A box plant unites with suppliers and customers for a journey in training.

In the entertainment world, one-man shows have often enjoyed rave reviews, standing ovations and have even graced the stages of Broadway. Yet, the same cannot be said of the business world. It is a rare entrepreneur who achieves greatness by flying solo. Behind most savvy businesspeople lies a path of partnering, where others have brought their strengths to the table to help achieve a common goal: success.

Gaylord Container's Raleigh, North Carolina, box plant has come to know success well, which is perhaps due at least in part to its ability to partner with its customers, suppliers and even its employees. Housing an 87-in. corrugator, four flexo folder-gluers and a rotary diecutter, the 200,000-sq.-ft. plant services a wide customer base, including computer, glass, textile and agriculture vendors. It provides corrugated packaging that ranges from brown box to high-end four-color graphics and has changed hands several times over its two-decade life before finding its home with its current parent company.

Founded in 1968, the box plant was originally formed under Crown Zellerbach. However, following the purchase of Crown Zellerbach by an Englishman, Sir Joseph Goldsmith, the box plant later fell under its current ownership in 1987 with the then newly-formed Gaylord Container.

Since that time Gaylord has grown substantially and now encompasses numerous corrugators, sheet plants and paper mills. The Raleigh facility has followed its parent's lead and flourished as well.

Blazing a Trail At the core of the Raleigh plant's success lies its approach to partnering. It has done so through what it calls its Customer Focused Business Improvement Process (CFBIP), which advocates four fundamental principles: focusing on the customer; creating well-trained team members; operating well-maintained equipment; and following Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and Best Known Methods (BKMs)-the plant's internal corporate procedures.

Bill Seyler, the plant's resource improvement manager, explained, "Under each of these four goals we have specified actions to enable us to accomplish the ultimate level within each area. For example, under well-trained team members, our objective is to do a certification of all our employees so they fully understand not only how to do their jobs, but to what standards they need to manufacture boxes in order to meet Gaylord's manufacturing requirements." These requirements are designed to meet and often exceed customer requirements.

To date, approximately 85% of all the plant's "team members" have achieved certification. There were various means by which the plant achieved this end. One form is computer-based CD-ROM training for all of the equipment in the plant. These CD-ROMS were created through an outside company that specifically tailored the programs for the plant's use, and they are often used to familiarize new employees with the equipment.

The plant also relies on its suppliers for training, specifically its printing plate and ink suppliers. "We look at what a supplier can offer us," Seyler said. "For example, a printing plate or cutting die supplier can offer us some insights on how to repair the equipment, the philosophy behind the equipment and how the product works. Our people then become more knowledgeable so they can start troubleshooting on their own, in real time."

In practice, one of the plant's long-time suppliers, Container Graphics Corp., based in Cary, North Carolina, has been instrumental in bringing the plant up to speed on the latest in printing plate and cutting die technology. With its "Train-the Trainer" courses, Container Graphics has conducted in-plant seminars for everyone from production and sales staff to customer service members. The plate supplier offers the courses as a value-added service to its customers and designs them to help customers increase diecutting efficiency-a feat achieved by the Gaylord plant, according to its plant manager, Gary Hunter. "We wanted to improve our process and it's helped us to do that," he noted.

"We've had a relationship with Container Graphics for many years, but it's been in just the last five years that the relationship has turned to a partnership," added Jeff Turner, sales manager at the box plant. "They've started to become part of the process as opposed to just a vendor or supplier."

The box plant enjoys a similar relationship with its ink supplier and has deemed training and partnering necessary in meeting its customers' increasing quality demands.

"We find that we are getting more detailed specifications from customers and tolerances are getting tighter and tighter," Turner explained. "You have to have a good partnership with both your ink supplier and your plate supplier to make it all come together into a high-quality finished product. We've been working hard with key suppliers to establish that type of relationship."

One way the plant has been able to measure its quality improvement is by its reduction in returns and allowances. It has also seen a drastic drop in customer complaints (or customer "feedbacks", as the plant likes to refer to them). Perhaps some of these drops can also be attributed to the relationships the box plant has forged with its customers. For instance, it has an in-house designer and a sales team that strive to become part of the customer's process, whether it's creating package designs or simply communicating on a regular basis.

Making Tracks Partnering with its employees (of which there are 92 production and 32 salaried), or "team members" as the plant refers to them, has become vital as well-especially given the fact that the plant is situated in an area with a 1.6% unemployment rate.

One challenge that has surfaced for the three-shift operation is how to keep qualified people on the second and third shifts with such job availability. According to Turner, two-thirds of the plant's boxes are manufactured during this time, which demands skilled operators who can function without a complete support staff.

Although the plant is continually exploring new avenues to reduce turnover, it has had some success with its skills enhancement training. It has brought in a local community college to teach remedial math on the company's time.

"We did some testing and found that we were weak in certain areas," explained Seyler. 'Bringing in the community college has really worked well for us."

The plant also offers basic computer courses through the college, available to all employees upon completion of their shifts.

"One thing we want to do is show the staff that we are concerned about them as people," said Seyler. "We are moving into a high-tech age and many of our team members have children who are computer literate so we want to do what we can to help them."

Unlike the math courses, the computer courses are offered on a voluntary basis. However, the plant has already had about 20% of its staff take advantage of the offer.

And the training will continue. The plant is even in the process of working with a local company to assess supervisors in terms of their strengths and areas in need of improvement so they can better prepare to move forward.

Perhaps Seyler said it best when he said, "We view training as a journey, not a destination."

Gaylord's Raleigh plant is certainly on the right path.