Local Business Prepares for the Next Hundred Years
By Kate Bailey
A family-owned manufacturing business that has operated in New Castle for nearly 120 years recently learned it was leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the floor every year. Literally.
Thanks to help from the Delaware Manufacturing Extension Partnership (DEMEP), Wilmington Fibre saved $80,000 in a year by not wasting overruns that could be kept, catalogued, and sold to customers, saving the company money in labor and job setup.
“We have had eight continuous months of profit,” said David Celli, vice president of operations. “You want to talk about return. It’s fantastic.”
Celli describes Wilmington Fibre as a “non-metallic fabricator of custom specialties,” which means the company makes everything from gas seals, washers and bearings to Fender guitar picks and nylon nozzles for the fountains at Longwood Gardens. The company has even made custom guitar picks for famous musicians like the Rolling Stones and the Australian band, AC/DC, among others.
“We got to deliver backstage to The Who,” Celli said.
Stacked bins of Fender guitar picks line shelves in the manufacturing warehouse waiting to be shipped around the world. Those bins are now neat and tidy as a result of DEMEP’s help to get the manufacturing warehouse more organized.
“We’ve been working our way through the shop,” said Peter Ciamaricone, DEMEP field agent.
DEMEP helped Wilmington Fibre implement a 5S program so the company could operate more efficiently and plan for the future. The five S’s stand for sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain. This work has entailed everything from replacing cardboard boxes of product with clear plastic bins to show what’s inside to succession planning, so the company is prepared for upcoming retirements of seasoned and talented leadership and staff.
Learning a different way of doing things after many years can be challenging, Celli said, but well worth it.
“It’s like coaching, if you get the team to buy into it, you’ve got a winning product.”
– David Celli, Vice President of Operations, Wilmington Fibre
“We’ve been here 120 years,” Celli said. “Complacency is our biggest enemy.”
The company had fallen into a bit of a rut with some of its operating procedures before connecting with DEMEP, which operates as a recipient through Delaware Technical Community College in partnership with the United States Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology, the Delaware Division of Small Business, and the Delaware State and local Chambers of Commerce. Through these partnerships, DEMEP draws its resources from local and national universities, community colleges, research institutions, private consultants, and a network of 51 MEP Centers located in all 50 states and Puerto Rico. With these unique relationships, the Delaware MEP can provide its clients confidential access to their industries’ best practices, processes, and business improvement methodologies.
“We have had eight continuous months of profit. You want to talk about return. It’s fantastic.”
– David Celli, Vice President of Operations Wilmington Fibre
Wilmington Fibre operates in an old textile factory that dates back to the 1800s. Current CEO B. Scott Morris’s great-grandfather bought the property from DuPont, and much of the company’s manufacturing equipment has been around a long time.
“The great thing is, everything is paid for,” Celli said.
The downside is that the aging equipment requires plenty of maintenance. The oldest machine, a shear, dates back to 1919, and when it breaks, company workers make the parts to fix it. Sometimes though, equipment needs to be replaced, as was the case with an old air compressor. Utilizing resource partners at the University of Delaware, DEMEP provided an energy audit that determined the compressor was using far more energy than necessary, and that a new one would result in significant energy savings.
“We’ve seen noticeable changes in our energy
bill every month since we installed it,” Celli said.
As part of its efforts to improve energy efficiency, the company also developed a method of expelling heat produced by its manufacturing machinery out of the building in the summer and pulling it into the building during the winter. This improved the comfort level for employees while saving energy at the same time. And the simple act of rearranging and organizing shelves and storage items uncovered more savings through the discovery of lost inventory that had gotten covered up by boxes and other
items¸ Ciamaricone said.
In addition, Wilmington Fibre has received help from DEMEP with standard operating procedures and succession planning.
“We lost a whole generation of craftsmanship where we were no longer training people to be machinists, tool and die makers, set-up people,” Celli said. “I’m looking for a new generation to do this work and it’s slim pickings.”
As Celli nears retirement himself, he has appreciated working with DEMEP to bring in younger people for training, such as a student from Hodgson Vo-Tech who was paired up with a more experienced employee to learn how to perform equipment maintenance and other needed skills.
Wilmington Fibre’s 23 employees will continue working with DEMEP’s help to make the changes needed to ensure the company’s success into the future.
“It’s like coaching,” Celli said. “If you get the team to buy into it, you’ve got a winning product.