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In the Heavy Duty Industrial Caster business, building high quality product is only half the battle of high customer satisfaction. Applying the proper caster to the application is a process that is not easy. Without proper information, poor application of the product will not only lead to an unhappy customer but possibly can lead to a situation where someone can be severely injured or killed. A very high quality caster that is put into the wrong application will fail and will not perform in a safe and effective fashion.

The process of proper application of a caster is generally developed through the extensive questioning and answering that goes on between the “supplier” and the end-user. I would like to briefly review these key questions with you:

1. Can you provide a general idea of what the caster is going to be used on or a description of the application?
2. What is the approximate total weight of the unit (cart and payload) that is being moved?
3. Is this application power driven or human powered? What are the operating speeds for this application? What are the hours of operation?
4. Is this application indoors or outdoors?
5. What are the floor conditions where the unit will be used?
6. What is the material that the floor or running surface is made out of?
7. Will there be exposure to moisture?
8. Is heat an issue? Is cold an issue? What temperatures will the unit be exposed to?
9. Is there chemical exposure?
10. Will shock loading be an issue in this application

When the customer is specifying their own casters, it is good to go through this thought process as outlined above. The customer should only go through this process when:

1. The loads being carried do not exceed 250 lbs.
2. There has previously been a specific product specified into the application and it has preformed and met expectations
3. A discussion has been had with a trained representative of the manufactured product.

The proper application of the product that Caster Concepts manufactures will lead directly to long term customer satisfaction. We are committed to getting all the information in place through questioning and listening to assure the product is being properly applied to fulfill the customer’s needs. The process that our sales staff goes through with each customer assures that we are going to provide you with not only a high quality product that is manufactured to the highest standard but also a product that is designed to meet the unique applications of this particular situation. Heavy duty industrial caster is certainly not a “one size fits all” business. At Caster Concepts, We Build Trust by assuring you that the product you purchase is not only manufactured as the highest quality caster on the market, that the caster is uniquely applied to this application.

This is the second in a 3 part series on how to identify and solve ergonomic issues in the field. We will talk about caster rigs (or forks and swivel sections as they are also called).  I will  share with you  what I look for in solving push/pull issues in the manufacturing environment?? It is important when making proper application decisions to understand the underlying “forces” that impact caster functionality. At Caster Conceptsand in my experience the most challenging  push/pull issues arise on carts with capacities of 1000-2000 pounds.  Carts of this size and capacity are found in a variety of  manufacturing settings and are most prevalent in automobile assembly facilities.

Let me first summarize the  three types of swivel sections.

• The first is a kingpin version. Kingpin casters are the oldest style caster available in the market. A kingpin style caster is assembled and tightened around a “kingpin” in the middle of the caster rig and is best suited for a rough application. When side load is a concern, a king pin style caster may be considered. However, if a primary  concern is with the ease of pushing this cart, a kingpin version may not be your best choice.
• The second is a kingpinless style. Until recently, this was the solution for all ergonomic issues. A kingpinless style caster swivels on ball bearings in a hardened raceway resulting in a very efficient caster with good ergonomic properties. Preventative maintenance (greasing) is required to insure the predicted life of this caster.
• The third variation and the newest concept to hit the market is the precision sealed ball bearing swivel section. This caster is a safety manager’s dream come true. The caster swivels around a precision sealed ball bearing which insures consistent performance over the life of the caster. A major benefit of this type of swivel section  is the fact that the swivel section is  maintenance free. No preventive maintenance is required at scheduled intervals. This will extend the life and keep push and pull results consistent for a prolong period of time.

Now that we have discussed the types of swivel sections, let’s talk about  a couple common application errors I see in the field.

• First, an undersized caster rig. Typically when price is a concern, an undersized, imported caster rig will be selected. This may make purchasing happy, but the added cost is going to come during the life cycle of the caster. A caster with too small or inconsistent swivel section will progressively be more difficult to push. Once this happens, the potential for back injuries become more common and the rate of caster replacement increases. The best advice I can give is to select a caster and then choose one size bigger for your application. Or you can contact me below and we can choose together. (Yes that was a shameless plug J!!)
• Second, and equally as important, a caster does not work well with a swivel lead that is too small. Swivel lead is the distance between the center of the swivel section and the center of the wheel. I would suggest a caster with any pushing and pulling required should have at least a 2 ½” swivel lead. The longer the swivel lead the more leverage is created and the easier the caster is to push and pull. However, one side note, the swivel lead and capacity of the caster have an inverse relationship. Swivel lead goes up and capacity goes down. Please be sure to consult with an engineer when adjusting swivel leads.

