Walinga continues to find new ways to drive productivity

Guelph, Ont.-based Walinga Inc., a transportation and conveying systems manufacturer focused on feed delivery systems, is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. The secret to this long-lasting business, according to Cor Lodder, the company’s director and chief quality officer, is maintaining its vision and mission and passing that business perspective through multiple generations.

In practice, success has involved a combination of attending to family traditions while allowing each generation to innovate and introduce new systems to help the company adapt to new business challenges.

Company Foundations

Although the company was founded in 1954, its roots go back to founder Cornelius “Case” Walinga’s experience in his family’s wagon-making business in the Netherlands.

“That’s where our foundational values come from in terms of quality, craftsmanship, efficiency, and the pursuit of excellence,” said Lodder during his keynote address at the Metalworking & Manufacturing Expo in Winnipeg on April 30.

By the time Case immigrated to Canada in 1950, his family had started to build school bus bodies that went on truck chassis. He settled in Tottenham, Ont., with his wife and two daughters, learning the truck body building business, and the English language, at a local company. By January 1954, he had established his own business in Fergus, Ont., with the help of his son-in-law, John Medemblik. Although it initially was a business that would “build any body for anybody,” Walinga soon found a niche in the feed industry, building its first cattle and feed hauler in 1955. This specialization expanded its opportunities to sell across Canada and into the U.S. The company now sells to around 60 countries worldwide.

In 1959, Case welcomed a second son-in-law, Robert Lodder, to the business. A few years later, Case retired. The two brothers-in-law would form what is now considered as the company’s first generation in development and growth.

In 1966, having outgrown its footprint in Fergus, the young company bought a parcel of land just north of nearby Guelph, where it built the facility that still serves as its headquarters and main trailer manufacturing plant today. The company also has a facility in Fergus that fabricates its pneumatic conveying systems and cuts all steel parts for both it and the Guelph location; a machined parts manufacturing facility in Carman, Man.; an assembly plant in Grand Rapids, Mich.; a service shop in Sioux Center, Iowa; and an assembly plant in Australia.

Mission and Vision

The company’s vision is to produce “superior transportation and conveying solutions for generations.” Its mission is to serve the needs of the global community through the manufacturing of innovative transportation and conveying solutions. Its culture is one that strives to serve the best interests of its staff, customers, and vendors.

This vision and mission are rooted in its founder. One of Case’s favourite sayings was, “Focus on quality first; quantity will come in due time.” Quality and service have always been key pillars for the company. No two products it builds are quite the same, as every customer has different requirements, particularly for its feed delivery trucks. Some of the company’s trailers have been on the road for more than 20 years, demonstrating the quality standards it aims for.

Another of the founder’s favourite sayings was, “The difference between a tradesman and a craftsman is attention to detail and a higher level of quality.” The company wants its team members to achieve their best work, and part of that is ensuring they are in the jobs that are ideal for them. For instance, Lodder noted that family members who wish to join the business have found ways to contribute that best suit them.

“Being engaged in a generational family business is a gift that must never be taken for granted,” Lodder said. “It commands an uncompromising commitment to faith, trust, confidence, and team efforts. Staying grounded in what we do is important in how we deal with others, providing guidance and encouragement while having confidence and trust in those around you.”

Lodder noted the importance of learning from those who came before you. As his father told him, understanding how the business runs presently can help you find ways to improve its efficiency in the future.

A good example of this is when Lodder himself wanted to invest in the new CNC equipment that became available in the late 1980s.

“I was always inspired to find more efficient ways to do things,” said Lodder. “The real breakthrough for me came when I convinced my father and uncle to join me at a machine tool show in Toronto in 1987 to look at a CNC machine. Within 20 minutes, a part had been programmed, and three minutes after that, we had a part in our hands. That sold them on the technology. Before then, it would take us 33 minutes and involve four different work centres to make the same part.”

Technological Innovation

The evolution of technology has continued apace over the years, of course. In 1996, a young computer enthusiast joined the company and began the development of what is now Walinga.net, the company’s own business management and control system that covers virtually all aspects of the business.

“It manages all of our business in real time, in all of our locations in North America,” said Lodder. “This, in turn, has created a like-minded working environment in each location. And everyone is working off the same system, and it’s virtually paperless on the shop floor.”

At the Guelph shop, where truck body assembly for feed systems takes place, the system can be used to collect employee feedback and suggestions for improvements. For instance, if a welder receives a part and thinks there is something that could be improved with its design, that welder can query the part through Walinga.net. The query goes up the chain to that person’s supervisor, who can either send it further up the line to engineering or explain to the welder why it needs to be done the way it is currently done. The system invites engagement while also ensuring that there is a clear line of communication. This is just one way it helps.

Today, the company has multiple CNC machines of various types to simplify operations, as well as innovative tools that make work more comfortable for employees. These tools include adjustable welding tables and positioners/rotators at its Guelph, Fergus, and Wayland facilities, so that welders rarely have to work out of position when working on any aspect of a feed tanker, trailer chassis, subframes, or other larger, more intricate components. Innovations like these are constantly being evaluated to determine what would be ideal for Walinga’s operations and its employees in terms of ergonomics, safety, quality, and efficiency.

