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Director of Product Development
Mercury Manufacturing
Wyandotte, Michigan
Sectors: Fluid Power, HVAC, Automotive
Status: Search Completed
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THE
OPPORTUNITY
Mercury Manufacturing of Wyandotte, Michigan is a quality driven
manufacturer of precision components including pressure relief
and check valves for refrigeration, air conditioning and
automotive markets.
The company is currently seeking
to identify a key individual for their executive management team
who will be responsible for all product design and development
activities. The new team member will have the opportunity to
creatively structure and build upon an existing engineering
function within an entrepreneurial-driven organization that is
poised for significant growth over the next three to five years.
The opportunity at Mercury Manufacturing would be well suited
for a seasoned engineering supervisor, manager or chief engineer
who would find meaning in working within a “hands-on”,
self-directed, small company environment that fosters high
quality standards and a reputation for customer excellence.
Opportunity for future growth abounds not only corporately, but
also personally. Company revenues have the opportunity to double
within the next five years and in doing so will provide ample
opportunity for skills to be demonstrated in many different
areas. Should the chosen manager have additional “executive
level” skills such as strategic planning, this could lead to
additional responsibilities as the company continues to grow.
Many reasons may lead a seasoned engineering manager with a
background in valve design and development to explore this very
special opportunity. Perhaps an individual is currently working
for a larger company and desires to work in a smaller, less
bureaucratic, entrepreneurial environment. Another reason that
might lead someone to candidate for this position is their
desire to manage less and play a more crucial role in the “hands
on” design/development of a product line. Other reasons may be
more lifestyle related – the appeal of living within minutes of
Lake Erie boating, fishing and numerous golf courses.
The right person will be attracted to the company’s people, its
working environment and its tremendous potential for growth.
This is truly an exceptional opportunity for the right
individual.
THE COMPANY
Mercury Manufacturing was founded in 1964 by Fred May, a tool
and die maker by trade, and was initially located in River
Rouge, Michigan. In 1970, the company relocated to Wyandotte,
Michigan and continued operations in a single facility until
twelve years ago when expansion became a necessity. Since then,
the company has moved into three additional buildings located on
the same city block. Currently the company occupies 52,000
square feet of space and employs approximately 90 people, of
which 13 are salaried employees. Revenues are estimated at $13
million dollars.
Mercury was originally founded as a screw machining job shop
serving the automotive industry. However, over time the company
has developed into an assembly specialist providing value-added
secondary services. Today the company focuses operations in two
complementary core competencies:
The first area of competency includes continuing operations
providing medium and high volume precision machined components,
with value-added secondary CNC and induction hardening
processes. The primary industries supported by this area of the
business include marine, automotive and light/heavy truck engine
and transmission production. In addition, this operational area
frequently produces components to support Mercury’s second core
competency of special assemblies, including pressure relief
devices and other valves.
The special assembly and valve area represents the second core
competency and most promising future growth opportunity for the
company. Mercury Manufacturing participates in the design,
development and manufacture of a variety of pressure relief
devices for the refrigeration and air conditioning markets, and
is a high volume producer of check valves for the automotive
sector. Mercury also produces a variety of light, mechanical
assemblies for various industries.
The company’s leadership team consists of:
• Jan Wiegand - Jan originally began working for Mercury when
she was 12 years old, but officially began serving in a treasury
function in 1991. In 1996, she moved into her current role of
Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. Jan holds
a Bachelor’s Degree in both Accounting and Marketing and an MBA
in Finance. She is considered by her management team to be a joy
to work with.
• Alan Piurkowski – Alan came to Mercury in 1987 after having
spent 15 years with Federal Screw Works, a renowned Tier 1
supplier of fasteners to the automotive market. Alan held
several positions with Federal Screw Works where he interfaced
closely with senior officers and managers to define strategic
planning and implementation objectives. After initially joining
Mercury as Materials Manager in 1987, he was promoted several
years later to the position of Plant Manager. In his current
position, Alan is responsible for ensuring the highest level of
customer satisfaction while working to achieve optimal
efficiencies in daily plant operations.