The final installment of this series will focus on unique applications I’ve seen in the field and how they may be relevant in your world.

Mike Kulka
National Accounts Manager
Caster Concepts, Inc..

My father started Caster Concepts, Inc. after completing an illustrious career that included COO of  Hayes Albion, a publicly traded company, which he left in 1965 to become the President of Albion Industries. After 18 years in that leadership role he found himself at 65 years old and without a job. He lost his job due to mandatory retirement policies of Household Finance. After a miserable two years my father, at 67 years old, decided he would start a manufacturing company by the name of Caster Concepts. He recruited a VP of Sales, Jack Turner and two other investors, myself and my brother, and with 40K in capital Caster Concepts was born.

It was not clear to me why my father took on this task at that point in his life but over the years his purpose has become clearer to me.  He was wired to be driven and had to channel that energy in some direction.  He was not wealthy but certainly he was comfortable. I believe he was lonely (due to the death of my mother) and he sought a purpose in life.  He loved a good challenge and he felt that owning his own business was an unfulfilled dream for him. He needed a purpose to get up every morning and he found that with Caster Concepts.

He literally never took any money out of the business until it had been in existence for over 10 years, was clearly successful and everyone else had been taken care of. This business was never about him.  He was a stickler to never get over leveraged and would frequently discuss “what is the last way out”, he was clearly conservative. He would preach of the importance of quality relationships with vendors and felt strongly that we had no right to “finance the business on the backs of our vendors” while adding “if we can’t go to the bank and get money, we should not be in business”.  He frequently provided personal guarantees to fund the business during the early growth.

The most amazing thing that my father did when he started his own company, he cleaned the bathrooms. No money in the budget for that and he felt good businesses kept their restrooms clean. When I was a very young boy and would go to Albion Malleable (prior to Hayes Albion) on Saturday morning he would give me and my brother a lesson on how you leave the bathroom and especially the sinks clean after using them. A corporate executive at publicly traded company cleaning bathrooms in his retirement ….and….. thrilled to be doing it.

It is for these reason and many more that we have an annual celebration of Founder Day –My Father Birthday.  He told me many times to never forget where you came from, never forget what got you here. He never forgot that he grew up in the depression and never took any of his responsibilities or blessing for granted. He would be very proud of the company that Caster Concepts has evolved into AND if he was here, he would check the cleanliness of the bathrooms before giving the final Good Job!!

Richard H. Dobbins 1921-2007 –Founder of Caster Concepts, Inc.

Maybe in my wildest dreams-- I ran a marathon-- but never in reality. This past weekend part of my dream came true in the Detroit Marathon.

The truth is I am  not a runner. I run, not a lot, and when I do run I am not very graceful. I run because I am told it is a good thing to do. Have you ever seen a runner with a big smile on while he is running?? I have not…  I have seen a lot of runners with a big smile on when they have completed the run, so there must be something very good that happens when you stop running and I guess the farther you run the bigger the smile when you stop.

Last February my daughters, Emily and Caroline, convinced me that Caster Concepts should sponsor a team in the Detroit Marathon Relay event. I thought that was a great idea. The bad news was they thought I should be part of the team. They wanted me to be the “anchor” for the team and run a 4.4 mile leg. After a prolonged conversation, I agreed that I would participate without any guarantee that I would run the entire distance. That is the good thing about marathons is that there is generally someone doing some walking so I figured I could fit right  in.

