PLPC Is Wired for Teamwork

Preformed Line Products Co.’s manufacturing plant in Rogers makes high-tech gadgets that anonymously affect many people’s lives. A person flicking a light switch or answering a telephone likely is using a wire-related accessory made by PLPC.

Power lines strung through the air and communication cables buried underground use components made at the 310,000-SF manufacturing site on First Street in Rogers.

More than 8,000 technically niched products are made at the plant, which is staffed by 330 people. About 200 orders per day fill 20 outbound trucks each week.

A fleet of forklifts zips through the plant nonstop five days per week and 10 hours a day, and many of the pallets are marked with “F” — for foreign shipment to one of the 13 countries that hosts PLPC offices.

Including domestic and foreign sales, PLPC Rogers recorded revenue of $70 million last year, plant manager Bill W. Sutton said. That’s 35.6 percent of the $196.4 million of yearlong sales reported by the entire Cleveland-based company.

The Rogers plant is the largest of four domestic PLPC manufacturing sites. The others are in the North Carolina cities of Albemarle, Charlotte and Asheville.

PLPC began offering its stock to the public in April of 2000, and it traded at $19 per share during the week of April 8.

Last year, the economy’s downturn assaulted PLPC’s 2001 net income. It was $5.2 million for the year, down 53 percent from $11.1 million in 2000.

In a February press release, PLPC President and CEO Robert Ruhlman said, “Our domestic sales were extremely disappointing … We may not see much improvement until the end of 2002 or early 2003.”

The Rogers plant suffered a winter layoff of 26 employees, a particularly tough blow for a facility that boasts a less-than-1-percent annual turnover rate.

Shaping the Future

Selling, among other things, strands of wire shaped into a helix, PLPC uses its patented concepts to support cable-based companies. PLPC’s success depends on energy firms such as American Electric Power and communication businesses including Southwestern Bell Co., Verizon and Sprint.

PLPC makes, sells and maintains the cabling accessories that brace and protect the delicate metal and fiber-optic cables used in wire-bound services. Helical armor rods fit together like a puzzle to surround and support conductors, and PLPC in Rogers makes rods from aluminum, copper, stainless steel and aluminized steel.

The plant is the sole supplier of armor rods for PLPC, Sutton said, and last year it produced more than 3 million pounds of that product.

However, the plant also creates almost 40 new products monthly to solve particular problems for its energy or communication patrons.

Jerry Johnson, the Rogers plant production manager, described the site as a “job shop.” When engineers in Cleveland dream up a part necessary to solve a customer’s problem, designers at the Rogers plant figure out how to make the piece.

In the late 1980s, Sutton said, telecom companies began testing the use of fiber optics, a project that would change the cabling industry.

Fiber optics carried exponentially more information than its much-larger metal counterpart, and it offered faster, clearer transmission.

Johnson and Sutton said they remember seeing the television commercials for Sprint’s “pin drop” campaign before they’d seriously thought of creating fiber-optic-compatible accessories.

The slew of orders for uninvented splice boxes rolled in while the Rogers plant designers were still working on a machining plan to assemble the part.

Johnson said he and other staff made the first few hundred boxes by heating metal and shaping it by hand.

Sudden demands like the Sprint instance are common in PLPC’s field. Natural disasters often require the Rogers plant to shift into overdrive and make a mountain of parts to replace those destroyed in an ice storm or hurricane. In emergencies, the plant operates three shifts and transfers its priority to the energy departments.

People Pleasers

People and semi-automated machines work together at PLPC to assemble accessories for wire-bound industries. Sutton said the employees make the plant successful.

Treating workers well ensures high-quality performance, he said. Invariable quality is important because, if a fiber-optic line breaks, the telephone company can lose up to $100,000 per minute. Such high stakes rarely rattle Sutton, though.

Reporting a 99.99 percent quality rate for the plant, Sutton is a true company man.

PLPC hired a 29-year-old Sutton when it opened the doors to its then 48,000-SF Rogers plant in 1969.

After 33 years in the job, the Huntsville native credits the Ruhlman family for running an employee-friendly operation that attracts long-term staff.

“I’ve had plenty of offers from other places,” Sutton said. “But I stay here for the Ruhlmans.” Jon Ruhlman, 75, serves as PLPC’s chairman of the board, and Robert Ruhlman, 45, took the position of president in 1995 and became CEO in 2000.

Johnson also worked in the plant on its opening day. He served the plant on the assembly line and worked his way through the ranks to production manager.

Originally from Rogers, Johnson said many of the employees have worked at the plant for more than 20 years. A sign in the lobby turns away applying employees.

Each person on the Rogers plant staff gains value with passing time. Departments cross-train their workers to protect against layoffs and prepare for emergency shifts. But PLPC grants its employers more self-management than many corporate-owned sites.

A system of 26 teams divides the responsibilities of running the facility, and democracy rules the groups.

Each team elects its own team leader, scheduler, trainer and secretary, as well as coordinators for preventative maintenance and health and safety. Employees often solve problems that would normally require an administrative manager, and workers are rewarded with more freedom.

Flextime is an example of a self-management system used by the teams. With flextime, employees who have solid attendance records earn flexible schedules to work their 40-hour week. A worker might request to work four 10-hour days, taking the fifth weekday off for fishing or extra vacation.

The elected scheduler on the team then tries to accommodate the requested days off. A flextime program, staffed by cross-trained employees, reduces the need for seasonal hiring and allows for departments to cover each other during vacation-heavy times as well as emergency-driven shifts.