The Puckered Pickle Company uses the best quality ingredients to produce the best quality product.  They take pride in producing premium pickles, pickle relishes and fine condiments like sport peppers, giardiniera and muffalata in their state of the art facility. All products manufactured at the Puckered Pickle Company are gluten-free and Kosher certified.

The Puckered Pickle Company is family-owned and operated.  They have been serving the food service and retail trade for three decades. Today their products can be found in locations from coast to coast.

Profile Plastics, Inc. specializes in supplying custom molded, highly engineered, plastic parts manufactured by the thermoforming processes of vacuum, pressure, and twin sheet forming. Most customers' parts require close tolerance and CNC trimming for a precise, consistent fit. Profile Plastics has established a reputation as an industry leader in expanding the viability of the thermoforming processes through value added engineering.

Their facility allows for a broad range of product requirements and, more importantly, production flexiblity.  Profile Plastics has developed highly repetitive thermoforming processes to support high volume, close tolerance, and high value production.

Written by April Glosser, Thrive Market Intelligence

Effective Market Monitoring can provide early warning of threats, advance notification of opportunities and deliver a significant advantage over your competitors.

Here is a quick 4-step process to begin Market Monitoring in it’s simplest form:

Written by Lawrence Bouvier, CMRP, Vice President – Fuss & O’Neill Manufacturing Solutions

Is equipment downtime holding you back from achieving Lean Manufacturing success?

We all have heard of the seven wastes addressed in Lean Manufacturing, but did you ever consider that if you applied similar principles to equipment health, you’d want a discipline to create Lean Maintenance?

Overproduction, Inventory and Waiting are three of the seven lean wastes that can come as a result of equipment failures.  A good maintenance process will keep these to minimum levels.  So, how can we achieve this?  The only way is to minimize the amount of maintenance and repair that we perform on machines!

Written by John Remsey, IMEC Senior Technical Specialist

Cybersecurity has become a hot topic within manufacturing over the past months, especially for the Defense supply chain with the federal government increasing their emphasis on addressing threats to the security of information.  In December 2015, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) released a rule to the Defense Acquisition Federal Regulation Supplement (DAFRS) that requires government contractors to implement the requirements of National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication (SP) 800-171 by December 31, 2017.  With this deadline fast approaching, conversation, and urgency, to become compliant is increasing.

Written by Melissa Basa, IMEC Regional Manager

With more than 500,000 unfilled manufacturing jobs in the United States in recent years, much has been hypothesized and written about the cause(s). If we consider the words of Warren Buffet, who in 2013 told Fortune Magazine that America has built our prosperity using only 50% of our talent and left an entire gender out of the equation for most of our history, we see that a solution is very much within our reach.  But balancing the gender equation and bringing more women into manufacturing doesn’t require the same approach as increasing the ranks of men.  Let’s look at an example (or three) from my Alma Mater.

In 2016, Dartmouth’s Thayer School of Engineering was the first US national research university to graduate an undergraduate class of engineers that was more than 50% female.  Compare this to the national average that has yet to break 20%.  But gender parity didn’t happen for Thayer overnight and it certainly didn’t happen without intentional cultural changes.  I believe Thayer’s successes could be those of America’s shop floors as well.

555 International is an award-winning global design, development, and fabrication firm. More than just design, 555 manufactures the items essential to the business needs of its clients and manages the process all under one very large roof.

555 has become known for its unmistakably bold, dynamic approach to client needs. By stressing innovation, functional design, and the integration and creation of specialized materials and finishes, the firm offers a unique language for expressing client tastes and styles. The 555 team brings this fluency to each space, with hallmark design projects, including Dallas Cowboys, Green Bay Packers and Hard Rock Hotels and Resorts International, as well as acclaimed restaurants Roister, GT Fish & Oyster, Coda Di Volpe, Balena, and Bernie’s in Chicago. In addition, 555 develops and brings to life the work of other designers, collaborating with high-end hospitality and retail clients to execute and deliver their concepts to fruition. 

Superior Joining Technologies is a women-owned small buisness that works with tier one aerospace companies.  They specialize in micro-tig and micro-laser welding and 3D multi-axis laser cutting and welding, and flourescent dye penetrant and magnetic particle inspection.

Superior Joining Technologies, Inc. is a highly technical and precise welding operation serving any industry that needs that level of expertise and documentation, most notably aerospace. Their mission is to "Join with You" through partnerships to reduce lead-time to their customers and have greater control of cost fluctuations.

Before the Baldrige Framework for Excellence

CCSD93 is a pre-kindergarten through eighth-grade school district that serves roughly 3,900 students in nine schools throughout the villages of Bloomingdale, Carol Stream, and Hanover Park, Illinois. Before beginning its Baldrige journey in the mid 1990’s, CCSD93 was the fastest growing district in Illinois, and administrators were hyper-focused on adding space and staff. The district lacked the ability to devote significant time on personnel development. As a result, CCSD93 consistently produced good students, but was not thought of as a leader in academic achievement or professional development opportunities for the staff – a challenge that needed to be addressed to retain the workforce who senior leaders hoped to develop into excellent leaders. Strategically, CCSD93 had good goals in place, but was not as competitive as it could have been and did not position itself to become the world-class district senior leaders knew it could be.

Bergstrom Inc. is a global leader in the design and supply of climate control systems to the commercial vehicle industry. By combining progressive engineering talent, lean manufacturing principals and a global footprint, Bergstrom offers a unique blend of marketplace focus and customer value. They supply OEM A/C and heating systems including the NITE no-idle systems and Bergstrom Standard Products for a variety of markets including truck, bus, military and other unconventional commercial vehicles. Bergstrom also offers OEM-quality replacement parts through their Kysor service network.

Bergstrom's vision is to be the recognized leader of innovative climate solutions for the people who move the world.  With more than 65 years of experience in the climate control industry, they have honed their skills and capabilities in three key areas: innovation, manufacturing and quality.  Bergstrom Inc. is able to provide the right products at the right time.

FoundRe is a custom framing gallery and furniture-making studio that specializes in reclaimed and sustainably sourced custom furniture and carpentry building.  In addition, they offer general contracting services and can complete renovation projects.  Every piece of furniture or framing they create is treated like a work of art with a focus on detail and design.

Established in 2009, FoundRe has worked with a variety of clientele that spans Chicago, Europe, and across the United States.  Their product design can be seen in many small retail stores as well as with limited addition product fulfillment for big box retailers.  FoundRe is committed to exploring creative design concepts and making truly one of a kind furniture pieces.

Mathews Company (M-C) is a family-owned global manufacturer of high quality, innovative agricultural equipment. M-C began operations in 1954 with the production of hay and forage flail choppers.  In 1957, the first continuous flow grain dryers rolled out of the factory. Mathews Company has a reputation for building durable, high quality equipment designed to give years of trouble-free service to the customer.

M-C's top products are grain dryers & corn stalk shredders.  There are many models and series to fit each person's needs.  Their special capabilities are contract manufacturing and laser steel cutting.  With more than 175 years of combined manufacturing experience, Mathews Company is able to meet any agricultural manufacturing need.