Press Releases

Spouse, kids or pets? Ismenia, wife of 42 years and two kids. No pets.

***************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Machine shop bores into specialty manufacturing niche
Pat Patera, 9/15/2008

Vineburg Machining Inc. has fingers in a lot of products. The Mound House shop turns out parts for everything from race cars, surgical units, military medical units, locks and pet products to Humvee repair kit parts.“We go through a million pounds of metal a year,” says company owner Gerd G. Poppinga. His son, Gerd E. Poppinga, director of operations, tells how the company needed 12 flatbed trailers to move Vineburgs massive milling machines from Sonoma five years back.For decades, the company turned out parts with those 15 Acme multi-spindle machines that dated from the World War II era.

And while those workhorses still pull their weight, since moving to Mound House the shop floor has seen dramatic change with the addition of eight CNC — Computerized Numeric Control — machines, costing about $250,000 each.For Vineburg, the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001 provided the impetus for change. The resulting economic seizure combined with the trend toward outsourcing work to China to deliver a devastating double punch.

“With the general economy not going so well, we needed to cut costs and look at a different business model,” says the elder Poppinga. “I looked at where manufacturing would be in five to 10 years. We thought of specialty markets within the greater machine industry.”He was proved right. However, the move from mass milling to specialty provider meant shrinking the company, which employed 100 at its peak, to just 25.

The move to Mound House was a further cost-cutting move. But it delivered a pleasant plus in the form of a reliable power grid, says the younger Poppinga.“In California,” he says, “we were constantly suffering brownouts.” Before the move, the Poppinga family already knew the Reno-Tahoe area as tourists. And, having bought a house at Dayton Valley Golf Course as an investment property, the elder Poppinga knew of the industrial park at Mound House. He worked with Kris Holt, then leasing agent at Grubb & Ellis commercial property, to lease a 13,000-square-foot building at Mound House.

Of Vineburgs 25 employees in Sonoma, 18 chose to move their families to Nevada. “I never readjusted their pay,” says Poppinga, which sweetened the deal. But those longtime machinists were familiar with the manual Acme machines, used for high-volume runs. The companys move to the more precise runs required for specialty medical and automotive parts required more workers on the computerized machines.

For the most part, the younger Poppinga, who has a degree in strategic business management, helped train employees with the new technology. Training remains an ongoing issue, as each new job comes into the shop.

The best way to confront the shortage of skilled workers in northern Nevada, says the companys founder, is to keep existing employees on board.“Treat them like a family member,” he says. “We provide everything: above-average income and training and pension. We pay bonuses when were doing well. And we hold company lunches, picnics and outings.” Finally, he adds, “I trust them, I dont look over their shoulders.”The old guard machinists, those able to set up a job by hand, are retiring — and the dearth of young people entering the trades has left a void. But new grads holding computer degrees also need mechanical aptitude, says the younger Poppinga, as well as the ability to visualize in three dimensions.

Competition from China remains tough, but the Mound House company contends that turnaround time for a job at Vineburg is four weeks compared to six months for work sent overseas.An overseas order must be big enough to fill a shipping container, and an independent inspector often is needed on-site to oversee offshore manufacturing. However, the elder Poppinga points to a neighboring company that had to junk 60 percent of an order, incorrectly made. “Yet its still cheaper for them to outsource to China,” he says.

While the company has kept some former customers whose jobs run on the old Acme machines, it still needs to find new customers. The companys owner makes cold calls from manufacturing guides. Of his firms success, the founder, who as a young man immigrated from Germany, says, “Only in America.”

***************************************************************************************************************************************************

Workforce Training               
Employment Training Panel (ETP) Funds CASE STUDY 3

Company Profile
Vineburg Machining, Inc. (VMI) is a Sonoma-based company that creates machined parts for construction tools, medical implements and automotive parts. Their client base is local, nation-wide and international.

