Middlestreet (CONT’D FROM PAGE 22)
offers; in conjunction with the training from manufacturers like Young Shin the operators can truly be called experts within a year’s time. The company also uses an online cur- riculum iLearning from Printing United Alliance organiza- tion. Additionally, Middlestreet’s displays have a level of complexity not typical for many corrugated converters. “It’s a steep learning curve,” said Kevin Rutherford, Print manager. As is the case with all manufacturing facilities in today’s marketplace, Middlestreet has seen a huge shift in the number of employees required to run the more advanced machine. “With the SMP from Durst installation,” said De- Marco, “we are expecting to reduce the workforce on that machine from six to only one. But we will retain the current employees, which is important to retain those individuals and we have plans to use them in new roles and respon- sibilities. In terms of adding employees, we’ve kept things very lean on the manufacturing side. Any growth in the workforce has gone in developing the creative, project management, and sales side.” DeMarco also credits the company’s workforce with accepting — and rising — to the challenge of increased automation within the manufacturing process. “Many com- panies have pushback from employees when any new or unfamiliar technology is introduced, but Kevin Brammer and Kevin Rutherford have built a team that is not only ac-
source printed sheets to a Local Partner to be die cut to the tune of more than $3 million annually. “It just really made a lot more sense to just insource that work,” DeMarco said. “Out of the 20 investments made since I joined the company, 19 are ahead of schedule in terms of return on investment. We typically like to plan for 24 months on ROI; currently we are averaging around 18 months on those investments.” Much of that success DeMarco attributes to the team that has been assembled over the years. “How our peo- ple were able to onboard so quickly and interact with the service teams from the machine manufactures is the main reason we were able to ramp things up so quickly. In terms of the Young Shin, we were very fortunate to find an opera- tor with experience on the machine. But he only had work- ing knowledge of working with one substrate. He quickly gained experience with B-flute, E-flute, coroplast, and tag stock. Then it was a matter of learning the advanced tech- nology that comes along with the new machine; it’s a huge jump in terms of automation.” Building Strong Teams DeMarco’s favorite aspect of his job remains his ability to build great teams. The fact that several team members have followed him from other companies is testament to the allegiance he builds. Part of that is the robust training program the company
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