SUBSCRIBER CONTENT: Jul 12, 2013, 6:00am EDT

Strategies

West Carrollton manufacturer sharpens its efforts

Combined companies post 15% growth

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Joe Cogliano ■ DBJ

Cutting Edge: Chuck Biehn is CEO of CB Manufacturing, which posted more than $25 million in revenue last year, up 15 percent from the prior year. Biehn is holding a knife used by a food processor to cut chicken.

 

Joe Cogliano

Senior Reporter-Dayton Business Journal

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For years leading into the recession, CB Manufacturing in West Carrollton had been carving itself out a nice slice of the metalworking cutting tool and industrial knife markets.

But as the economy tanked, its revenue dropped more than 20 percent. And to top it off, Charlie Biehn, the company’s founder, passed away in 2009.

That prompted Chuck Biehn — Charlie’s son and the current CEO of CB Manufacturing and its parent, Biehn Co.— to look for the silver living.

“It was our chance to take out a clean sheet of paper and start over,” Biehn said.

So about two years ago he set out to reinvent the 120-person Biehn Co., for which CB Manufacturing is the flagship operation.

For starters, Biehn invested in a more strategic marketing and sales plan that included exiting certain markets — and shedding underperforming business — and going more heavily into others such as companies that cut scrap metal and do slitting work.

Biehn also was inspired to improve operations across the company so he ramped up in-house training, such as lean processes, and pushed execution by putting more emphasis on key performance indicators.

“The company really has a focus right now,” he said.

That mix of changes seems to be the right recipe for success at CB Manufacturing, which posted more than $25 million in revenue last year across all companies combined, up 15 percent compared to the previous year. It also marks the second consecutive year of double-digit increases.

Based in West Carrollton with a Miamisburg mailing address, CB Manufacturing makes industrial knives and blades used in recycling, cutting up scrap plastic and tires and metal; film slitting; and food processing.

For example, its products are used by some plants that cut McDonald’s Filet-O-Fish into individual patties. Other affiliated companies provide razor blades and thin industrial blades; heat treating; industrial hand tools; and sourcing services from low-cost countries.

A major thrust of the new plan was that making metalworking cutting tools wasn’t a good niche for it to be in, so the company sold that business and put more efforts into industrial knives and heat treating. It also quit introducing as many new products in its catalogue division that sells utility knives and similar hand cutting tools.

Biehn felt the risk was low because CB Manufacturing used a variety of analytical tools to determine where it will see increasing sales; its costs and margin per order; return on marketing costs; and other metrics.

“For example, it greatly increased our business in the food cutting sector as we recognized that this was an area we are very competitive in and had not been chasing it as hard as we could be,” he said. “There was some risk in some of these changes but the data doesn’t lie and you have to follow it.”

Ray Attiyah, author and founder of Mason-based business improvement firm Definity Partners, sees an increasing number of manufacturing leaders using more analytical tools in their businesses.

“When used effectively, most leaders are able to confidently make bolder bets while leaders who are busy looking in the rear view mirror are left to make reactive improvements and risk becoming a commodity,” said Attiyah, who also owns more than a dozen companies.

While things are going well now at CB Manufacturing, success didn’t come overnight. Biehn’s biggest challenge was changing the culture, and that started with attitudes.

That meant shedding some negative workers — whom he refers to as people with a “can’t do, loser” mentality — and putting more effort into making sure new hires were a better fit. In addition, performance evaluations were changed so the No. 1 item was attitude and cooperation with others. That’s weighted higher than knowledge or production output.

“I’m constantly talking about compassion for others in the company, how attitude makes the difference in how to approach problems,” he said.

Also, Biehn himself had to come in every day in the right frame of mind to set an example.

Communication was another key to getting workers to buy into his new vision.

Biehn put the company’s financials on display for employees — so they knew “the good, the bad and the ugly” — and began holding regular town hall meetings and sending out bulletins.

He admits his company still has its share of problems — personnel issues, letting down a customer occasionally, machines breaking down — but says that happens everywhere. The key to CB Manufacturing being more successful than most is the new focus and positive attitude.

“You just have to keep doing the right things, and do it over and over again to show people you’re serious about changing the company,” Biehn said. “Today it’s a much happier place to work.”

CB Manufacturing/ Biehn Co.
Contact: Chuck Biehn, CEO
Address: 4455 Infirmary Road, Miamisburg 45342
Phone: (937) 866-5986
Web: cbmfg.com, americancuttingedge.com, certifiedheattreating.com
Business: Manufacturer of industrial knives and blades; heat treating