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MEP Success Stories from Minnesota

Huge Value in Value Stream Mapping

Reported Year
2024
Founder and owner Brian Gustad had been working to apply lean manufacturing principles to his two-person shop for years, but had difficulty translating techniques and best practices from manufacturing literature to his small operation. Brian knew he had reached the limit of what he could improve on his own. He needed outside expertise to take his

Worth the Investment

Reported Year
2024
Excelsior Tool had a desire to smooth out the vagaries and ups and downs in their customer demand, which was very hard to predict. The leadership team wanted to become ISO 9001:2015 certified in part to help better understand their key customers and processes and create a more consistent workload. They also saw ISO certification as an important

An Enjoyable ISO Journey

Reported Year
2024
SNX Precision is part of a two-company business operation along with SNX Technologies, both under the same ownership group. SNX Precision is the manufacturing side, selling its nVision Edgebanding System product exclusively to SNX Technologies, which manages sales and distribution of the product. As an independent but closely linked business, SNX

An Eye to the Future

Reported Year
2024
When Ultra Durable Technologies launched in 2008, they contracted out their product manufacturing, focusing instead on sales and distribution. In 2021, the Ultra Durable leadership purchased a building with the intention of bringing all manufacturing of their product in-house. As part of the transition to manufacturing, they sought support for

A Leadership Development Roadmap

Reported Year
2024
As part of their strategic business planning, Blow Molded Specialties identified that one of their key risks to growth and profitability is the availability of workers. In their area of the state, it is a challenge to hire for open positions and BMS leadership understands how important it is to have enough of the right people in the right positions

Bringing in an Outside View

Reported Year
2024
Pride Solutions experienced significant revenue growth in just a few short years. This business success caused production bottlenecks and storage challenges, so the leadership team decided that they needed more square footage to keep growing. Through a new buildout on their existing property, Pride wanted to increase throughput and inventory

An Eye-Opening Experience

Reported Year
2023
Several years ago, President Joe Plunger recognized the need to incorporate more colleagues into the business planning process and to help prepare organizational leadership successors. Those future leaders determined the business had a strategy, but it was mostly in Joe’s head, and everyone wanted to get that vision out and bring the organization

Illuminating Possibilities

Reported Year
2023
Vice President of Operations Jeremy Ward had previous experience working with MMTC, Michigan MEP center, part of the MEP National Network™, and knew of the value these centers bring to small and midsize manufacturing operations. When Jeremy contacted Enterprise Minnesota, also part of the MEP National Network™, Enova Illumination had been utilizing

It Feels Like a Family

Reported Year
2023
Von Ruden Manufacturing’s president, Brandon Anderson, has been involved with Enterprise Minnesota, part of the MEP National Network™, for over a decade. When he first joined Enterprise Minnesota's peer council, Brandon had been involved with other executive leadership groups, but felt the topics covered were too simplistic and that he “could

Fantastic Plastic

Reported Year
2023
Federal Package continually looks for ways to make their plastic container offering environmentally friendly for their clients. Finding options for recycled resins to solve for reduction of virgin use while remaining recyclable as well as options for being biodegradable was a challenge. They finally found their solution with an organic additive