Challenge
VMI's president, Gerd Poppinga was interested in a variety of company-wide training. The VMI management team, composed of managers, supervisors and team leaders, had just been formed and needed management training. Increasing customer demands with more complex specifications and a general upgrading of processes was pushing the need for training on the line. Poppinga also wanted training in ISO 9000 compliance, statistical training and machine shop blueprint reading.

The company was concerned with maintaining production rates while employees were off line in training. Although, training was
a priority for this manufacturing company, they were also
concerned about the cost.

Solution
One of VMI's managers learned about Employment Training Panel (ETP) grants from a consultant whose services were too expensive for the company. When they discovered SRJC's
Workforce Training Department could provide the training and access to ETP funds, which would cover most of the training costs, they signed up.

The training plan for the forty production employees included Problem-solving and Statistical Process Control. Blueprint Reading was added for the machine shop, and managers took an additional 24 hours of Quality Management training. To launch the program SRJC's Workforce Training Coordinator, working with Poppinga and his Technical Support Manager, Bill Poleshuk planned three all-day Saturday sessions to introduce ISO to all of VMI employees.

Impact
Poleshuk says that many in VMI's blue-collar work force did not initially see the value of leaving the production line for training. One of the outcomes of the training was that employees became more proactive and questioning in their jobs. “Now our employees are confident asking for help because they see it as a part of their job. The company operates more like an inverted pyramid. Rather than waiting to be told what to do and when, employees do the work and tell management what they need,” commented Poleshuk.

Besides upgrading the standards and practices at VMI, Poleshuk reported a result that surprised the entire management team. When they reviewed financial records for the training period, production was not adversely affected as had been anticipated. “We expected a negative financial impact, and were very pleased that we could provide training and stay profitable during the same period,” Poleshuk added.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mound House Machine Shop builds bonds in N. Nevada
Becky Bosshart
Appeal Staff Writer, bbosshart@nevadaappeal.com
May 30, 2005

MOUND HOUSE - Gerd Poppinga had to make the hardest decision to ever confront a business owner.

Poppinga, 59, started his business in 1977 in Sonoma, Calif., but moved it to Mound House recently for economic reasons. About half of his 35 employees decided to also make the move. So in November 2003, the multimillion-dollar equipment essential to Vineburg Machining Inc.'s business was transported on 14 semi-trucks to Northern Nevada.

Poppinga was born in Germany, but arrived in California just in time to be drafted into the Vietnam War, where he served from 1966 to 1968. Soon after returning, he married a Panamanian woman named Ismenia, and they have two children. His son, Gerd Jr./COO, also works at Vineburg Machining.

"We used to have 90 employees in 2000, but due to the recession, our business was slowly going down in the number of employees," he said. "We dropped to 35 employees at the end of 2002-2003."

Poppinga said the semi-conductor industry was in decline so he decided to downsize. His biggest customer was going into a redesign; other customers were going overseas.  Poppinga already owned a house in Dayton, so this area became his first choice.

"When I had to make the decision, I looked at the business climate in Nevada and its infrastructure. Our type of business relies on raw materials from the Bay area and Southern California. I found that Mound House had a good support line."

His 13,000-square-foot shop is broken into two parts, but it all sounds the same: the grinding cacophony of industry. One half contains about $1.1 million in computer-operated machines. These digital machines are for the precise pieces, but they have a short lifetime and need diligent maintenance.

The other half of the shop is dominated by 13 mass-producing machines, each worth from $50,000 to $150,000. These machines are for producing high volumes. Poppinga said they're all American-made and will last for decades.

Although he isn't employing the same number of people that he had before the recession, 25 machinists work in the machine shop, Poppinga said he is establishing bonds with other industry in Carson City. Vineburg is a contract shop that doesn't make any of its own products. It has contracts to make such things as door locks, parts for fire pokers, orthopedic devices, animal feeders and racing cars. The products are shipped to Mexico, Colorado, California and Nevada. "I like to work with the engineers from various companies that we do work for. They come to us with a specialized process. They want to take a new design to market, and they come to us to make it as low-cost as possible."

****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
 Gaining Productivity . . . . Using An Alloy Article