This past Sunday the “team” took on the 26.2 miles. It was chilly and there was a mist in the air for most of the day. My daughter-in-law, Stephanie started us off at 7AM and completed 6.2 miles before passing the torch to my daughter Emily. Emily completed 6.0 miles (running the entire distance) and passed to my daughter Caroline (the real runner in the family) and she ran 6.7 miles before passing to my son-in-law Joe Verbeke who complete 2.9 miles while Caroline continue running with him for encouragement. As they completed the lap of Belle Isle it was my turn. I slipped my sweats off and revealed the “white” legs of a washed up old football player who was excited to run the final 4.4 miles. As the torch was passed to me Caroline and I crossed over the bridge to East Jefferson and wound our way to the Riverfront and toward downtown Detroit and the finish line. I had never run that distance and the time flew by fast. I was running the final leg of the Detroit Free Press Marathon with my youngest daughter at my side encouraging me all the way. The were people along the street shouting encouragement, holding signs, beating pans and ringing bells. There were DJ’s and music playing the scene was magical and I was running the Detroit Free Press Marathon. One last hill to climb, a right hand turn on to West Fort Street and the finish line was in sight. Caroline gave me one last “good job dad” and sent me down to complete the mission. People lined the sidewalks, my team mates and my granddaughter (Molly) cheering the “old man” on. People were actually even taking my picture (I am sure they thought I ran 26.2 miles).  I then crossed the finish line in all the glory, as if I had run a marathon. You should have seen my smile.

Thanks to my entire family for making part of my dream a reality!!  We spent the weekend “Building Trust” one step at a time.

Caster Concepts builds the highest quality caster in the industrial caster market.

• Caster Concepts  products are produced in the USA
• All key components for these products originate in the USA.
• Our products contain in excess of 97% domestically produced content.

Quality products do not just happen for any of the above reasons. In fact there are many low quality products made in the USA, that have high levels of domestic content and key components produced domestically. So what is it that Caster Concepts does to assures high quality products, delivered to their customer, to the point that the product quality continually builds trust?

Building quality in our product is similar to the way my Grandma Vonk made oatmeal cookies. Grandma follow the recipe to the “letter” and never cut corners on ingredients. Little did I know that Grandma Vonk knew the secret of making great casters also.

• Develop the recipe/blue prints through extensive thought, discussion and past experience. Test the concepts to the point there is no question that the recipe is correct.
• Only use the best ingredients. We use high quality domestically produced forgings, grey iron cores, structural steel. No short cuts when it comes to the ingredients.
• Mix these ingredients  and manufacturer these products without cutting corners. High tolerance machining, laser cut components, tight bending tolerance and great welds throughout.
• “Taste test them” in ways  that assure quality, using machines built specifically for the purpose of assuring a quality product.

The truth of the matter is that quality does not just happen because we talk about it. Quality does not happen when we buy the best materials. Quality does not happen because we have great, state of the art, equipment. Quality does not happen because we have the most qualified engineering staff  in the industry. Quality does happen because Caster Concepts, Inc. has all of the above and  combines it with a culture  of excellence. Aristotle described excellence as

“Excellence is an art won by training and habit. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but rather we have virtue and excellence because we act rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then is not an act, but a habit”.

I never knew that Grandma Vonk and Aristotle knew so much about building casters and in turn WE BUILD TRUST.

In any  business there is little  hope for building trusting relationships without great employees.  Caster Concepts is committed to hiring and retaining the very best employees. How we do this is the challenge, as it is to most small businesses and frankly it is one of the key things that separates the best from the rest.  Jim Collins in “Good to Great” states “ Companies  start by getting the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats”. In my experience  hiring the  very best is not always possible. The challenge then is to hire people that can become the very best.  I believe that the development of  key people spans hiring and training and ends at alignment of values.   At Caster Concepts, Inc., we do this by

1. Identifying and hiring  people that have great potential. We do this by identifying people that have experience and education aligned with our core values. To start at Caster Concepts, Inc. they must see the value of hard work while be culturally and morally aligned with company values.
2. We then train these people in the specific skill sets that are necessary for the highest level of success. On the floor or in the office, does not matter.
3. After selecting for the important skill sets we then integrated each individual in the culture of our business. It is not that we are stuck in a particular process but we are stuck in the culture that drives continual improvement.. They must understand “how we do it at Caster Concepts, Inc..”

Our engineering department is the  best example to how we hire, train, and weave key people into our business.  At the present time we have more engineers with more education than any other competitor in the marketplace. Our engineers were not hired from a competitor or did they know casters when they started working at Caster Concepts, they came with great educations, the right attitude and the desire to be leaders not only in our business but for our stakeholders.

Hiring people is tough, we all know that, and when we are successful at it many good things happen. When we hire good people and retain good people even more good things happen. Success in hiring does not just happen, it takes lots of hard work and many difficult decision along the way. As you shape the organization you have a culture that builds the trust of all stakeholders of the business. Employing the best people is not a short cut to building trust—it is our path to WE BUILD TRUST.

