In This IssueCommunication. The Key to Our Mutual Success Pouring It On: Morgan Unveils Ideas and Plans that Set the Bar for Future Success Back to the Future—The Importance of ‘Made In America’ to American Companies Morgan’s President Focuses the Message on Performance The New Energy of Morgan is Symbolized by Updated Logo Good Old Fashioned Blocking and Tackling Needed for 2006 JBPCo Production System Eliminates Waste and Improves Productivity, Speed, and Customer Satisfaction IT: Combining Teamwork and Technology The Parts Equation: Upgrades and ReorganizationPresident’s CornerCommunication. The Key to Our Mutual Success
Welcome to Morgan’s very first issue of In-Box, our brand
new email newsletter created exclusively for friends of Morgan…our
distributors, truck dealers and customers. Four times a
year through this high-tech communication vehicle, we will bring
you information about our rapidly changing industry, Morgan Corporation
as a whole and opportunities to help you run your businesses. As
most of you know, Morgan is the largest manufacturer
of truck van bodies in North America. And this
year, in order to reassert our leadership role in this industry,
we are implementing several new and exciting initiatives created
to specially benefit you, our customer. Each of these initiatives
will be covered in greater detail elsewhere in this issue.By publishing the Morgan In-Box, we will keep you informed every step of the way of certain events and development programs designed to help you and your business. Our newsletter will feature regular columns that review new products and services. We’ll discuss feature topics important to our industry and to transportation as a whole. And each issue will spotlight one outstanding distributor and how you can learn from that company’s success to improve your own. I hope you will find this newsletter useful and that you will feel free to comment or contribute to future issues. To subscribe, just click here and fill in the appropriate information. If you’re already a subscriber, feel free to pass this along to someone you think might be interested in receiving their own copy. Last month, Morgan hosted its 2006 Distributor Meeting whose theme was, “Pouring It On!” This first edition of In-Box will share with you the information that was presented at that distributor meeting, but in a condensed format. Future issues of In-Box will follow a more formalized topical format including….
I hope you enjoy Morgan’s first newsletter. Please
feel free to send us your comments or any questions you may have. 2006 Morgan Distributor MeetingPouring It On: Morgan Unveils Ideas and Plans that Set the Bar for Future SuccessAmelia Island, Florida: More than 35 of Morgan’s top distributors
gathered here in March for two days of presentations, seminars
and breakout sessions which detailed Morgan’s plans to
re-energize their business and grow sales and profits for themselves
and their distributors. Key executives from Morgan and its parent
company, J.B. Poindexter, spoke on the numerous elements of Morgan’s
master plan for the future, which will apply new thinking to
people, processes and technology in order to continue Morgan’s
growth and reassert its industry leadership. Keynote Address: Once Upon A TimeBack to the Future—The Importance of ‘Made In America’ to American Companies
The keynote address of the meeting came from Stormy Hicks, President
and COO of Morgan parent company, J.B. Poindexter & Co.,
whose presentation was titled “Once Upon a Time.” In
his presentation, Stormy discussed the disturbing decline of
manufacturing in America. He noted that more than 2.7 million
manufacturing jobs have been lost since July of 2000, many of
which have been outsourced overseas. In addition, manufacturing
growth has been stagnant for just as long. The costs of health
care for workers, of litigation, and of cumbersome regulation
are driving many companies to seek alternative manufacturing
resources in other countries where manufacturing innovation flourishes
and is supported by governmental programs and fiscal policies.A Critical Issue For All of UsMr. Hicks declared this trend a critical national issue and challenged all attendees and their companies to set a tone that emphasizes strong manufacturing principles, putting these ahead of short term financial performance. He then laid out an overview of how Morgan and its parent company will meet this challenge to become the premier U.S. owned manufacturer of truck van bodies in the future.A Three-Step PlanThe plan is comprised of three key components: Operational Excellence, Leadership, and Growth. Key elements of the plan include optimizing the value chain with technology and supply innovations, creating a culture of empowerment for employees that achieves both individual and company goals, and creating opportunities for both organic and acquisition growth. Other key goals include a one-day material in/product out manufacturing cycle and zero lost time for recordable incidents.Mr. Hicks concluded by reiterating that strong manufacturing
is the key to strong communities across the United States. By
implementing these principles nationwide, he asserted, this country
