Anthony Murphy Age: 29
Plex Systems Irvine, CA
UNDER THIRTY S
ome people are born to manufacturing; oth- ers—such as Anthony Murphy—have manu- facturing thrust upon them. Anthony was just 13 years old, sleeping in on a humid Michigan summer morning, when he was prodded and cajoled into waking up by his father:
“He unceremoniously woke me up one day during summer vacation and drove me over to RLM Industries (Oxford, MI),” Anthony recalled. “My dad didn’t have all the best opportunities growing up, and he wanted to be sure I did. To teach me the value of a good day’s work and managing my money and being respon- sible, he took me to the company where he himself
“Anthony is an example of what
was working. He dropped me off near one of the bay doors of the foundry, and I remember I could feel the heat as I walked closer and closer to the door. I started out sweeping floors and shoveling steel, and worked my way up from there.”
In total, Anthony spent 13 years working there, fitting it in around his studies from junior high all the way through college. He held several positions—from laborer to IT and process improvement, earning a reputation for being a “fixer.” A self-proclaimed “tech geek at heart,” he was constantly finding ways to augment the features of company’s ERP system. He tweaked the system so that it was able to monitor capacity and productivity, doubling shipments to $14 million annually. He also created a touchscreen system to capture manufacturing data and implemented a program that dramatically reduced the time to produce outside work orders. Anthony’s happiest success at RLM was transform- ing the company’s least profitable division into one of the most successful in record time. And by doing
manufacturing represents: Innovation, hard work, creativity and determination.”
so, he was able to save jobs in what’s been a tough Michigan economy. Here’s how it happened. RLM had a full-scale tooling department on site so that tools could be made quickly and at a low cost for customers, but when the over- staffed department was deemed a liability, it was An- thony who was tapped to reduce it to a single machine and toolmaker. To Anthony, letting those hard workers go wouldn’t feel right. This “fixer” needed a way to fix the situation without having to cut jobs. He attributes his solution to a brief moment of reflec- tion. As he looked out his office window, he noticed the company’s delivery truck
taking parts to a supplier to be machined. He thought “Why not repurpose our CNCs to machine parts as well as build tooling?”
He got the team to work immediately. Instead of shutting the department down, he was able to move it from a loss leader to a profit sanctuary in under six months and even add a second shift. That anecdote comes from Katy Teer of Plex Sys- tems, where Anthony now works. “As a Plex Delivery Executive, Anthony works hand-in-hand with our customers to implement Plex Cloud ERP throughout their manufacturing operations,” Teer said. “He recently received a company award recognizing his dedication to customer satisfaction.
“Anthony is an example of what manufacturing represents,” Teer concluded: “Innovation, hard work, creativity and determination; quietly working behind the scenes to make things better, faster and stronger.” She, like Anthony himself, is grateful for what his dad got started on that warm summer morning in Michigan. ME
July 2014 |
ManufacturingEngineeringMedia.com 117
THIRTY UNDER THIRTY PROFILES
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