At Caster Concepts we are committed to clear and concise communications. We will ask questions to ensure that we understand exactly what the customer’s needs are. We work with “Up Front Contracts” which provide clarity to each party while stating each ones intentions and demonstrating what the others needs are. Good communications is a two way street and we understand that active listening is a key to good communication. In our day to day conversation we use many phrases i.e. “great meeting”—”need it soon”—“big opportunity”, etc. that may generate different pictures for the sender and for the receiver. Active listening generally involves not assuming you understand the picture in their head and asking clarifying questions so each person is sharing the same picture.

In a world of text, tweeting and email it is difficult to understand what the customer expectation of valuable communication is these days. We understand that we must strive to communicate with the customer in the medium that works best for them . In many ways verbal communication is getting to be a lost art. I text my wife or my children and I think that I have communicated with them. Have I really? We passed some words (many times complete words are not even used) electronically and feel we have communicated. To assure that Caster Conceptsis going to deliver on the customer expectations it is important that we verbally communicate with vendors, customers, employees or other stakeholders. Communicating certainly does not mean that we are ‘telling”, in fact in most cases we are striving to talk less than 40% of the time while listening more than 60% of the time. We are committed to the practice of good and active listening techniques that allow us to fully understand what expectations are being set.

While what we do is to manufacture heavy duty industrial castersour core value to the customer is to “We Build Trust”. That is the passion that drive the business. Communication is a key component of building trust and with that comes.

Let me know how you feel about the value of communications in your business and thanks for reading.

Accountability is not about “who has the biggest stick”, and it also does not mean that whatever the “customer wants the customer gets”.  Accountability means we will agree up front on the anticipated outcomes and decide to move forward with complete understanding and commitment.

We believe in personal and professional accountability and expect the same from all team members.  Accountability is achieved through consistent communication and understanding of each other’s expectations. We understand by “closing the loop” on the conversation so we part, with a full understanding of each parties commitment. Respect is also a key to consistent and predictable accountability. Without mutual respect, accountability to one another will be impossible to achieve.

When I began the discussion of accountability at Caster Concepts I was surprised by the feeling that the concept of accountability was in some form “heavy handed” toward all parties. Good accountability practices have nothing to do with demands, threats or coercion. Accountability is about mutual understanding and mutual agreement.

Accountability is the process that two people or two parties go through to develop a mutually agreeable accountability understanding. Many times accountability is a negotiated agreement that both parties have input on the expected outcome or time frame and then moves forward to deliver on the agreement. Accountability does not mean that you dictate to me or I dictate to you, an unreasonable or impossible outcome. Many failures of accountability are failures of complete communication and mutual respect of each party. Who has the biggest hammer is that one that thinks they are the ones that should dictate the level of accountability. When this occurs there is very little if any accountability and in most situations both parties are going to experience significant disappointment.

Caster Concepts is committed to developing accountability in every relationship and then being held accountable. Our goal is to consistently deliver great value to the customer and hence we must be able to communicate to the customer how that will be delivered and when it will be delivered. When this is clear to each party then we have set a foundation for accountability within the relationship.

In May of 2011 we outlined the principles of Building Trust at Caster Concepts. “We Build Trust”  is now our tagline and we believe it is the core value that we deliver to the customer. When we violate a customer’s or employee’s trust we undermine the core value of our business.

“On Time Delivery” is a component of our core value of our business that builds trust with our customer. When we give our word on delivery, we are committing to doing everything in our control to meet this promise. If situations occur that are beyond our control our commitment is to immediately communicate the issues to the customer and re-set a new expectation. As we consistently deliver on our promise of a committed delivery date the customer then believes and trusts that we are fully committed to that date. To successfully deliver on this promise it is necessary for everyone in the organization to have a clear “sight line” to the customer and fully understand the role they play in fulfilling that promise. On time delivery involves everyone in the organization, not just operations, but everyone from sales to order entry, to engineering, to purchasing, to shipping and receiving, to scheduling, to machining, to fabricating, to shipping and receiving. Every person in the chain must understand their role and consistently deliver on the commitment of delivering orders on time. Certainly there are variables that we do not control but they are few and while we may not be able to control them we have to understand how we influence them. Our suppliers must understand our commitment to the customer and be fully engaged in the process.