• Erv Denning – Erv originally came to work for Mercury after
having spent 30 years with Weltronic where he was Director of
Engineering. Since 1989 Erv has served in his current position
of Director of Product Development. Erv will retire from full
time active service with the company in November of this year.
Erv holds a Bachelors Degree in Electrical Engineering.
The vision expressed by both the company owner and executive
leadership is “To develop a world class organization providing
superior value to our customers through high quality,
technologically advanced, fairly priced products and outstanding
customer service”. Mercury believes people are their greatest
asset, making a critical difference in how well they perform.
This can be attested to by the fact that the first employee
hired in 1965 is still currently employed. Additionally, there
are many other employees who have over 20 years of tenure with
the company. Both of these examples attest to an old fashioned
sense of loyalty that exists at Mercury, between employer and
employee, which is so rarely evident elsewhere in the business
world these days.
The mission of Mercury Manufacturing is “To satisfy customer
expectations throughout every level of our organization. Our
resources will be concentrated on efficiency, product quality
and responsiveness to customer priorities.” The company pursues
this mission through its commitment to several objectives:
• Reduction of waste streams utilizing lean manufacturing
practices and principles. Over the years Mercury has received
training in “Lean Principles” via external consultants, and in
2001 began working with The Michigan Manufacturing Technology
Center (MMTC). To date the entire organization has participated
in lean orientation training, and with the help of Mercury
employees, MMTC has conducted several implementation activities.
Through its commitment to lean practices and principles, Mercury
has achieved several noteworthy improvements including
Reduced changeover time by 50%.
Decreased set-up time for specific product lines by as much as
94%.
Increased cell operating efficiencies by 45%.
Improved plant-wide inventory turnover from 6.7 to 12 turns.
Reduced purchased components inventory by over 50%.
• Achievement of 100% on-time delivery of quality product to its
customers. Mercury frequently receives customer recognition for
the achievement of 0 PPM and 100% On-Time Delivery of high
volume, critical components. The company enjoys the position of
being a single source supplier for the majority of its
customers, attesting to the company’s reputation of quality
performance.
• Maximizing continual improvement of products and processes.
This is most recently evidenced by Mercury’s achievement of ISO
9000:2000 and ISO/TS 16949 certification, the newest world
automotive quality standard. The company promotes and provides a
variety of training opportunities including such topics and Six
Sigma and Lean Champion courses to equip team members with the
tools necessary to promote and achieve continual improvement
initiatives.
The bottom line to this opportunity with Mercury Manufacturing
is that it is a great time to join a reliable, stable, well
positioned company. Mercury has a tremendous amount of potential
given the current and future opportunities that exist for its
product lines.
THE POSITION
The position is located in Wyandotte, Michigan and will report
directly to Jan Wiegand, COO of Mercury Manufacturing. The
Director of Product Development position is described as an
“empowered”, senior technical position within a “roll up your
sleeves, self-directed” type organization.
The position currently has no direct administrative reports
although it does have several functional reports which include a
process engineer who coordinates testing for ASME and UL
certifications and an outside contract engineer who has assisted
Mercury for 10+ years. Within the near term, Mercury looks
forward to adding an engineering coordinator to this department
and depending on the managerial traits of a prospective
candidate may reorganize other engineering functions under this
position.
The new Director of Product Development will be solely
responsible for the design, development and testing of the valve
product line. Traditionally the company has derived less than
10% of its revenue from this product line. However, in 2005
revenues from the valve product line are forcasted to be
approximately 25% and in coming years could represent the
majority of revenue generated for the company. As such, it is
imperative that the new Director be competent in the areas of
pressure relief and check valve design, development and testing.
The responsibilities for this position, among others, include
being able to provide value engineering to standard products,
continually looking for a “better” way. As such, the right
candidate will be able to develop conceptual, detail and layout
designs from provided samples, performance specifications or
verbal instructions. The new director will perform complex
engineering studies and analysis to determine design feasibility
and will be involved in the creation of design and process
FMEA’s. This individual will run experiments and will design and
coordinate bench and production test strategies for flow and
fatigue performance. Additionally, they will troubleshoot
performance issues within the design utilizing root cause
analysis and then provide creative solutions to the concerns.
