S. Florida lighting firm competing against China
By
Marcia Heroux Pounds
South Florida manufacturer Jon Cooper aims to beat Asian competitors
at their own game. The president of Lighting Components and Design
in Deerfield Beach said U.S. companies can compete with inexpensive
manufacturers in China if they are savvy and innovative.
Lighting Components makes lighting switches and assemblies for products
such as vacuum cleaners, cars and gambling machines. Bucking the industry
trend, the manufacturer has been in a growth mode, increasing annual
revenues from $2 million to $20 million. Cooper and his wife, Sondra,
bought the business in 1993.
The company's
strategy is to be low-cost producer of lighting switches and related
products.
When clients have moved their production to China,
Lighting Components refused to give up the business to Asian firms.
Instead, the company worked harder to keep supplying these customers. "If
you service them and never give them a problem, why should they look
elsewhere?" Cooper reasoned.
At the same time, Lighting Components is reducing costs by installing
robotics and buying additional factory equipment for pennies on the
dollar at online auctions. Cooper obtained $1.5 million worth of lab
equipment from an online auction for 20 cents on the dollar and a machine
that would cost $175,000 new for only $18,000.
"We want to make sure we're the low-cost producers. We don't
want customers coming to us saying, `You need to be a nickel less on
this,'" Cooper said.
Lighting Components designs all its own products, many to specifications
by major automobile makers and other clients. Increasingly, the company
is being asked not just for a part, but an entire assembly.
Each product made at the company is assigned to a self-directed work
team. The employees work together on the product, running the operation
almost like their own small business. About half the company's business
is automotive. One work team of 10 people makes a lighting assembly
for the Chrysler minivan, a $3 million business in itself.
Cooper is adding robotics to his operation to make the plant more
efficient. But workers won't be laid off, he said, they'll be moved
to other tasks. In fact, Lighting Components is hiring. The company,
which employs 250 people, hired about 30 people in the past month.
In hiring,
experience in the industry isn't as important to Cooper as attitude
and energy.
What his employees have in common is "they're
ready to solve a problem," he said.
The company
has had one retrenchment. In fall 2000, business slowed and 10 percent
of the work force was laid off. A positive effect was
the move strengthened the overall team by retaining the best players,
Cooper said. That paid off when business began climbing again a year
later. "During that one-year period was our greatest gain of productivity."
Lighting Components ships 2.6 million products each month with a defect
rate of only 1.66 products a month. As a result, the manufacturer has
earned the automotive industry's top quality standard certification.
In 2000, the company was named manufacturer of the year by the South
Florida Manufacturing Association.
Brian
Neff, spokesman for the association, said Lighting Components has
been successful
in entering new markets. "They had a good
solid track record of financial performance and hiring. They were aggressive
and their results showed that," he said.
Lighting
Components also keeps its customers by doing everything it can to
help them
control costs in this difficult economy. Reducing
inventory is one way a company can save money. "We've taken a
customer's inventory from 45 days to two days," Cooper said.
The manufacturer
has saved money for Siegel-Robert Inc., said Tammy Little, who works
in accounting for the Ripley, Tenn., company. Lighting
Components makes wire harnesses for light bars that go on Chrysler
cars for Siegel-Robert. "They make us happy," Ms. L. said. "They
do whatever we want, whenever ... They're the best supplier we have."
Often,
Lighting Components is rewarded with more business from these clients.
Cooper
said he always keeps in mind that "the best customer
you have is the one you have."
Marcia Heroux Pounds can be reached at mpounds@sun-sentinel.com or
561-243-6650.
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Lighting Components and Design, Inc.
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