will make “Made In America” mean what it meant 60
years ago to the American worker and his/her family. A Word from the PresidentMorgan’s President Focuses the Message on PerformanceContinuing the meeting’s theme of “Pouring It On,” Morgan President and COO, Norb Markert, led the group through an assessment of Morgan today and a vision of where Morgan is heading for the future. Mr. Markert detailed Morgan’s many traditional strengths: Our strong tradition for the best products…high in quality; market leadership; strong customer support and employees dedicated to being the best in the truck body business. At the same time however, he acknowledged that a few performance issues have become challenges recently and identified several key factors that created these problems.A Plan to Drive Morgan to the Next LevelHaving identified Morgan’s challenges and their underlying causes, Mr. Markert then laid out a point-by-point plan to not only address them, but to move Morgan forward to the next level. He detailed both internal and customer-focused goals and strategies to accomplish this in 2006 and beyond.His stated goals for the company include striving for a zero defects manufacturing process, reducing lead time, and improving customer services both before the sale (with faster quote response and an improved product configurator) and after with improved parts supply and warranty programs. From an internal point of view, Markert announced plans to improve employee training, team work, and safety. He noted that first quarter 2006 statistics show that employee turnover and plant safety programs are already showing dramatic improvements. Echoing the strategies of Mr. Hicks presentation, Mr. Markert
also introduced specific plans to improve many of Morgan’s
company and manufacturing processes, including sweeping changes
to IT systems, an overhaul of inbound material logistics, and
upgrades to order processing and plant scheduling. Much
of this will be accomplished by employing the JBPCo. Production
System, which is being deployed across all J.B. Poindexter companies
to improve continuous flow of materials and information and to
identify and eliminate waste. MarketingThe New Energy of Morgan is Symbolized by Updated Logo Morgan’s Director of Marketing, Kelvin Butz, introduced
the new and improved Morgan logo at the meeting. Noting that
the previous Morgan logo has become outdated and revised into
several different forms, he presented a new, simplified design
that emphasizes the Morgan name and will be more highly visible
in signage and as a nameplate on truck van bodies. Morgan will
replace its current array of decals by one new design that utilizes
bolder and richer colors and prominently displays the MORGAN
name. Two decal sizes will be used and both will be much
more visible from a greater distance to clearly promote the Morgan
brand. Butz indicated this change will definitely help
to build awareness of the Morgan name among end-users.
Updated Marketing MaterialsThe new logo is part of several marketing upgrades for literature and web-based materials, including a new Dry Freight and Curtainsider brochure with Reefer, Stake and PV pieces soon to follow. Web site improvements include a distributors’ bulletin board for questions and comments, a distributors’ directory, and a 600-shot photo gallery of product features and options. In addition, Morgan will introduce a quarterly distributors’ newsletter, which you are now reading.Product UpdatesMorgan is introducing several new product upgrades. These additions will become standard at no extra cost on every unit being produced after 5-11-06.Top Header Gussets are Now StandardTop header gussets reinforce the top corners of the rear frame assembly to prevent severe racking of the rear portion of the van body assembly. In the past, this option was being specified on the majority of orders received, so now it is being added as standard at no extra cost for all orders received on or after 5-15-06.Rear Frame Reinforcements Now StandardRear frame reinforcements stiffen the lower portion of the rear frame assembly for heavy-duty applications. As with the top header gussets, this option has been frequently specified on Morgan bodies so this option is now standard as well. This applies to all orders received on or after 5-15-06.Stainless Steel Door Fasteners Now StandardStainless steel door fasteners virtually eliminate corrosion
of attachment fasteners at the rear door hinge and door latch
area. This option is now standard at no extra charge after
June 5, 2006. SalesGood Old Fashioned Blocking and Tackling Needed for 2006Gene Ayres, V.P. of Sales and Marketing, presented recent sales
figures showing the critical importance of strong performance
from Morgan distributors as a whole. While committing Morgan
Corporation to a more proactive, aggressive stance within the
marketplace, he also challenged the attendees and all other Morgan
distributors to join in the effort to meet proposed sales targets
for this year and beyond. He discussed the plan to utilize a
region-by-region focus as a way of attacking regional competition
directly and he reminded the attendees that even single truck
retail transactions are important to building overall sales volume.
