Birk Manufacturing Blog

Don’t be a Monkey

Joan Reeder — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 13:25:35 +0000

There is an old story about company policy that goes as such:

Subject: Company Policy

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result – all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth.

Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys has ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana.

Why not?

Because, as far as they know, that’s the way it’s always been
done around here.

And that, my friends, is how company policy begins.

We here at Birk pride ourselves on breaking down the old adage of ”that’s the way it has always been done”. This is why we have The BALL (Birk Academy of Learning and Lean) and why all departments have open-door policies. Everyone in the company is empowered to make changes in order to improve our efficiencies and our current habits.

Mark O’Connell

Engineering Manager

Preparing for launch…

Joan Reeder — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 14:02:22 +0000

This year Birk Manufacturing is on a mission to improve and enhance our entire Quality Management System (QMS) and align our policies, processes and procedures in place to obtain AS9100 certification. The AS9100 standard is designed to meet stringent, complex and unique demands of the defense and commercial Aerospace Industry. Over the past decade, as the company has developed and matured, we have continued to augment and adapt our standard operating procedures and quality policies and objectives with industry regulations and standards. We are constantly committed to providing our customers with superior quality products that are safe, reliable and have proper documentation and traceability. Over six years ago the company ventured into the world of industry regulation and became ISO 9001:2000 certified before updating to the newest revision in 2008. We continued to improve our QMS further in 2009 when we obtained ISO 13485:2003 certification, which accredits our QMS for being fully capable of producing a product that is compliant to the strict requirements of the medical device industry. We take special pride in the fact that we are bestowed the honor and trust of producing a product that will affect the quality of an individual’s life. It allows us to take more value, responsibly and ownership in our jobs and makes us want to continue to grow, learn and develop as a company. Here’s to new beginnings as we start our next chapter in the improvement process of Birk’s QMS. Look for our certification on our website later this year!

Carleton Birk

Quality Assurance Manager

Problem Solving Doesn’t Have To Be a Problem

Joan Reeder — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 20:32:47 +0000

As an engineer, it is more common than not, that at some point in your day someone will come to you with a problem to solve. It is our responsibility as engineers to help people with these problems and come up with an answer, but sometimes that is not the right mentality. Engineers have been trained that every problem has a solution – only one solution. This can create a huge injustice to our company and our customers.

In the interest of our customers and Birk, sometimes it is better to have the mindset that we need to create solutions rather than just solve problems. By creating a solution you can have a broader view of what the issue is and possibly think of everything on a larger scale. By altering our mindset from problem solver to that of being a solution creator, we can provide solutions that are more efficient, easier to manufacture and even more cost effective.

What solutions can Birk create for you today?

Mark O’Connell

Engineering Manager

R&D, First Article and Production Costs

Joan Reeder — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:13:31 +0000

Birk Manufacturing business is thermal circuits and subassemblies. This requires us to be nimble and cost effective at the same time, although, these two demands make for a challenging relationship. Most of the time being expedient is associated with substantially higher costs, due in part by the necessity to carry more inventory and having materials shipped overnight, which can be avoided by working together and partnering. Combine all that and you have custom manufacturing. We have accepted orders with turnaround of as little as one day and our standard lead time from receipt of order to shipping is two weeks, obviously we prefer a bit more time but have the ability, resources and willingness to work with the customer.

How are we able to respond so quickly? We have most of the required resources under one roof. Customers can directly contact our application engineers; we have an onsite etching facility for foil heating elements, a dark room with an image setter, screening room, standard resistance wires, a multitude of lead wires and sensors. We are a company large enough to handle prototypes, large production runs and still accept those small orders of high end units, knowing that they may be the seeds of the future.

Some customers know exactly what they want and have chosen the best cost-effective design, others are not quite so sure and sometimes that works out well. The ability to build with universal parts, or the reduction of manufacturing processes, is a huge factor in cost and is usually only completely understood by a specialized company. The sooner you get our engineers involved with a project and design, the more you benefit with application performance and pricing. We also have a large sales force, many are engineers that will make visits and assist in any way possible. The best way to survive in today’s business climate is to cultivate great supply chains and partnerships where both parties prosper and profit.

Howard Birk

Vice President

New Year, New Goals and Objectives

Joan Reeder — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:52:24 +0000

The beginning of a new year ushers in the opportunity to plan for the future and set new goals and objectives which everyone will work towards achieving over the next twelve months. Our team at Birk is well known for having high aspirations and expectations and we’re constantly seeking a new challenge to conquer. That being said, this is always an exciting time of year at Birk Manufacturing and one that is full of much anticipation and enthusiasm.

This year Birk has selected to target our company wide quality objectives as the main event for our twelve month heavy weight battle. We have increased our weekly on time fill rate (OTFR) goal from above 90% to above 95%. For this objective we track how well we respond to our customer demand, not how well we perform against what we determined as our target ship date based on current workload and inventory supplies. If a customer calls Birk and requests to have their order in three days when our current lead time is two to three weeks, we use the three day request when calculating our metric. We feel this calculation better portrays how well we serve our valued customers. Furthermore, we also track the how well we fulfill customer demand without shipping any defective or non-conforming product. We track this using our monthly defect-free OTFR which takes the average OTFR for the past month and calculates it against our returns percentage for that same month. This year our goal for monthly defect-free OTFR has been increased from above 85% to above 93%. Other quality objectives include reduction of scrap, reduction of orders returned, zero full orders returned, and zero lost-time due to safety. Now that we have our new goals and objectives for 2012…let the battle begin!

Happy New Year!

