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Teach and they will come
September 1, 2009 By: Mark Arzoumanian Paperboard PackagingHuston patterson makes continuous customer and employee education a top priority.
Solving problems can often be as easy as getting people together in one room to discuss them and come up with a solution that makes everyone's job easier. That's why label and top sheet printer Huston Patterson (HP), Decatur, Ill., takes pride in not only regularly meeting with but also educating its independent and integrated corrugated box customers.
 A sampling of the litho-laminated corrugated boxes made by Huston Patterson's customers. |
Not long ago a problem was solved when HP had one of its regular Team HPx meetings with a long-time customer in the box making industry. In the course of trying to better understand the customer's needs, it learned this client needed an easy way to track the printed labels that it buys, which it then applies to corrugated sheets. Until then even the box plant's executives never knew there was a problem. But Team HPx always makes certain that machine operators and production department employees are included in these client meetings.
It was during one of these that a client employee mentioned (for the first time) that he was having problems locating specific loads from HP within the plant's warehouse. The matter was quickly solved when HP started putting an internal inventory number on each load it sent this client. So now it tracks the loads easily.
Another client needed to know where the lead edge is located on its HP-made labels. Adding a mark to each sheet solved that problem, too.
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Let's Go to School
Regularly meeting with clients is nothing new for HP, of course. But it took it to another level when in May 2007 it started the HPx Academy. President and CEO Thomas W. Kowa considers it another way for him to differentiate his company. It's dedicated to the memory of Robert G. Kowa, Tom's father, who purchased HP 48 years ago. It is used not only for HP classroom training but also for production, local Rotary Club, and local chamber of commerce meetings. In October 2007, the Association of Independent Corrugated Converters honored HP with the Innovator of the Year Award for this academy.
"Establishing the academy has definitely been a benefit to us," says Tonya Kowa-Morelli, vice president of sales and marketing. "We've taken our courses to clients that only dabbled in high-end graphics. Now they're loyal to us."
 When HP's customers visit the printer for press checks, they can rest in comfort at HP's Owner's Suite. |
The academy, which is open to clients, vendors, and all employees, has 36 courses with three levels of certification. Many of the courses are conducted in the Robert G. Kowa Theatre. To graduate, all employees are required to complete 12 courses, which range from Print 101 to Sustainability 1101.
Four basic classes are taught once a quarter. Depending on the employee's department, there are suggested electives as well as options based on his or her personal interests. The curriculum provides both classroom and hands-on training. One hundred percent of HP's employees that have been employed for six months or more have completed four core courses. HP will even create specific customer curriculums.
HP wants to make it as easy as possible for its customers to visit its operation to do press checks and attend its academy. So in spring 2007 it established HPx Air, a private aviation company that uses small, executive-class airports. Once its clients arrive in Decatur, they're put up in the HPx Owner's Suite, which includes a full-sized kitchen, deluxe bathroom, and king-size sleeping accommodations. The objective is to make conducting a press check as comfortable as possible and to make getting from Chicago (or any other city) to Decatur hassle-free.
 Thomas W. Kowa (center), president and ceo, Huston Patterson (HP), stands next to a painting of his dad, Robert, who acquired the 115-year-old company in 1961. Tonya Kowa-Morelli, right, vice president of sales and marketing, represent the third generation of Kowas at HP. |
In 2008, HP established its "arrive in 5" campaign, which promises customers that if an order comes in on a Monday it will be on their docks by Friday, as long as it isn't more than 10,000 sheets. And that applies to customers coast to coast.
Always Probing
"We focus on innovation and value, but we also have to have quality," Kowa-Morelli states. "After jobs are sent, we use our Hpxperts (HPx performance evaluation response tracking system) survey to ask our customers, 'How are we doing?' What are we doing well and what do we need to work on?' We also send out a quarterly publication [HPxpressions] written by internal and external contributors. It has been a huge marketing tool for us."
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"We do our homework before we go visit potential new clients," she adds. "We want to help them out, guide them. Equipment can print; we need to set ourselves apart."
At HP, building relationships away from the client's location is important and is often done by attending various networking events and industry association meetings, including those of the Association of Independent Corrugated Converters.
But attending these gatherings and nurturing old and new relationships goes for naught if you can't back it up with quality labels and top sheets. You have to have the right equipment and supplies (ink, paper, etc). In 2000, the plant, which employs 95, decided to concentrate on large-format printing. HP's equipment "heart" centers on its KBA printing presses, which include a 56-in. six-color (with coating) and two 64-in. presses, a six-color and a seven-color with in-line UV capabilities (both with in-line aqueous coating).
 HP's equipment "heart" centers on its KBA printing presses, which include a 56-in. six-color (with coating) and two 64-in. presses, a six-color and a seven-color (both with coating). |
"There are many 40-in. presses in the marketplace, so it's tough to be competitive," says Donald Ellis, vice president of manufacturing and a top teacher at the HPx Academy. "Fewer people are able to provide the services found in large format presses, so we can grow this segment of the business." He adds that the quality of the print coming off these presses is outstanding and going with KBA provides "benefits of sameness" because HP has had previous positive experiences with this press manufacturer.
For the past 10 years, HP has operated an in-house ink room; it is in the process of installing an automatic ink dispensing system. Since 1997 most of the 140,000-sq-ft plant's sheeting is done in-house on a Maxson sheeter in a temperature-and humidity-controlled 20,000-sq-ft building in nearby Wabash, Ill. By sheeting to specific sizes it will save $250,000 by year-end. It goes through 40,000 lbs. of aqueous coatings each month using an 8,000-gallon tank.
While admitting that a lot of HP's steps to become more sustainable are plain common sense, Ellis points out that the key to deriving new steps is continuous innovation.
"We went from five pound cans [of ink] to eight pound cartridges," he points out as one example. "Next we're going to 50 gallon drums that we will pump into the presses."
The 70-lb or 80-lb litho labels HP makes are sold to box plants throughout the U.S. When new paper stock is delivered, its relative humidity (RH) is checked (and recorded) once it is sheeted and again at the press. If the stock's RH falls below minimum standards it won't run. After each job, press operators take 10 finished sheets and weigh them on a machine that is sensitive enough to detect even one missing sheet. The labels are wrapped with kraft paper to control moisture and maintain stock integrity. As soon as they're off the press, they're bound and out the door, Ellis says.
 Once printed, labels are wrapped with kraft paper to control moisture and maintain stock integrity. |
A color and position proof (and the approved color sheet from the first and last press runs) are saved in tubes that are coded to numbers in the company's computers.
"We do have a warehouse for finished goods, but for the majority of our customers there's no wait time at all," he adds. "We say to them, 'How soon do you need it and we'll have it to you."
Between 2005 and 2008 HP has grown 23 percent. This willingness to overcome any obstacle to keep the customer happy is certain to go a long way toward continued growth, even in these tough economic times.