From a design perspective, the company also has a strong engineering department that streamlines production needs as much as possible so that it can most effectively be managed. The involvement of the engineering team also helps determine the ideal purchases of new equipment.

Systems Thinking

In 2015, the company became ISO 9000 compliant.

“There were some concerns that this would add levels of bureaucracy and expense,” said Lodder. “Thankfully, it proved the opposite. It built more structural simplicity and efficiency in our processes throughout the organization. As this evolved, so did our quality management system. A company that prides itself on quality can only maintain that with a structured system.”

Systems are critical, he added.

“Building on a culture of systems thinking, we have adopted a few styles and theories for strategic planning to help steer and guide our growth. Every change becomes part of the new guidebook for growth: we call it the Walinga Continuous Improvement Program (WCI). A committee guides the company, and monthly meetings are held to review the process and provide advice if applicable. This program has put increased responsibility on more people as they take ownership in their respective area or environment. It helps everyone to have a better pulse of the organization and creates more collaboration in areas where we were hands-off before.”

Continuous learning is encouraged through many workshops, college programs, and other opportunities. It’s one way the company hopes to draw new employees. Lodder himself has taken every opportunity to learn from other businesses in Manitoba and further afield, through touring their operations and being active in organizations like the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters (CME), Agricultural Manufacturers of Canada (AMC), and U.S.-based Farm Equipment Manufacturers Association (FEMA). He encourages this same level of engagement in the next generation of management.

Third-Generation Adaptation

As Lodder mentioned during his presentation at MME Winnipeg, each generation of the company is encouraged to find new innovations. One such innovation driven by the company’s third generation is a lean-like streamlining of production, which has found its way into the Guelph location.

A lean-type system was adapted previously at the company’s Carman machining operations under the guidance of its plant manager, Ray Beukema, who encouraged a similar approach in Guelph.

The plant managers of each facility have virtual monthly meetings to discuss potential challenges and opportunities in their operations. They also get together once a year for an in-person strategic planning session. The benefit of this is that they can get different perspectives on how to run their operations. This hearkens back to Lodder’s comments about having confidence in your team and building together.

“Because Carman is a machining shop, Ray’s mentality on production is going to be very different from mine,” said Guelph Plant Manager Derek Spanninga. “It really helps to get those outside influences. I have been with the company for 27 years, so fresh eyes and collaborative efforts help keep me fresh and drive improvement throughout the company.”

Last year, the company realized that to meet future customer orders, the Guelph facility would have to develop what Spanninga called a “connected line” manufacturing approach. Previously, orders were built as they were received and jobs were essentially “first in, first out.”

“This made it difficult to be precise with our completion dates,” said Spanninga.

The company looked at its trailers and divided them by complexity, from G1 (Guelph 1) to G5.

“G1 trailers are the simplest model and work on a five-day takt time in each production area,” Spanninga explained. “The complexity of the trailers rises from there, and we can be precise about takt time for each ascending version of trailer.”

This streamlining of production simplifies several processes. For instance, experts previously would be focused on a particular part of a build—the base, tank, finishing, or paint—without being connected to the full production line between manufacturing and finishing.

“Now that production flow is managed based on complexity of trailers, with different staff dedicated to units of different complexity, it is easier in production meetings to say, ‘This team is ahead, so we can move resources over to another line to help keep that takt time on point,’” said Spanninga. “It also meant that morning meetings with huddle boards made sense as a value-added process on the shop floor, whereas when production was more divided into specific disciplines, there wasn’t the opportunity to solve challenges on the fly in that manner. Initially I was skeptical that adding a 15-minute meeting every morning for the supervisors was going to add to our productivity, but it has. Every huddle, somebody is there from engineering and someone from our configuration team. The communication between the floor and the front office has improved, and the people on the shop floor feel that the challenges they are running into are getting addressed very effectively.”

Production streamlining has also been beneficial in managing new hires. New or less experienced employees are first trained on the simpler trailers (G1). As they prove their effectiveness and skills, they can progress to working on more complicated equipment. The company had to hire more than 30 new people on the shop floor last year.

“In the future, that organization of our product line will really help the onboarding process,” said Spanninga.

The benefits of this are already being felt. The shop used to have as many as 50 trailers in process at any given time. Now it has around 20. This, and an expansion of its Michigan plant, will help reduce its trailer lead times, which currently range between 73 to 137 weeks. Customer confidence and loyalty has been a blessing, yet they can only wait so long before they consider other options.

Employer of Choice

This top-down organizational group support is constantly at work. For instance, a reorganization of the Fergus plant to improve workflow is being supported by all of the company’s facilities, who are exchanging ideas and experiences in an effort to help. Truly, it’s systems thinking at work.

This teamwork, and the longevity of the company in the communities in which it operates, makes it an employee of choice for many.

“We have had employees who are looking for work because they are uncertain about their future at their current job,” noted Spanninga. “They know that we are here for the long haul. We’re also not a company that lays off people regularly; we try to retain our staff for as long as we possibly can because we understand the importance of training.”

This comes back to the company’s core dedication to both customers and employees. Each change the company makes aims to help further simplify the achievement of a quality product. In the process comes the possibility of hiring more talent.

Editor Robert Colman can be reached at rcolman@fmamfg.org.

Walinga, walinga.com