22 MiMfg Magazine November 2017
John G . Thodis 2017 Michigan Manufacturer of the Year
Phil Sponsler
Orbitform LLC
Phil Sponsler
President Orbitform LLC
Orbitform LLC designs and builds assembly equipment solutions for manufacturing , including riveting , forming , welding , conveyors , and custom-engineered assembly systems . Orbitform also manufactures its own line of standard assembly products , all made in the USA since 1984 .
excellence
AWARDS
Phil Sponsler wonders aloud that , if companies are formed to operate in perpetuity , why are so many reluctant to make the effort to retain employees for the long run ?
“ We have very highly skilled employees , and we make a lot of investments in our workforce ,” said Sponsler , president of Jackson-based Orbitform LLC , the 2017 winner of the John G . Thodis Michigan Manufacturer of the Year Award ( Small Tier ). “ The result is we have a culture where the older folks who have worked here a long time pass along our values to newer workers .
“ In the end , culture trumps strategy all day long . And you can ’ t buy reputation . We hired about a dozen people this past year , and we asked them what they had heard about our company . They said they heard Orbitform was a great place to work . That ’ s what we are after .”
Building the trust of employees so they stay on for years takes much more than just bringing in a cake for a person ’ s birthday , he said . It involves every aspect of the business , ranging from how floor space will be utilized to encouraging participation in wellness programs .
Sponsler is a strong proponent of continuous improvement and a voracious reader of business theory .
“ You name a business metric and ( Sponsler ) has had a Quality Operating Systems team to tackle it ,” said M . David Shirkey , the company ’ s manager of strategic initiatives who submitted Sponsler ’ s name for the award .
“ Phil is often challenging the Orbitform leadership team to be sure we are working to help all Orbitform employees ‘ Be a Better Business Person ,’’’ Shirkey said . At a monthly plant meeting , Sponsler may “ ask employees at random what an accounting term means or what a certain business metric represents and why the metric is important .”
Aligning all employees with continuous improvement supports long-term employment for everyone , said Sponsler , who holds a bachelor ’ s degree in mechanical engineering from Michigan State University . Some companies use continuous improvement as a way to reduce headcount when processes are streamlined but Orbitform takes the opposite approach .
“ I ’ ve seen some situations where companies improve and free up capacity , then lay people off ,” he said . “ If we free up capacity , then we find ways to bring work in-house .”
Orbitform freed up capacity when it applied continuous improvement methods to machining components for its equipment , so that now about 95 percent are machined on its footprint . Instead of laying off people , the company redeployed human and machine resources to fabricating weldments and fiberglass pieces that previously were outsourced .
“ Now , almost all of our fabrication work is in-house , and that had benefits ,” Sponsler said . “ Fiberglass guards that had taken a couple of hours to install now can be done in 15 minutes .”
Concern for making lives better for employees extends beyond the shop floor at Orbitform . The company offers a program called “ It ’ s Your Life ” in conjunction with Henry Ford Allegiance Hospital where every employee is eligible for a baseline checkup and three sessions annually with health coaches to promote good health . Those who participate are given gift cards up to $ 100 , and this year more than half of the employees participated .
“ It costs us money as a company to do it , but it ’ s the right thing to do ,” Sponsler said . “ Each of the last several years , the program identified one person who had a health issue that if gone untreated would have led to big problems . We had one person who literally had to make an appointment with the doctor to be seen within 48 hours , and he had no clue that he had that issue .”
The company also has offered financial courses through the Dave Ramsey organization to help employees with personal finances .
“ We really promoted the classes because some people appeared to be living check-to-
Sponsler ’ s story continues on page 24 . u