Rosco Prepares for Its Second Century

By Bill Paul | Editor & Publisher

"We can't continue to work in the old school," said Ben Englander, as he escorted me around his factory in Queens, N.Y. Englander is the vice president of engineering of mirror-manufacturer Rosco, Inc. The company will celebrate its 100 th anniversary in 2007, having started life in 1907 as the A.W. Rosen & Co. producing parts for the then-fledgling automotive industry.

It isn't easy for private-sector companies with worldwide ambition to manufacture in the Northeast. Yet this family-owned firm continues to prosper and expand in an increasingly competitive world.

Rosco provides mirrors, visors and visual safety products to manufacturers in the school bus, transit and shuttle bus, motor coach, truck and van, recreational vehicle, specialty vehicle, military and materials handling vehicle markets.

Less Not More

For now, Rosco's next stage of growth is focused on less, not more. To be more precise, lean, as in lean manufacturing. Throughout this three-story 85,000 square-foot brick building, which serves as a manufacturing, warehousing, shipping, R&D and administrative center, demolition and construction provide evidence the company is reinventing itself to keep pace with the demands of its customer base.

As recently as 1993, sales to the school bus industry represented 10 percent of Rosco's annual sales volume. In 2002, sales to the school bus industry soared past 50 percent. Propelled by change sweeping throughout automotive, bus and truck manufacturing worldwide, the past decade has seen school bus OEMs convert their operations to just-in-time or lean manufacturing. Recognizing that suppliers that fail to adapt their operations to these demands will soon be left behind, Rosco began planning for the new competitive era four years ago.

"We have to market ourselves as an agile company," said Englander. "We don't want to be numb to our customers. We are now in an era of bottom line analysis and increasing costs. Lean manufacturing principles reduce inventory levels and improve work flow. Today's competitive global business environment leaves no room for errors and inefficiency," he added.

Rosco is known for producing custom designed quality products. It prides itself on R&D, in recent years adopting digital testing and CAD/CAM design. "We conduct both digital testing and field testing. We get hood samples from the OEMs and use them to test new (mirror) products," said Englander. Three years ago, Rosco engineers worked with Transport Canada to devise a digital testing protocol to meet Canadian Motor Vehicle Safety Standards for mirrors. "The engineering onus is on us," Englander continued. "We do the testing at our end and provide our customers with drawings, test results, testing software, etc." Rosco has also long produced products to rigorous military specification MIL-I-45208.

Leaning on ISO

Moreover, with the advent of world-class automotive engineering entering the school bus industry (in the form of ownership by Freightliner, International, Mercedes-Benz and Volvo), ISO certification loomed as the next goal. ISO provides a more widely known and accepted statement of assurance that a company is capable of supplying components to world-class standards.

The company applied for ISO (International Organization of Standards) 9001-2000 certification in August of 2004 and achieved ISO certification in mid-spring of 2005.

Meanwhile the company retained the services of the Industrial & Technology Assistance Corporation (ITAC), an economic development and consulting firm. ITAC's mission is to help manufacturing and technology companies in New York City become more competitive, grow, and support the NYC economy by adding employment, explained Tamar Gisis, a project manager with ITAC. It is part of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a network of 350 not-for-profit centers nationwide whose sole purpose is to provide small and medium sized manufacturers with the ability to "compete globally, support greater supply chain integration, and provide access to technology for improved productivity." The effort is funded by the U.S. Department of Commerce, state governments and industry.

"There were two key areas we worked on with Rosco," said Gisis, "expansion and introducing them to the best manufacturing practices." In the current world competitive environment, the phrase "best manufacturing practices" describes what is known as lean manufacturing.

The two organizations began working jointly on facility planning in 2001. A lot of ITAC's work with Rosco involved "training them in the concepts of lean manufacturing and working with them hands on in the design and implementation of new systems. We didn't work just with management but all levels of employees were involved, there was participation and input from all levels of the company," she said.

Gisis described Rosco as a "very aggressive company in moving forward." She said her consultancy "completed a series of workshops . all (aimed) on being more customer focused, providing flexible responses to the customer, and removing non-value added activities from any process."

Meanwhile, according to Ken Zingman, quality control and testing manager in charge of all quality control and the ISO process for Rosco, "Lean manufacturing and ISO 9001 are critical elements that work well together in a manufacturing environment. Both involve a transformation in organizational behavior leading to waste reduction, continuous improvement and customer satisfaction," he said. Lean manufacturing focuses on reducing waste from production by streamlining processes and managing bottlenecks.

Gisis concurred, adding, "The ISO process and lean manufacturing are hand-in-glove."

Meanwhile, the ISO 9001 Quality System provides a formal methodology of checks and balances focusing on quality improvement initiatives using root cause analysis, corrective actions and process management. One of the ways the ISO 9001 System compliments lean manufacturing is by formalizing employee training and ensuring that the training has been effective. Used together, both systems lead to improved quality and customer satisfaction while reducing the costs associated with waste and poor quality, explained Zingman.

Manufacturing Cells

Think of lean manufacturing as a group of four to six skilled individuals who work in a self-contained manufacturing unit or work cell. The work cell completes all the required manufacturing or assembly of a part or component before it leaves the cell. Two key objectives of a lean manufacturing workplace are to reduce inventory levels and single piece flow.

The targets of single piece flow are to eliminate work-in-progress and batches awaiting work, explained Englander. "The principle is getting down to the barest essentials of working on one piece. We start one piece at a time and there are no large batches of merchandise awaiting work. Each part goes through in an equal amount of time as the part before or after. That's how we eliminate batches or work-in-progress."

Englander said the company expects to have 10 to 15 self contained manufacturing cells to process its metal manufacturing and assembly needs.

With less than two years remaining until it reaches the century mark, and now armed with ISO and lean manufacturing, Rosco has not only positioned itself to supply the just-in-time manufacturing operations of domestic school bus OEMs, it has gained access to international markets. "In Europe it is hard to find any company that is not ISO certified," said Gisis of ITAC. "Rosco now has a competitive edge over its competition."

Editor's note: Companies interested in learning about best manufacturing practices can visit the MEP Network website at www.mep.nist.gov.