Mr. Ayres closed by asking for a commitment from all distributors
to match Morgan’s new vigor with strategically based sales
efforts of their own and used a phrase taught him by an old friend
and mentor in the truck sales business, “Get off your seat,
stand on your feet, and get on the street. It’s time
to get the business!” ManufacturingJBPCo Production System Eliminates Waste and Improves Productivity, Speed, and Customer SatisfactionDean Newswanger, Director of Continuous Improvement and Larry Jensen VP of Operations spent part of the meeting detailing the theory and benefits of the Poindexter Production system, also known as the JBPCo Production System (JPS). At the core of the System’s philosophy is a relentless attack on eliminating waste from the production process. Waste can take many forms, such as unnecessary physical movement of manpower and components, time delays, inflated inventories, and over processing. JPS is unique in that it utilizes many building blocks from World Class Continuous Improvement systems around the globe, but is employing them in an untraditional mass customization production environment. This venture in “Continuous Improvement” manufacturing represents the first foray into this type of manufacturing philosophy by a North American truck van body manufacturer.The Five Key Components to the JBPCo Production SystemMr. Newswanger provided a summary of the five key building blocks of the system:
Early SuccessesMorgan began implementing ways to identify and eliminate waste in its manufacturing in 2005 and has already begun to witness successes at all of its plants. One chief technique is to have a waste reduction team study specific sub-assembly processes and recommend ways to save steps, improve speed, and eliminate production errors. Newswanger gave examples of how production time and errors were dramatically reduced for side door installation and front end builds. In addition each example reduced space requirements and reduced physical demands on employees.Expanding the Vision for the FutureLarry Jensen summarized Morgan’s commitment to the principles
of Continuous Improvement manufacturing as represented in the
JBPCo System. Morgan has created Project Teams to Focus on key
areas of: Chassis Information, Work Orders, Engineering Issues,
and Material Planning. To give these teams further resources
Morgan is adding manufacturing engineering skills in numerous
locations. Even as effort continues, Mr. Jensen noted that Morgan’s
key benchmark of average on time delivery has greatly improved. While
these gains are promising, they are only the beginning of a journey
down the continuous improvement path. IT: Combining Teamwork and TechnologyKurt Snyder, Morgan’s VP of Information Technology (IT) addressed the meeting on how IT system upgrades and realignments will be integrated with the JBPCo concepts of people, process, and technology. The goal is to become a more nimble and responsive company by shortening business cycles in product development, order taking and manufacturing.Project JenesisTo achieve these objectives Morgan has implemented a strategic business initiative, “Project Jenesis” to: 1.) standardize business processes; 2.) implement a lean enterprise operations model; 3.) improve customer relations; 4.) provide a single-source facts database for the complete enterprise; and 5.) implement Sarbanes-Oxley compliant process, and access controls. All of these functions are being integrated into a customized J.D. Edwards business system.New product configurator will improve on industry’s leading technologyUsing input from Morgan customers, Mr. Snyder detailed how The
Morgan Body Builder configurator, though still the industry standard,
will be substantially improved over the next two years to add
better product imaging, 3-D graphics, and user friendliness. The
new configurator will be easier to use and will allow more flexibility
and greater accuracy for quotations and ordering. The Parts Equation: Upgrades and ReorganizationLastly, Pat Warmington, President and COO of Morgan Olson Corporation presented the new parts support model including fulfillment for Morgan and Morgan Olson. The entire parts organization is now being handled as a stand-alone business unit and services both companies with equal priority for each and with matching goals of improved quality, delivery and service. Numerous steps are underway, using many of the same techniques and processes being employed by Morgan via the JBPCo System to improve parts manufacture, management, and service. Team work and process improvement are two of the key areas receiving attention. Already parts shipments have dramatically improved their on-time performance. The goal, as with the rest of Morgan, is continuous improvement. |
