Setting standards: How Monroe Rubber & Plastics is using NAHAD's hose assembly guidelines

Monroe Rubber & Plastics Supply is using NAHAD's hose assembly guidelines to build business and better serve customers

By Bridget McCrea, Contributing Editor -- Industrial Distribution, 5/1/2007 6:00:00 AM

With all of its business focused on the hose industry, Monroe Rubber and Plastics Supply Co. was a perfect fit when it came time to establish a set of hose assembly guidelines. As one of just two companies in the Detroit area that fabricates metal hose assemblies and expansion joints, the distributorship caters to steel manufacturers, power plants and OEMs primarily within a 50-mile radius of its headquarters.

Over the years, those customers have come up empty when trying to follow hose assembly standards, mainly because none existed. But NAHAD—The Assn. for Hose & Accessories Distribution—decided to change that in 1993 by developing a set of guidelines for making hose assemblies. Joe Lark, Monroe Rubber's president and a NAHAD officer, contributed his knowledge to the cause and helped the organization come up with a “very broad guideline” that manufacturers and distributors could use, and that end users could rely on.

“It was developed, put on a shelf and available on the NAHAD Web site,” says Lark. “People would go in and pick and choose as they needed it.”

Nine years later, the guidelines were ready for an overhaul.

“In 2002, [the NAHAD board] decided to unbundle the guidelines and make them a useful tool for NAHAD members,” says Lark. “We wanted to create a deliverable.”

The idea was to present the guidelines by product group, and from there create training modules that would cover not only how to train internal employees, but also how to show customers that there is more to hose assembly than meets the eye. Five years later, the process is still in the works, although Lark says there is an end in sight.

“We just finished up the last of the module testing,” says Lark.

Several Monroe Rubber employees have already taken the guidelines test online and received certificates of completion, for example. End users are beginning to reap the rewards of NAHAD's 14-year effort to create the standards as well.

“The standards being used at companies are all over the board,” says Lark. “Our goal is for companies like Dow Chemical, Ford Motor Company and Exxon to let us write the specifications, so that they're able to say that all proposed hose assemblies are made to NAHAD 500 standards.”

Turning the ship around

Located in the heart of automotive country, Monroe Rubber has managed to keep its head well above water despite the turmoil going on around it.

“There's a misconception out there, because when you tell people you're in Detroit they want to have a funeral for you—but that's just not the case,” says Lark, who admits that his company's growth isn't what it once was. “[But] we're still on a growth path, and we continue to post annual sales increases.”

Founded in 1948, Monroe Rubber got its start serving a robust paper industry that had its roots in Detroit. The number of paper mills in the area has since dwindled from seven to none, leaving the distributorship to diversify its customer base.

“We've since evolved into serving the steel mill industry,” says Lark, who, along with partner Sam Carrabino (the firm's vice president of sales), has avoided becoming reliant on the industry in his own backyard: automotive manufacturing.

Lark credits his strategy of “not relying on any one customer, or any single industry,” with helping to propel company growth, and uses complementary services—such as the company's Aeroquip Express Store—to broaden the distributorship's appeal to customers. Aeroquip Express is a retail-like outlet where customers can get immediate access to fluid connector products and services. Roughly 65 percent of the firm's sales are to customers within 50 miles of Detroit; the rest are throughout the Midwest and in Mexico.

During its nearly 60 years in business, Monroe Rubber has had its share of triumphs and challenges. Lark says the distributorship's biggest turning point came in 1989, when at 25 he took over the company.

“It was a stagnant company at the time, but it ... had some good product lines,” says Lark, who over the next nine years transformed Monroe Rubber into a thriving business. “I woke it up, added employees and energized things around here.”

Lark bought the company in 1999 and doubled its size over the next eight years. He says finding good employees has been the toughest challenge, adding that the rash of layoffs in the local automotive industry hasn't made a difference.

“At any given time we have four openings for sales and inventory management,” says Lark, who isn't alone in his quest to fill the employee pipeline with qualified people. “I talk to my associates around the country, and they all say the same thing.”

To deal with the problem, Lark says, he's reached out to universities, talking to them about developing programs that would prepare students for distribution jobs. He also offers on-site training for students and a tuition reimbursement program for employees.

“When you go to college around here, you come out wanting to work for Ford Motor Company or General Motors,” says Lark. “Well, that model is changing and the opportunity isn't there anymore—but there is a whole level of business out here that students don't know about.”

Standardization counts

As Lark attempts to fill his company's ranks with qualified people and grow the business even further, he's also helping NAHAD complete its hose guidelines.

“We don't have the complete package done yet, but once we roll it out and show [end users] how it can benefit them, everything will follow from there,” he says.

By “everything,” Lark means more customers will come to rely on the guidelines—as followed by industrial distributors like Monroe Rubber—as gospel within their respective industries.

“If that becomes a reality, with customers asking for the guidelines, more distributors will jump in and use [them],” says Lark, adding that he sees a long road ahead in persuading distributors to adopt the standards.

“Convincing distributors of the value of it will be challenging,” says Lark, who expects the remainder of 2007 to be spent marketing the program, since the training modules were completed in May. “People are excited at the prospects and willing to participate, but some aren't quite sure what they're excited about.”

Within his own firm, Lark says he spent the last few months getting his hands dirty working with the hose assemblies. Standing alongside employees who typically put the assemblies together, he was able to tailor the process and ensure that it was in line with NAHAD's standards.

“Rather than giving a guy a book and saying 'do this stuff,' I walked in, talked to them about what we needed to do and took the time to understand it myself,” Lark says. “Now when I hire people, I'll be better suited to go into the assembly area and make sure the workers are trained properly on how to follow the guidelines.”

Lark sees the efforts paying off for his distributorship in the future, particularly as more end users come to realize the value of having an industry standard to follow when fabricating hose assemblies.

“It might be too early to see the effect of all of this,” says Lark. “I view it as a standard ISO procedure to make sure we're doing what we're supposed to be doing.”

Time and money

Rob Lyons, president of Tipco Techno-logies in Owings Mills, Md., who is also a NAHAD board member, concurs with Lark, saying the new guidelines go a long way toward helping independent distributors follow an ISO-like standard when fabricating hose assemblies.

“It can be difficult even for a company of our size [six branches] to become ISO certified,” says Lyons, who like Lark has played a key role in developing the NAHAD guidelines.

“What these guidelines really are is a snapshot of what ISO is,” says Lyons. “We can now point to the document for everything we do, and pass quality audits with customers who want to see our quality process. The guidelines have also given us a point of reference on how hose is to be assembled, and how the industry thinks it should be assembled.”

Whether the guidelines will create a return on investment for independent distributors that are struggling with lower profit margins and stiff competition remains to be seen, but Lyons is optimistic.

“Getting involved in this requires a minimal fiscal investment, but it can be a tedious process both time-wise and culture-wise,” says Lyons. “Once it's up and running, the process can save a great deal of money and ultimately allow distributors like us to charge more for our products.”