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Crain’s cites Talan among reasons to be optimistic about manufacturing

All around the country, there are indicators that the manufacturing sector is on the rebound, from increased consumer spending to expansion in economic activity throughout the first half of 2016.

The improvement in the manufacturing sector is reflected in the strong performance of Northeast Ohio manufacturing companies, including Talan Products. Talan was recently featured in a Crain’s Cleveland Business article discussing the upward trend in manufacturing throughout the region.

Read the article here.

Getting bigger and better

Size does matter, at least when it comes to both the size of our equipment and of our company here at Talan.

We are pleased to announce the installation of our latest new press, a remanufactured 600-ton Minster Hevi-Stamper, along with its new coil handling equipment capable of handling 30,000-pound coils up to 3/8” thick x 36” wide. As one of my friends (who is a heavy stamper) put it, “Welcome to the big league.” Everyone would agree that 3/8” thick stampings are in the big league. The equipment has the capacity to handle 1/2” thick x 12” wide HSLA steel, and our new crane has a capacity of 40,000 pounds.

Markets served by our new press include solar collector racking system components and transportation (automotive and truck). We had a lot of outsourced work that has transitioned to being produced in-house at Talan, increasing our control and level of service.

Size also matters when it comes to the size of the company. We’ve all heard the saying, “It’s not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog.” It’s usually smaller dogs that say that. There is a right size for companies to be. In industry, you need to be big enough to spread out the support staff  (quality, shipping, accounting, HR, etc.) over a nice volume to be the most cost effective. Yet when a company gets really big, it can lose the drive and ambition that define younger, hungrier companies.

I had a sourcing vice president from a major automotive tier one firm tell me, “$35 million to $50 million is the perfect size for our stamping suppliers to be. They are still hungry, the owners are involved and they haven’t succumbed to big-company thinking where they think they are more important than the customer.” We’re solidly in her perfect size for stampers. Our size also enables us to spread our fixed overhead costs over a larger amount of sales, thus making us more competitive. We still have small-company passion, coupled with big-company capabilities. We have successfully made the transition from an entrepreneurial style of management to professionally managed, yet we haven’t lost our style and verve.

New deburring machine offers more efficiency and value for Talan customers

Talan Products is pleased to announce the addition of a remanufactured Hammond Roto-Finish deburring machine to its metalworking lineup.

The automated vibratory deburring machine, installed in March, utilizes a ball-burnishing deburring process that can handle formed or stamped parts up to 14 inches in diameter. The machine also allows Talan to apply rust inhibitor while the part is still in the production line and automatically bulk-pack parts as they come out of the machine.

“The addition of our new deburring machine will allow us to bring more of our services in house,” said Steve Peplin, Talan’s CEO. “It will give our existing customers better service and better quality. It will also allow us to create opportunities to service new customers with the same outstanding level of quality and service our customers have come to expect.”

In conjunction with the new deburring machine, Talan has installed a new wastewater treatment facility.

“The machine utilizes a wet process, so it’s important that we treat all wastewater to make it safe for discharge back into the sewer system,” Peplin says. “The same holds true for all of the processes we perform. In addition to our commitment to our customers, we’re also committed to being a good steward of our natural resources.”

Metal Stamped Construction Components Featured In Crain’s Story On The Overall US Housing Market

Crain’s Cleveland Business reporter Dan Shingler recently spoke with Talan Products’ President, Steve Peplin about the resurgence of residential building and how that resurgence in turn affects our business. Steve mentioned having met with a client and reviewing the ABI – the Architectural Billings Index which is a  gauge of construction activity. The ABI has been charting up nicely indicating there’s some positive improvement in building.

A couple great quotes from the story, which can be read here on Crain’s Cleveland Business.

Mr. Peplin said his construction-related sales are up by more than 10% in the last six months due to increased construction activity. The vast majority of Talan’s products are linked to the construction market, Mr. Peplin said. That includes items such as brackets and other parts used in the actual construction of homes and commercial buildings, as well as parts for solar panels that are, more often than not, linked to a construction project.

So when data show that construction in the United States is on the way up, that’s a good indicator that Mr. Peplin’s business also will be on the rise, he said. Lately, he has seen signs of strength from more than just the ABI. For instance, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported on March 19 that housing starts for February were at 917,000 nationally — up 10% from the month before and at their highest levels since the recession brought hammering to a halt.

As Mr. Shingler points out in the article, lots of new construction requires lots of stamped metal parts. And as metal stamping companies like Talan add customers and production, we ultimately wind up adding employees to keep pace. So stay tuned!

