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The most valuable resource
we provide is a high-quality and
continually trained work force,” says President Tom Schabel.
In many of its customers’ industries, being first to market is
significant,
so Alexandria Extrusion Co. must respond quickly.
Alexandria is a privately held manufacturer of tight-tolerance
aluminum extrusions offering design assistance, prototype
development and value-added services to customers in a wide
range of industries and markets. The industries – according to
Tom Schabel, president – range from recreational products and
hand-held power tools to durable medical equipment. To serve its clients, Alexandria is able to compress lead times
in all of its operations, including quotes, administrative, billing
and manufacturing. “Our entire continuous improvement focus
has been on compressing lead times and being able to respond
quicker to the customer,” Schabel explains. “Ultimately,
our goal
is to reduce cycle times, inventory requirements and eliminate
obsolete inventory.”
Quick response and efficiency is coupled with a strong customer
focus. “We have the ability to design for manufacturability
and put an emphasis on how engineering staffs can work
together,” he says. “One of our durable medical equipment
customers
said working with our engineers is like working with
another engineer on their staff.”
QUALITY AND INNOVATION
In 1996, Alexandria became one of the first aluminum extruders
in the United States to earn ISO 9002 certification, and in
2001, it followed that up with ISO 9001:2001 certification.
Along the way, it has twice been recognized by the Minnesota
Quality Council, and also received the Minnesota Governor’s
International Trade Award naming it one of the state’s fastestgrowing
international firms.
“
It is our policy to honor the commitments made to our customers
in all segments of our relationship,” the company says.
“
We are bound by these commitments to meet or exceed our
customer’s expectations regarding quality of product and service,
lead time/on-time delivery, long-term relationships and continuous
improvement.”
From a safety standpoint, Alexandria trains internally and has
recently won the MNSTAR award for safety. MNSTAR is a
Minnesota Occupational Safety and Health Administration program
that recognizes companies where managers and employees
work together to develop safety and health management systems
that go beyond basic compliance with all applicable OSHA
standards, and result in immediate
and long-term prevention of
job-related injuries and illnesses.“
Only 10 or 11 other companies
have attained that,” Schabel says.
“
We’re involved in continuous
improvement in the safety area.”
Innovation is another important
area concerning Alexandria.
Schabel says the firm benchmarks
extensively in the industry and recently sent senior management to visit
30 or 40 different aluminum extruders to see what others are doing and
exchange best practices. “This allows us to look at what’s
best
for us,” he says. “In-house, we have a full engineering staff,
a full
tooling department and an automation department, which
allows us to stay on the cutting edge.”
The engineering staff has presented a paper on process control
and technology to the International Extruders Council, for
example. The automation department helps productivity in the
extrusion process as well as minimizes labor, reduces process
variation, and increases capacity in the value added areas,
which allows Alexandria Extrusion to be cost competitive. “We
use robotics for assembly and machining products,” Schabel
says. “We make robotics versatile so they can go from job A to
job B using the same automation.”
LONG TERM RELATIONSHIPS
Developing long-term customer and vendor relationships is
important, according to Schabel, so much so that its tagline is “People
Make the Difference.”
"The more people we can expose to our vendors and customers,
the greater profitability they will develop in the longterm," he
says. “The most valuable resource we provide is a highquality
and continually trained work force. From our unique
certified extruder program to mandatory process control training
and interpersonal skills workshops, our employees take
advantage of the best training resources available.“
That commitment to education, continuous improvement
and providing our customers with the highest-quality service
plays out every day on every project as our people go the extra
mile to make a difference,” he adds.
Alexandria has teams of employees dedicated to customers
and markets to learn more about them, enabling them to
become solution providers on an ongoing basis.
Schabel says Alexandria’s vision for the future is simply to
continue to study the process control of all processes that it
operates, and tighten them up to best serve customers. “We will
do so with the intent to minimize labor content so we can be at
the cutting edge of tolerancing processes’ controls and from a
cost standpoint,” he says. “We believe there is a place for
manufacturing
to compete on a worldwide basis. With the use of our
know-how and technology, we stand a great chance.”
PRODUCT LINES
Since its founding in 1966, Schabel says, Alexandria has been
committed to using industry-leading technology and the highest
quality work force to provide innovative design and manufacturing
solutions to functional, aesthetic and marketplace
challenges. The firm’s 150,000-square-foot production facility
is
located in Alexandria, Minn., where 300 employees produce
marketplace solutions for a medical equipment customer base.
Today, its expertise is brought to bear in the growing medical
equipment market, where the company has helped market leaders
design award-winning products, earning the 2003 MDEA
Design Excellence Award, and both the MEDTRADE Distinction
Award and Innovation Award in 2002, among others.“
At the core of [our] success in the medical products market is
a dedicated and experienced team of engineers, manufacturing
specialists and market experts,” the company says. “Their
early
involvement in the design cycle translates into tooling options
that allow projects to move quickly from concept to prototype;
samples that prove out design capabilities and functionality;
and end-product components unmatched in aesthetics and
innovation, cost-savings and lead-times.”
When it comes to power tools, the company says it has been
providing market leaders with versatile, durable and lightweight
components for more than three decades. “We have a
dedicated and knowledgeable team of engineers, manufacturing
and quality specialists and market experts on hand to better
meet the needs of this growing market,” the company says.
“
Their early involvement in the manufacturing process translates
into end products that meet or exceed industry standards
in terms of consistent quality, durability and safety, and also
deliver genuine cost savings through low initial tooling outlay,
shortened manufacturing lead times and a focus on continuous
improvement.”
Alexandria says it is committed to exploring and implementing
flexible and versatile design solutions for customers in the
power-driven hand tool market. |