Carleton Birk

Quality Assurance Manager

Variety Is the Spice of Life

Joan Reeder — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 18:52:03 +0000

Here at Birk Manufacturing we have the pleasure of developing products for a vast array of applications. We have designed heaters and thermal solutions for toys and in the same month have developed heaters for space stations. In our industry we are able to provide a thermal solution anywhere an end customer may need heat. Our top industries cover the following areas:

1. Medical
2. Semiconductor
3. Defense
4. Industrial
5. Commercial

Just because these are our top industries does not mean we are only limited to these industries as we have provided solutions to other industries and applications. One day we could be designing a heater for a blood analyzer and the next we could be designing a sub-assembly for railway threshold.

If you need to provide, control or localize a thermal solution, we can help you with your design. We may not have designed a solution for your application but we have surely done something similar. New industries and applications (no matter how big or small) are always welcomed at Birk Manufacturing!

Mark O’Connell
Engineering Manager

Tis’ the Season!!!

Joan Reeder — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:01:42 +0000

This week we are planning our Physical Inventory and Christmas parties, the two apparently do not mix well. This is the time of year we rejoice and reflect on the past year, and then set a course for the New Year. Our company, as a whole, has a lot to be very thankful for, made possible by the combined efforts of many individuals. Through out the year there have been some growing pains to be sure, but with the understanding that is essential for the company to move forward. All the employees have been challenged to continue to grow by learning new subjects or gain a deeper understanding resulting in leaving their comfort zone. We do not go by the status quo; we know that will not work. We have an opportunity to control our own destiny, an opportunity that many other companies don’t have, and we all share in the rewards.

This year we are starting an annual Physical Inventory where we actually close down production. It will start December 27^th at 7:00am. We do have a well briefed team that is amply prepared for the event. For the first time ever we will shut down for the short week to focus on this, having already focused these past few weeks on getting jobs out early that would have been planned to ship out next week. We will leave early today, Friday, December 23, 2011 to enjoy our Christmas party, knowing that we have a plan and a future!

Howie

Vice President

Just a Thought

Joan Reeder — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 21:13:53 +0000

As I sit and enjoy my lunch and the brief calm moment at my desk, I can hear the cheers and jeers of the employees playing and watching badminton in the building, a brief smile appears. By nature I am a product type guy, usually trying to build a better mouse trap or thinking about cost efficiencies, so the idea of having a bad mitten court in the building was a bit foreign! Reflecting further, I recognize the success our company has achieved and the effort that everyone is contributing, this is a great group and that I am very fortunate to be part of building a first class company, so play on.

Thanksgiving is my favorite time of year for many reasons, most of which are outdoor activities, cool crisp air, a little football and that home cooked Thanksgiving meal with the family. It is this time that the collection boxes for the local food drive is set in place. I do briefly pause, look up and around and give thanks. Perhaps I should do it more often, enjoy the people and the success before moving on to the next challenge or goal. Taking care of business is nice but appreciating the people and those we can help will make you much happier, as I am finally finding out.

In closing I would like to say thanks to all the people that I have the pleasure to work with, and that I am working on my people skills, still. Now that I have lightly stepped out of my comfort zone, my next correspondence will be more product and business oriented. Thanks again and Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Howie Birk

Vice President

Customer Service and the 5 Rules of Birk – Rule #2

Joan Reeder — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 12:49:50 +0000

This is a continuation of my blog titled Customer Service and the 5 Rules of Birk.

The 5 Rules of Birk convey basic principles we feel are fundamental to doing good business. They are:

1 – Customer First

2 – Help Each Other

3 – Learn New Skills

4 – Communicate

5 – Have Fun

BIRK RULE #2 – Help Each Other

A challenge for many businesses is getting employees to pull together and function as a team instead of going in separate directions. At Birk, we have created a workplace where people are encouraged to collaborate and help each other succeed. Our employees are our greatest resource, and on any given day, a commitment to teamwork is evident throughout our building.

We understand employees (and organizations) are more productive and experience better morale if we build highly functional teams. Through LEAN manufacturing, we’ve built a unique culture of teambuilding by giving people the opportunity to work together effectively, supporting them and encouraging collaboration. Teams were created to study areas in which processes could be improved to become more efficient. When employees were allowed to collaborate positively, they performed better and with fewer problems.

Buy-in from all employees was extremely important to effectively implement LEAN principles and remains imperative to its continued success. A consistent message of shared purpose helps everyone to feel we are all part of the same team. After all, we are all working towards the same goal: to produce a quality product that meets our customers’ needs.

Stacey Stevens

Customer Service Manager

Birk Manufacturing, Inc.

Built-in NOT bolted-on…

Joan Reeder — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:07:20 +0000

Quality of our products and processes along with an added emphasis on continuous improvement are the way of life here at Birk. Among co-workers the term “quality” is all encompassing and means delivering a degree of excellence at every step of the way. Key performance indicators play an integral part in ensuring our quality is not only acceptable but is also being constantly updated to reflect a higher gradation of superiority. Each department within Birk is responsible for generating, tracking, maintaining and reporting departmental goals which are appropriately aligned with the overall organizational strategy of providing quality products on time at a great value.

During scheduled management reviews and quality audits the performance of each department is discussed and reviewed in great detail. If metrics show that the objective is not being met corrective action and opportunities for improvement are debated by all of management until a solid resolution is determined. When the goal is found to be easily achieved time in and time out a new goal is established that has a higher degree of excellence. Furthermore, when an issue arises that is detriment to our success the manager of the affected department will not wait until a periodic review or audit takes place and will take immediate action to resolve the issue and institute controls for future prevention.

Unlike many organizations, quality at Birk is not just about a final inspection process solely based on acceptance and rejection. Rather, it’s built into our DNA, ingrained into our organizational culture, and a pivotal cornerstone to our strategy for success.

Carleton Birk

Quality Assurance Manager