Clear concise communications will play a major role in the commitment to 100% On Time Delivery and our ability to build trust with our customers. Caster Concepts is committed to all processes and disciplines that are within the on- time funnel. We work daily to improve the process and to make it the most predictable process in the business.

Our word is truly our commitment and our people are aligned with the commitment. We manufacture heavy duty industrial casters and in the end “We Build Trust”.

Please feel free to share your thoughts and comments.

What do I look for in solving push/pull issues in the manufacturing environment?

The most popular push/pull issues arise on carts with capacities of 1000-2000 pounds. This is the first in a 3 part series on how to identify and solve ergonomic issues in the field. We will talk about wheels today.

The easiest solution, but rarely the best, is a hard wheel (steel or phenolic). The conventional thinking is the harder the wheel, the easier it is to push. This statement is true. A hard wheel will resolve your push and pull problem and pass your testing standards but at the same time will create many new problems.

First, will be the added noise. You will have carts that are easy to push and everyone in the plant will know when they are getting pushed. Loud, loud, loud!!

Second, a phenolic or plastic wheel will accumulate debris in the rolling surface of the wheel. Debris accumulation occurs in the cleanest of factory environments. Debris is a fact of life. It exists. This requires a regular time commitment to replace these wheels. We all know our maintenance people’s time is much better served somewhere besides swapping caster wheels.

Third, the steel wheel will damage the floor. Plant managers are never excited about grooves carved in their beautiful manufacturing floors. This should never happen.

So now that the hard wheel is no longer an option, where do we turn? Here is what I look for and most often suggest.

Am I restricted in the size of my wheel? Can I take a 4 inch wheel and go to a 6 or 8 inch? Increasing the diameter of a wheel results in much less effort to start and an increase in momentum to keep the wheel rolling. It is important to note that increasing the diameter of the wheel is a positive but increasing the width of the wheel is a negative. A wider wheel will create more surface pressure and make the wheel more resistant to switching directions.

Most importantly, I need to select a wheel material that will keep noise at minimum and not cause damage to the manufacturing floor. My suggestion is a polyurethane wheel with an A shore rating of 85-95. This wheel is hard enough to push and pull easily, soft enough to keep noise at a minimum, and resist debris. Any softer than 85A and the wheel creates too much surface pressure and becomes hard to move under load. Any harder and the wheel takes on the traits of its steel and phenolic equivalents resulting in more noise and destructive characteristics.

Next time we will discuss the caster rig/wheel housing and how we can modify it to achieve maximum push/pull results!

Mike Kulka
National Accounts Manager

I have read with great interest the value of trusting relationships within a business and have recently decided that I am going to do a better job articulating what the value of trust is at Caster Conceptsand what are the behaviors that generate trust from all stakeholders in the business. Over the next few months I will use this forum to share with the readers of this post my commitment to building trust in our business.

Caster Concepts, Inc. is a manufacturer of heavy duty industrial casters. We design and build these products in standard configurations and in many special configurations depending on the customers’ needs. There are several very good companies that we compete with in this market and while we believe we are the best at what we do, many of the competitors do an excellent job of servicing the customers need also. So I ask myself, “Why does the customer buy their heavy duty industrial caster from Caster Concepts?” I think the answer is simple, because they trust us. So in the end what we actually do for our customers is to “Build Trust” for our customers and we do it through the design and manufacture of heavy duty industrial casters. We also do it through the relationships that we build with our customers, vendors and our own employees.

To fully understand the dynamics it is necessary to peel the onion back another layer by asking the question, what is that we do that Builds Trust with the customer. That answer is not so simple and takes thought and discussion with many key players in the business and outside the business to understand. What is it that we do that that ultimately generates trust with our customers and employees? These are the principles that we will discuss in more detail over the next few sessions. I hope that you will take the time to read these and apply these principles to your own life or your own business. Trusting relationships in our lives and businesses, generates speed and simplicity it so many ways.

To read our mission statement regarding trust building see We Build Trust.

Sometime in 2004 I was exposed to the following three sentences and have encountered these in a variety of different readings over the past seven years. Each time I read these, the message comes through stronger and it is long over due for me to share these with you. These sentences are attributed to Stephen Covey in his book, "7 Habits of Highly Effective People"

"Between stimulus and response is a space".

"In that spaces lies the freedom and power to choose our response"

"In those choices lie our growth and happiness".