Great Lakes Rubber thrives on tackling extreme environments

WIXOM, Mich.—Great Lakes Rubber Co. Inc. has probably encountered every demanding application imaginable.

The Wixom-based rubber products manufacturer often is challenged with producing a part that can survive the extreme: Hot or cold temperatures, tons of dust, garbage and a whole gamut of other wild cards.

It's prepared for all of those, and is investing to take on the ones it hasn't encountered yet.

"We're not afraid to look at the next best technology that's out there, regardless of price," said Chris Tolliver, Great Lakes lab coordinator/chemist. "We're looking to have it on the shelf, ready to go, when it's needed. Being a smaller company, to look at those things that are not just the norm is something that we pride ourselves in."

New business

In 1979, Great Lakes Rubber was founded by Harvey McCloud—a former buyer with Mac Valves Inc., the country's largest manufacturer of pneumatic valves.

Dynamic rubber seals are critical to Mac's products. Frustrated with the difficulty it took to purchase seals at the level of quality Mac wanted, McCloud approached his boss with an idea—he'd make the seals himself if Mac would source them.

Mac agreed, and the rest is history. By 1989 Great Lakes had grown to the point where Mac decided to bring it under its umbrella as a wholly owned subsidiary. Four years later, the firm relocated from its original site in Walled Lake, Mich., to its current 25,000-sq.-ft. home in Wixom, housed within Mac's global headquarters.

Don DeMallie came on board as the company's president in 1994. At the time, Mac accounted for 98 percent of Great Lakes' business. One of his first goals was to grow the company's business beyond Mac Valves. Today, the Mac business accounts for about 75 percent of the firm's overall sales, though at times the breakdown has been even.

"Even though Mac Valves is growing very, very fast, we've made a lot of investments in a lot of different ways," DeMallie said. "Not just in our facility with our equipment, but through partnerships with other companies that have allowed us to grow rapidly."

The firm generates about 10 percent of its sales from automotive applications, and is in the process of being selected for more vehicle platforms. Industrial applications account for the remaining 15 percent.

"We're looking forward into creating significant additional capacity internally plus what Mac is asking us to grow in terms of outside customers," DeMallie said. "We have a number of current customers that are not Mac Valves that have significant projects that we expect to hit. We've been quoting and building prototypes for a number of years. They're testing well and are being selected for a number of vehicle platforms. So we can see that we're going to expect to grow a lot."

Expanded capabilities

Great Lakes has made investments for those new projects. Since 2013, the firm has added deflashing capabilities, expanded its lab testing capabilities, multiple injection molding machines and an automated molding cell. These additions come on top of introducing a new family of fluoroelastomers that can seal at -50°C.

DeMallie knows the company must stay ahead of the curve to be ready for new opportunities, which could come at any time thanks to the wide-reaching distributor network of its parent company. Great Lakes constantly taps that network to identify new rubber applications.

"Without the Mac directive, we wouldn't have had these decades of research and development into all these different types of compounds," said Tom Leonardo, Great Lakes Rubber process engineer. "These things have pushed our rubber knowledge into all kinds of applications. Mac has a giant distribution network that's constantly looking for new applications and we're tasked with finding products that can work in new, extreme environments."

The level of quality required is just as extreme as those environments. Take rice sorting for example. Mac's valves help aid rice makers weed out bad grains with a whole series of air valves. If the many imaging cameras identify a defect, the air valve will knock the tiny grain out of the way, allowing the good ones to fall through.

DeMallie said the last thing a company wants is after a month or so for the valve to miss the bad grains of rice. That rubber part must operate effectively, every time, for a very long time.

"A Mac Valve in many applications requires high repeatability over a long life," DeMallie said. "When we talk about billions of cycles, that's absolutely true. Some of these things will run for a year, or two, before we know whether we actually have a better compound or not. We developed a compound that allowed Mac to achieve that with high repeatability and that allowed them to go into new markets, like food sorting."

Group focus

Mac, and Great Lakes, do things a little differently. Instead of promoting based on seniority, the company allows employees to choose their own group leaders. And in turn, those group leaders pick their coordinators, who report to management.

"If you're in a hierarchical organization, you typically can fool your boss and your boss' boss just by putting on a good performance," DeMallie said. "People can move up and not necessarily be the best person for the job. When you're selected by your peers to run your organization or group, you can't fool your peers. If you're working side-by-side with someone every day and all of a sudden we have an opportunity to choose someone to lead us, the group is going to want to choose someone who will lead them the best."

Great Lakes has 14 total groups combined on its first and second shifts, with four coordinators—first shift, second shift, operations and lab.

"You give up a lot of power that you might normally have in a hierarchical organization and you have to have a lot of trust for people to do what's right," DeMallie said. "I think most people are deserving of that trust."

The firm also reinvests in its work force regularly. DeMallie said employees get two wage increases per year until they become salaried in addition to profit sharing twice a year. While DeMallie wouldn't disclose the specific percentage, he said it's "a significant portion of the profits."

Employees also have an opportunity to become owners of the company. DeMallie said there are about 1,100 people in the Mac Valves world, about 200 people are owners. Great Lakes employs between 80 and 90 people.

The company is not an ESOP, but based upon position, length of service and performance, employees are offered the chance to buy into the company. The guidelines vary depending on the position, but the commonality is the employee has to be a good worker. DeMallie said each candidate is discussed at length with the CEO.

Between the ownership track, and the unique way of deciding leadership, Great Lakes places a lot of responsibility in the hands of its employees.

"It's nice to say 'I'm the boss, do what I tell you to do,' and depending on the boss it can be successful," DeMallie said. "But when this system works, it works incredibly well. And when it doesn't work, I still think it works better than a hierarchical organization.

"It gives people a lot more opportunity to grow as an individual. Our job is to help facilitate and empower that. A lot of people come in here and don't like it because with this comes responsibility. Some people want to come in, punch the clock and leave. Getting people used to this is very different. It's constantly something you have to work on."