through OpX Solutions, Inc. This program provided 30+ training hours focused on in-depth and practical immediately applicable leadership principles, both in-class and self-study. A huge thank you to each participant for your dedication, concentration, and willingness to take this personal and professional journey to enhance leadership effectiveness. This course will continue in 2023 for other Team Leaders within MAAG Americas.
Pictured Above (Back Row) Mike Moran, Tim Falls, Jerry Caldwell, George Benoit, Lance Craft (Front Row) Alisha Konst, Morris O’Conner, Scott Craft, Jonny Angus, Lorrie Breeding, Robin Hodges and Instructor, Lois James from OpX Solutions. Not pictured, Dan Dillow.
April Anniversaries
Department
Location
Yrs. Of Service
Name
Scott Craft
30
Engineering
Eagle Rock
Jason VanNess
27
Manuf. & Operations
Eagle Rock
Donald Reynolds
25
Manuf. & Operations
Eagle Rock
Rob Dudley
23
Sales & Marketing
Eagle Rock
Chris Kessler
18
Sales & Marketing
Eagle Rock
David Gimmel
17
Manuf. & Operations
Kent
Chad Ross
12
Manuf. & Operations
Kent
James Smarr
12
Manuf. & Operations
Kent
Robert Hoover
12
Manuf. & Operations
Kent
Craig Stankewitz
12
Manuf. & Operations
Kent
Gregory Piper
12
Manuf. & Operations
Kent
John Dillon
10
Manuf. & Operations
Eagle Rock
Jeff Smith
10
Sales & Marketing
Kent
Jeremy Danford
9
Sales & Marketing
Kent
April Anniversaries
Department
Location
Yrs. Of Service
Name
Josh Ginger
9
Sales & Marketing
Eagle Rock
Paul Hueter
8
Sales & Marketing
Tyrone
Curtis Goad
7
Manuf. & Operations
Eagle Rock
Tyler Broughman
5
Manuf. & Operations
Eagle Rock
Zachary Michael
4
Manuf. & Operations
Kent
Nicole Joyce
4
Finance
Eagle Rock
Bert Markham
2
Manuf. & Operations
Eagle Rock
Daniel Hunt
2
Manuf. & Operations
Eagle Rock
Joe Wilcox
2
Sales & Marketing
Kent
Chris Cook
1
Manuf. & Operations
Kent
Jacob Hodges
1
Manuf. & Operations
Eagle Rock
Ethan Deisher
1
Manuf. & Operations
Eagle Rock
Maria Harris
1
Engineering
Eagle Rock
Safety Message
April is Distracted Driving Month
Hobbies William Antunez – eCommerce Manager (Kent)
Like the popular depiction of young children playing soccer in the streets of Latin American countries, so was the way that William Antunez learned the game in his native country of Honduras. Despite his mother telling him to study and focus on school, William would often take to the streets to polish his skills as a soccer player. William learned to play on hard surfaces like many of the worlds’ best players - in street alleys, using a ball if they could find one, or a tin can if that was all that was available. He didn’t have the opportunity to play club soccer while growing up but many of the older kids in his neighborhood did. To keep up and compete with the older kids, William needed to be stronger and faster. He loved pushing himself and his teammates from the position of underdog where they fought hard for that opportunity to succeed against the bigger, better, faster players. Fast-forward to the early 2000’s when William and his family came to the US. Settling in the Akron area, William’s passion for soccer was still just as strong as it had been in Honduras. While looking for an opportunity to play competitive soccer, William joined a local organized league and pulled together enough players to field a team. His leadership and organizational skills were put to the test when he was asked to be the VP of NOASA – North Ohio Amateur Soccer Association. With incredible drive and determination, William was able to help re-build the open division and grew it from 1 to 12 teams.
Marriage and having children resulted in William pulling away from his leadership role for a few years but he continued to play. Sadly the 12 teams dwindled to 8 teams over the next years and some of the remaining teams started talking about branching out to start a new league threatening to evaporate the open division. William came back to help build the new open division into a new organization, the Akron Premier League was built and now has a fully functioning board of directors and 11 highly competitive teams. 2022 was a highlight for William when his team won the Championship. About 4 years ago, William started coaching youth soccer for his sons’ team - using the “be the change you want to see” philosophy when he realized the kids needed better coaching. William admits that he was terrified at first – he was
worried about negatively influencing or impacting kids – but after the 1 st season, the feedback from the parents was phenomenal bringing their kids back every season and praising the advanced learning their kids experienced. Since then, the team has moved up two levels and are competing against older kids. William’s approach has always been that it is not about winning but about having fun, learning, and working hard. William humbly shares: “It turns out that the most amazing thing is the opportunity to be a positive role model and impact a child’s life in a good way. I’m just grateful for the opportunity!”
Best Friends
Favorite Recipe
Siddarth Ramkumar, Director of Operations (Kent) and his two rescue dogs, Pimms (on the left in both pictures) and Chester (on the right). Both dogs were adopted as seniors and are living their best lives!
Pawan Kumar, Business Development Manager (EGR), on the weekends enjoys trying different recipes from around the globe. He enjoys finding out how spices change the flavor in food. Spices also provide antioxidant and other benefit to our system. Sounds like a preview to an upcoming hobby article! Thanks, Pawan.
Chicken Dum Biryani (Submitted by Puwan Kumar) Ingredients: Instructions:
500 Gram Chicken legs For the marinade:
1. First mix the saffron in half a cup of milk and keep aside. 2. Now in a bowl, add all the marination ingredients and coat the chicken pieces well with it. Let it marinate for about 4 hours. 3. Now to prepare the rice, put all the ingredients given except saffron and milk, in warm water along with washed rice. 4. Cook for 10-15 minutes. 5. Heat some ghee in a pan and add all the marinated chicken followed by cooked rice in it. Top with saffron milk, coriander leaves, fried onion and chopped almonds. Mix well. 6. Let it cook on a low heat (on dum, in its own heat) covered with foil for about 20-30 minutes (till the water evaporates and chicken and rice are fully cooked). 7. Open the dum when cooked, mix the rice well. You can drizzle with some rose water and serve hot.
1 tsp Red chili powder, 2 tsp Ginger-garlic paste,1/2 cup Yogurt,1/2 tsp Turmeric powder,1 tsp Coriander powder,1 tsp Garam masala powder, 1 1/2 tsp Salt For the rice: A pinch of Saffron,1/2 cup Milk,2 cups Water, 5 Cardamoms, 3 Cloves, 1 stick Cinnamon, 2 Mace,2 Black cardamom, 5 Black peppercorn, 1/2 tsp Salt, 1 cup Rice (long grain, washed basmati rice) For the finishing: 1 tbsp Ghee, 1 tbsp Coriander leaves, chopped, 2 tbsp Fried onion, 3 Almonds, chopped
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