(By Matt Getts, shared with permission from KPC Media Group. Originally published Jan 19, 2022)

KENDALLVILLE — Supply issues. Employee issues.

Hidden within those obstacles facing area businesses are opportunities.

Being nimble enough to navigate through those roadblocks has been a key to success for Airframe Components by Williams, Kammerer Dynamics Inc. and Leatherman Construction.

Those companies are examples of different challenges facing most manufacturing companies, but all are doing well despite — and maybe because — of those issues.

“Nobody has it easy,” Klint Kammerer of KDI said. “It’s just being creative and working through the problems. How do we get more efficient?”

Because some firms are struggling, there is opportunity for those companies which can find solutions to those problems first.

“Every challenge is an opportunity in disguise if you look at it that way,” Kammerer said.

Finding workers

One universal issue is finding good, reliable help.

Matt Young at Albion-based Leatherman Construction Inc. recently went on a popular website where people looking for work post their resumes.

Young found 100 resumes which fit the criteria of the jobs he was trying to fill. He sent out 100 emails to set up interviews.

He got three responses. Two of those responses declined the interview offer.

The one person who said he was interested in coming to work for the company?

“He never showed up for an interview,” Young said.

Shelly Williams, co-owner and head of human resources at Airframe Components can relate.

She recently posted an opening on a website.

In the past, she would have gotten 75 responses and shut down the process after a couple of days. This time around, the posting was up for a week and she got five responses.

“Getting new guys is a challenge,” Klint Kammerer said. “Getting people is harder than it was.”

Employers are working hard to retain people. Young and Shelly Williams have tried to entice workers with more pay.

“We’ve increased our base pay pretty significantly,” Williams said.

“We’re playing inflated salaries,” Young said. “Employees are running the market, I’m not sure why.”

Kammerer said while some people cite a lack of work ethic in younger workers, it doesn’t appear to him to be a generational issue

“There are hard-working millennials,” he said.

Companies everywhere are looking for that secret recipe which will entice long-term employees. Airframe Components doesn’t have much turnover.

“When we have them in the door, they don’t leave,” Shelly Williams said.

Two longtime employees at Airframe Components said a little variety is a good thing.

“We’re not doing the same thing every day,” shop foreman Ross Sumney said. He has been with the company for 32 years.

Nathan Whetzler, foreman of Airframe’s Control Surface Division, agreed. He has been with the company for 20 years.

“We’re always doing something different,” Whetzler said. “It’s the work environment and the challenges.”

Parts manager Grant Davis said management makes workers feel that their contributions are important.

“We feel appreciated,” Davis said. “That’s a big reason we keep people around.”

Supply issues

Having a reliable work issue is one thing. Having enough material on hand to keep them busy can be another challenge — at least for some.

Global supply issues, spurred on by the global coronavirus pandemic, have impacted the availability of pretty much everything.

Even those companies that can get what they need have to wait for it.

Young said at Leatherman Construction, the lead times to receive some large orders used to be six to 10 months. Now it is nearly a year before supplies come in.

At various times, Leatherman Construction has had difficulty getting drywall, plywood and steel.

One day last week found another shortage.

“We can’t get black paint,” Young said. “Epoxies are hard to get.”

Week to week, what can be readily ordered and delivered can vary.

If you don’t know when certain supplies are going to be available, that means it can become dicey when to tell a customer to expect a project’s completion. Subcontractors that are hired can face the same issues, making for potential delays the general contractor has to explain to customers.

“We lost our main key estimator to the stress,” Young said. “The stress has a cost to it. It’s frustrating.”

Supply issues also have caused prices to skyrocket.

Young said he quoted the steel package for a gymnasium add-on for a church at $98,000 in 2018. He recently quoted the same steel package at $230,000.

Kammerer has also noted longer lead times from his steel vendors. But he’s trying to work the hassle to his advantage.

Because things are harder to get, he has spent more time on the phone with those vendors, growing relationships that will pay dividends down the road.

The supply chain issues haven’t been a big issue at Airframe.

Most of the parts and supplies using in that company’s wing and control surface repair are domestic so long lines for parts to be unloaded from huge cargo ships which have traveled from overseas aren’t involved.

Co-owner Roy Williams also has benefited from his longtime strategy of having extra parts on hand. He has a 5,500 square foot warehouse above his main production floor, a warehouse he had kept stocked.

“We’ve been relatively immune from supply issues,” Roy Williams said.

It has started to take longer to get some stock. But by thinking ahead, Airframe hasn’t had any production hiccups. Beginning in the fall of 2021, when supplies started to get tight, Airframe parts manager Grant Davis started stockpiling even more.

“We ordered more than we usually do so we have it,” Davis said.

In one section of its operation, Airframe stores the bulk aluminum it uses in repairing the skin on the wings it repairs. The aluminum comes in varying thicknesses, with the most popular being 0.02 inches.

Normally, workers get the stock they need from the bottom area of a large storage area, with an unopened crate just above it. When the supply is gone from the bottom area, the crate above it is brought down and then opened. And then a new crate is ordered to replace the one that was just brought down.

But for that particular thickness of skin material, an order was placed in November. The supplier said it would be delivered at the first of the new year. But then, that changed to the end of the month.

There are still supplies of that 0.02 inch thickness the company can use.

“We’re not out,” Roy Williams said. “We haven’t run out of anything yet.”

Along with being the parts manager, Davis is also responsible for arranging shipping for customers who request that further service.

That has become more and more of a problem. One customer in the United Kingdom requested that a large wing be shipped across the Atlantic Ocean by air rather than by surface ship to avoid shipping delays.

Another traditional carrier used by Airframe won’t even pick up a repaired airplane wing for a customer because it is destined for France. The carrier company has given several reasons why it won’t pick up the large package, including weather concerns and a coronavirus outbreak among its employees in that country.