To all our great clients,
Happy New Year! We’re gunning for a great 2022, as we hope you are! As a US industry leader in on-demand digital manufacturing, Xcentric is all set for a productive year. With new strategies in place, we’re continuing to help product developers and engineers across North America get their products to market faster than ever. How are we doing this? By staying true to our commitment to be nimble.
These new strategies build on the work we did last year. Quality was Xcentric’s big focus in 2021. We launched two quality-centric programs—Continuous Improvement and Operational Excellence—and doubled down on delivering an Amazing Customer Experience (ACE).
Here’s our 2021 year in review—how we overcame unprecedented challenges with six initiatives and thrived despite the pandemic.
1. OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE PROGRAM
Our first program—Continuous Improvement—helped Xcentric teams gain an even deeper understanding of quality and its value to customers. It also enabled employees to recognize that there were areas for improvement. What the Operational Excellence program then did was pinpoint operational areas where we could do better.
With greater visibility and employee autonomy, we achieved:
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- Improved throughput and capacity utilization by 25% (faster production of parts for customers)
- Improved material handling by simplifying material stock, inventory methods, and material location
- Increased operational tracking with very particular KPIs on delivery and quality levels
- All-time highs in quality and on time delivery (in 15 days or less!)
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2. AMAZING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE (ACE)
What sets us apart from other rapid prototyping companies is our Xcentric employees. With a deep understanding of the active role they play in elevating Xcentric’s customer experience, we have always trusted them to deliver. But in 2021, we went one step further. We reinstated the ACE program and extended our employees’ mandate by giving them ownership of any improvements they recommend for the customer experience.
3. INCREASED CAPACITY
I’m proud to share that we expanded our capacity by 40% in the Shelby facility. This came hot on the heels of record demand for plastic and production parts sales. Naturally, we had to increase capacity to serve these customers. The global supply chain disruptions created demand for Made-in-USA products and quick-turn manufacturers, placing us as the ideal manufacturing partner for many customers. With sustainability in mind, Xcentric is continually investing in manufacturing facilities and expanding its capacity to serve more customers in record time.
4. EXPANDED CUSTOMER SERVICE TEAM
To cater to increasing clients and their requirements, and to align with our ACE program, we overhauled Xcentric’s customer service team and brought in a new project management team. As part of our white-glove service, every customer is assigned a project manager as a key point-of-contact, ensuring that Xcentric always meets product standards and delivery requirements—from cradle to grave.
5. EXPANDED TECHNICAL TEAM
The cornerstone of our sales process is Xcentric’s engineering expertise and the consultative approach that our customers value. So, it was important that we expanded our technical account management team in 2021. As Xcentric customers, you’ll always interact with folks who don’t just speak ‘engineering’, but also understand mold design and plastic parts production in depth.
6. READY INVENTORY
We thought hard about how to further strengthen our supply chain. A practical idea (which we implemented, with great impact!) was to stock the most common materials in our customer jobs at the most accessible locations. For example, we put the most common materials associated with certain presses…right next to those presses. By making our processes ever-more efficient, we can better support on-time and high-quality delivery in 2022.
As the CEO of Xcentric, I’m very proud of how my team has worked together to overcome challenges and pursue opportunities. We achieved these wins despite the great uncertainty of 2021. And, as always, thanks to you—our valued customers—for your continued support, trust, and understanding throughout 2021. Here’s to our greater mutual success in 2022.
Matt McIntosh
CEO, Xcentric
About Xcentric
Founded in 1996, Xcentric Mold & Engineering is an innovator of on-demand digital manufacturing and continues to lead advances in injection molding and rapid prototyping. We know what it takes to deliver a high-quality product on time and on budget. Xcentric is engineered to be nimble, employs a team of experts in injection molding, and takes an engineer-centric approach to everything we do. Tens of thousands of product developers and engineers across North America trust Xcentric to bring their products to life.
Learn more about what Xcentric can do for you here.
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