On June 30th, Kaysun shipped the 400,000th Defense Advanced GPS Receiver (DAGR) to Rockwell Collins. This milestone — like the Supplier of the Year awards our company received from Rockwell Collins two years in a row — highlights the consistently great work the entire Kaysun team strives to deliver for all our clients.
What a great way to finish the first half of 2010 and start the Fourth of July weekend!
- Ben
Kaysun brought home the trophies once again this year from Rockwell Collins at its annual supplier event, winning both the Plastics Supplier of the Year Award and the prestigious capstone Lean Initiative Award. (Here are links to the news releases Rockwell Collins and Kaysun issued for the 2009 awards – the 2010 announcements are forthcoming.) Winning both awards for the second year in a row is a huge accomplishment for Kaysun and is a testament to the hard work and commitment of all Kaysun employees to our Mission of being the Supplier of Choice (to our key customers). It was an honor to receive these awards and especially sweet to be honored two years in a row!!
- Ben
The April 2010 issue of Modern Plastics Worldwide includes Kaysun in its annual list of “Notable Processors,” which “highlights processors around the globe who are doing their part to bring this industry forward.” This year’s list includes 15 manufacturers from 8 countries, including Canada, China, Denmark, Iran, Japan, Poland, New Zealand and the US. See below for the Kaysun profile and a link to the full article.
Ben Harrison President and CEO, Kaysun Corp.
The best defense against a tough market is proving to be, among other things, a strong offense in bidding for and winning defense-related applications, according to Ben Harrison, who runs Kaysun Corp. (Manitowoc, WI), a family-owned custom injection molder. The company has been successful in a number of markets, but of late is seeing especially strong demand for its services from the defense and medical industries. Having these two industries in its corner also has helped it avoid some of the “heavy migration [of work] to low-cost manufacturing countries,” notes Harrison. “We’ve found the way to be successful is to provide the customer with more, and to be involved in difficult projects,” he adds.
That focus paid off big last year when his company, which employs about 150, won two supplier awards (Lean Initiative and Plastic Supplier of the Year) from Rockwell Collins, the only one of the communications and aviation electronics OEM’s 20,000 suppliers to win two. “We’ve done a tremendous amount of value-stream mapping and made some big changes, which led to a drop in lead times” for that customer, explains Harrison.
Kaysun wasn’t always so progressive. “Years ago, we just had molding machines and people,” he recalls. But over the years (it was founded in 1947) the company has seen that its customers grow to depend on it increasingly for its engineering resources. Recently, he adds, it has been especially aggressive in employing automation for tasks such as welding, machining, and potting to keep quality high, direct labor costs low, and to maintain high output. “We like to be on the cutting edge of technology,” notes Harrison.
The company also is leading the social media charge, with its own blog (which actually gets updated) and a LinkedIn page. “We’re doing quite a bit of social networking,” he agrees, and says it is starting to reap benefits for the molder. It also started its Partners in Progress program last summer, a series of technical presentations offered as webinars to its customers. “Our clients welcome the help,” he says, noting it’s another way to ensure his firm gets called on for those difficult projects.
Click here to read the entire article.
Here’s a list of some of our favorite blogs, forums and Twitter pages that you may find interesting as well. Make sure to let us know if we missed any of your favorites!
- Ben
We’ve all been asked to please turn off our electronic devices, if not during a flight then in a medical setting: Interference in those situations can mean life or death.
As technologies converge and devices become more compact and powerful, the space around us is now a cat’s cradle of electromagnetic waves that can wreak havoc with each other in the form of Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) and Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) – and even impact us closer to home. Check out this NY Times article and video showing how calling a man’s cell phone turned on his gas oven.
At Kaysun, we’re finding that EMI and RFI solutions are required for every market we serve, including defense, medical, automotive and industrial, and that the ultimate goal is always the same: protect the sensitive internal parts of precisely engineered devices from receiving those conflicting waves.
It has also enabled us to build a wealth of expertise in this area — whether it’s applying secondary shielding materials to plastic components or using highly engineered resins with inherent shielding properties – that we can apply to your particular EMI and RFI needs.
Contact us to learn more.
- Ben
Kaysun recently attended the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade show (SHOT) in Las Vegas and found it a valuable experience.
SHOT is the world’s premier exposition of firearms, ammunition, outdoor and tactical apparel, optics, cutlery, camping and related products and services. It is owned and sponsored by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the firearms industry’s trade association. More than 58,000 people attended the show this year, including more than 31,000 buyers.
From a Kaysun perspective, SHOT attendees and exhibitors included many potential prospects in the defense, law enforcement and security industries. It was great to see and evaluate so many products in person – and our experience at SHOT confirmed that Kaysun has a real opportunity to deliver highly engineered plastic components for applications including gun stocks, ammunition and optics.
- Jeff Anderson
Design News, one of the leading publications for design engineers, just published a profile of Kaysun Corporation entitled, “Emphasis on Design Engineering Pays off for Injection Molder.”
Click here to read the complete article.
- Ben
Have you noticed more and more products are using plastics today to make them “tougher” and more durable? Had an interesting conversation the other day with Mark Gilbertson of the industrial design firm InForm Product Development, a Kaysun partner, about the “ruggedization” trend – and wanted to share a few thoughts here.
Ruggedization is happening in virtually every market we serve. In the medical market, the growing importance of home-care based solutions means devices need to stand up to travel and deliver portability. In defense, the obvious drivers include demand for product designs that can endure significant impact and duress in a wide variety of weather conditions.
Two of the many drivers of this trend include:
There’s more to cover on this topic, such as the role of plastics in ruggedization and the types of plastics best-suited to particular applications – that we’ll pick up in future blogs.
- Ben
Kaysun Corporation is starting the New Year by adding blogging to keep in touch and expand our horizons. Over our 60-year history, we have evolved from first designing and manufacturing plastic toys and house wares to now delivering highly engineered plastic products for the automotive, defense, medical and consumer/industrial markets. We will use this forum to share the insights and ideas of the Kaysun knowledge workers who made this transformation possible – and encourage you to join the discussion with comments, questions or suggestions for topics. I’m sure we’ll both learn a lot – and make 2010 the start of something great.
- Ben Harrison, President & CEO
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