Pride Solutions: 2023 Manufacturing Excellence Awards
It pays to be prepared. Back in 2018, Jack Daggett, president of Pride Solutions, thought about expanding the company’s 20,000-square-foot space, but at the time, it didn’t seem necessary. Pride Solutions had steady business producing aftermarket plastic parts for agricultural equipment, as well as contract plastic fabrication and compression molding for a variety of applications, such as skis for snowmobiles.
Workflow changed very quickly when the pandemic hit. Suddenly, customers in all the company’s business sectors were demanding product. Farmers were clamoring for the company’s aftermarket parts, which are made from virgin ultra-high molecular-weight polyethylene (more durable than cheaper reground material). The booming snowmobile industry also helped keep business roaring. As a result, in the last three years, company revenue has doubled, and head count has grown from 25 to 40 employees.
“It became apparent that we needed additional space—for our current operations but also for additional business opportunities that we were seeing,” Daggett says. In December, Pride Solutions began moving into the added space, which doubles its footprint.
All this has required Pride Solutions to boost production and work faster. “Overall, in every work center that we have, we’ve looked at creating better efficiency in that process,” Daggett says. “A lot of those might be small tweaks here and there. But when you make the same thing over and over year-round, minutes add up.”
The expanded facility is permitting the company to add more plastic molding presses. It also provides room for Pride Solutions to continue developing innovative manufacturing techniques. An example: “We make a product where we over-mold aluminum, a process that requires three different machining operations,” Daggett says. “Historically, we were outsourcing all of the machining. About five years ago, we invested in two CNC lathes, along with a robot to tend one of the machines. We also hired a very good operator to run that automation cell.” Daggett originally expected the ROI would be three to four years. It turned out to be less than two. “Our quality went up, our lead time went up,” Daggett says. “And we’re still using that work center today.”
Location: Hutchinson
Employees: 40
Specialties: Plastic components for snowmobiles and agricultural equipment, contract electromechanical and mechanical assembly, compression molding
