River Bend Industries Takes Local Factory from Red to Black

ICAD Client Ramping Up Production

From the Corridor Business Journal

Reporter:  Gigi Wood

Every penny counts.  Saving $50 a month in energy costs doesn’t seem like much for a major manufacturing company. But shutting off a series of florescent lights adds up to $600 a year.  "If you want to stay in business, $600 matters to us," said Bill Collins, general manager of River Bend Industries. "We challenge every (cost)."

Company leaders provided factory tours last week during a ribbon-cutting ceremony. River Bend is celebrating eight months of success since taking over Victor Plastics on April 21.  "It’s different after running in the red every month at Victor and after the first month with River Bend being in the black and continuing to be in the black," said Scott Pope, plant manager.

Victor Plastics, a plastic-injection molding company, started in 1983 in the city of Victor, opened its North Liberty plant in 1995. The company filed for bankruptcy in January, listing $20 million in debt, after its relationship with Whirlpool severed. River Bend took over the company in an asset-based buyout, assuming none of the company’s debt.

Now the North Liberty plant’s 95 employees are ramping up production. River Bend makes parts for Electrolux washers and dryers, which sold out on the recent retail holiday, Black Friday.  "(The national economy) hasn’t had the effect on us that we had anticipated,” Mr. Pope said. “We have a lot of work that we need to do for them (Electrolux)."  The company forecasts a bustling production year ahead. The company plans to start a large project for Whirlpool in March that will keep the plant busy all year.  “When ’09 starts it’s going to be busy from the very first day and we expect it to be that way for the entire year,” he said.

The North Liberty factory went through many changes when River Bend took over. Instead of four 12-hour shifts over a five-day work week, the factory now runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. No new people were hired to cover the new shifts.  "We’ve focused on making sure everything is very lean," Mr. Collins said. "We run a very efficient plant."

River Bend spent $100,000 on production monitors and equipment to electronically oversee assembly cycles and waste production. Before, such tracking was done manually.  "I can look at the production from home on the weekends," he said. "I can hook my laptop up to the plant, see what’s running, see what the efficiencies are, who the staff is."

The 233,000-square-foot plant uses 45 production machines, each weighing 85 to 1,000 tons. Management took time studies of various factory processes, timing out how long it took to complete each task. They then rerouted many of the assembly lines, condensing parts of the assembly process. At some stations, two parts are assembled at a time instead of one and because of improved setups the number of employees at various areas of production was reduced. Rather than take certain parts to the warehouse for storage, those components are now immediately used in the production line, saving on time, labor and handling costs.

"We’ve taken a lot of waste out from the Victor days," Mr. Collins said.  Robotics systems have been enhanced for greater efficiency and work stations properly organized. In one area, a job that took five people a day to create 16 crates worth of product now takes three people a day who output 25 crates worth.

"If you had been here in the Victor days and looked up the aisles, you would have seen dozens of people just falling all over themselves," he said. "I knew right when I came here, I said, 'wow, that’s too many people in here.' And I saw a lot of people with no work. If you’re in here and you’re working, you’ve got to support yourself."

They also installed fingerprint scanners in lieu of time card machines. That way, employees cannot clock in and out for their co-workers.  "You can’t cheat the system," Mr. Collins said. "I’ve seen it happen over the years."  In the Victor days, employees never saw the cost of goods or services used to make products at the factory. Now everyone has access to that information and is held accountable when prices are too high.

"It’s amazing what that word 'pride' will do for somebody," said Gary Hansen, a manager at the plant. "You get to have a little pride in your work and get to see what comes from it."

River Bend employs 101 at its Victor factory, located 40 miles west of North Liberty, who work on 27 machines that weigh 85 to 3,000 tons.