Talan has Beaten the Odds against Metal Stamping Companies

Still Smiling:  Steve Peplin Tells Crain’s Cleveland Business How Talan has Beaten the Odds against
Metal Stamping Companies.

Dan Shingler of Crain’s Cleveland Business wondered why Steve Peplin, CEO of Talan Products, is still smiling, so he recently visited the Cleveland based metal stamping company to learn more.  Although Talan manufactures metal stampings for a variety of applications, the construction market, which represents a significant portion of Peplin’s customer base, has been particularly hard hit by the recent economic slow-down. (more…)

Streamlining Supply Chain Operations in a Progressive Die Metal Stamping Company

For many companies, the most advantageous cost-savings efforts during a recession are within their supply chain operations.

But leaders know these types of changes can be the most challenging to implement. Talan Products CEO Steve Peplin joined with Patrick Lo, CEO of NETGEAR to create the PNC- sponsored webinar: “How to Drive Immediate Supply Chain Cost Savings.”

Below are some excerpts and a link to the webinar and transcript.

Given the truly global nature of today’s economy, the U.S. slowdown had serious impacts on businesses and nations around the world. Rapidly declining customer requests began to catch up with companies that had stocked inventory to meet previously high demand. Business leaders everywhere quickly found themselves pondering their companies’ futures and facing tough choices – such as which operational changes to make to help their companies survive.

In 2008 and 2009, Peplin’s progressive die metal stamping company was faced with a convergence of no sales, high-cost inventory and plummeting product value due to record-low commodity prices. The only thing to do was to explain the situation and ask for help. “It felt like we were looking into the abyss,” recalls Peplin. “When we called our vendors to ask if they were willing to work with us, to extend terms, they were concerned that we might go under, but that wasn’t an issue for us. We went into the recession with a very strong balance sheet, which helped us convince our suppliers that we weren’t going anywhere.”

Creative Strategies for Cash Flow

Peplin says that, in order to survive, his company had to become more proficient in commodities metals management. His progressive stamping company partnered with its materials suppliers to blend in spot market, low-cost metals with its existing contracts.

“We already had metal to stamp, so we had to negotiate extended deliveries on the high-priced material, and blend in some lower cost material to offset it,” Peplin says. “We asked for special terms. We also had to get people to believe in us, to know that we weren’t going anywhere – and to know that the situation was temporary until we could get back to some longer term business.”

To soften the blow, Peplin says that he pushed out the higher-priced materials, in some cases by an entire year. Because steel prices had dropped by about 65 percent, many Talan customers only wanted to pay the market price.

For the webinar and full transcript see www.pnc.com/manufacturers

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Talan Products is a progressive die metal stamping company based in Cleveland, OH.  Talan Products has the stamping machinery necessary to stamp high-volume orders of various metal products.  By utilizing progressive die stamping, Talan Products is capable of stamping parts requiring a complex series of bends and perforations.

Progressive Die Stamper Talan Products Listed on the Inner City 100 List for Fourth Time

In the middle of 2010, during a year when the manufacturing sector was struggling to come out of a worldwide recession, Talan Products, Inc., the Cleveland Ohio metal stamping company made the Inner City 100 list for the third year in a row. 2010 marks the 4th win for the progressive stamping company with previous awards earned in 1999, the first year,  2008 (10^th anniversary of the award), and 2009.  The list is a national ranking of the fastest growing inner-city companies from the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) and Inc. Magazine ( View PDF of Award here ). The 2010 award represents Talan’s fourth time on the list  in the 11 years of the award.

(more…)

Progressive Die Metal Stamping Company Talan Products Receives Weatherhead 100 Award for 9th Time

Last month, Talan Products, a metal stamping company headquartered in Cleveland Ohio, was recognized for the 9th time as a 2009 recipient of the Weatherhead 100 award (https://weatherhead.case.edu/events/weatherhead100/). Talan Products award acknowledges and honors the manufacturer as one of the fastest growing companies in the Northeast Ohio region.

The Weatherhead 100, developed in 1987,  identifies and honors the 100 fastest growing companies based on sales from 2004 through 2008. Companies must have had sales over $100,000 in 2004 and over $1 million in 2008. Additionally, winning companies must have employed a minimum of 16 full-time employees in 2008.

The Weatherhead 100 award is named for the internationally recognized Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. The school’s spirit of innovation has elevated its management programs to global prominence, earning Weatherhead a reputation as one of the most innovative business schools in the world.

The Weatherhead 100 is compiled and managed by Cleveland-based Council of Smaller Enterprises (COSE).