Testing and validation of valve products requiring ASME or UL
approval will be a significant responsibility in this position.
The Director of Product Development will be the primary customer
interface for Mercury with pressure relief and check valve
customers. Within these customers the new Director will be
interfacing with the engineering, quality, purchasing and
manufacturing departments. Customer development skills are
crucial in this position and will become even more of a
requirement throughout the growth curve anticipated in
2005-2010. Overnight travel to customer locations is estimated
at 15-20% and although most travel is within the continental US,
some foreign travel will be required.
The Director of Product Development will be called upon from
time to time to provide technical knowledge to both the
manufacturing engineering department and the quality department.
As such, the new Director must be well versed in problem solving
and possess an “investigative instinct”.
Additionally, a key part of this position will be to research
and source new suppliers as well as being able to troubleshoot
material and process problems within existing suppliers.
The new Director will participate in daily manufacturing
engineering meetings and monthly management reviews. They will
provide quarterly reports to the ownership of Mercury and may on
an infrequent basis communicate directly with the owner of the
company, Fred May.
QUALIFICATIONS
Given the “valve design and development” emphasis in this
position, the right candidate will have participated in the
design, development and testing of valve product lines, with
preference towards pressure relief and check valves. They will
be familiar with ASME and UL requirements and testing
procedures. They will be experienced in engineering analysis (PFMEA’s,
FMEA’s, and DFM’s). They will have prior experience in the
design and coordination of bench tests, flow tests and other
fatigue testing proceedures.
Additionally, the right candidate will be familiar with
automotive manufacturing processes utilized in making high
volume, high quality products. They will have an in-depth
working knowledge of assembly automation and process
instrumentation. The right candidate will have a working
knowledge of tooling and be able to scout and source new
suppliers.
The selected individual will be able to articulate themselves
well and will be able to explain complex terms and valve
functions to staff members who have limited technical knowledge.
They will be skilled at forming relationships with both
co-workers and customers and may have at one time in their
career served in a sales or sales engineering function.
The ideal candidate will be organized and have exceptional
project management skills. They will be accustomed to working
under deadlines and most importantly have a track record of
meeting them when faced with competing priorities.
Ideally, the new Director of Product Development will understand
the marketplace of Mercury Manufacturing’s products. They will
possess a great deal of “strategic business sense” and will able
to interpret industry trends such as “variable cam timing” and
offer suggestions to Mercury’s ownership and leadership as to
how to take advantage of these trends and thereby increase
revenues and profits.
To have properly prepared for a position of such leadership with
Mercury Manufacturing, the right candidate will have been a part
of a major growth initiative within their previous employer(s).
They will have previously tasted success! They will be able to
add value to Mercury by not only having the knowledge and
experience required to continue the product development
function, but will have prior managerial experience and the
ability to build a competent engineering department as the
business grows.
An engineering degree is required and a graduate degree in
engineering, management or marketing would be well received.
PERSONALITY & MANAGEMENT STYLE
The ideal candidate is someone who is self-directed and can
think for themselves. They are creative and resourceful. They
are a high energy, self-starter who is easy to work with. They
are mature in their thinking and emotions and comfortable and
confident in who they are. They are not looking to change the
world, but are very willing to plug into a good system that can
be made better by their contributions. He/She by nature may be
an introvert but is bent towards being an extrovert.
The successful candidate will be accustomed to work with
individuals, regardless of age, race, education level or sex.
They will find ease in communicating with all functions within
Mercury including finance, operations, quality and human
resources. They will know how to motivate others and therefore
garner the support of internal resources. They will be
accountable not only to management, but to the rest of the team
members. The finalist candidate will be able to set a good
example for other managers and employees and will demonstrate a
high degree of professionalism, tact and diplomacy in all they
do. Social skills are extremely important in this position in
maintaining relationships with Mercury’s customer base.
Very important to everyone at Mercury is avoiding hiring someone
who is set in their ways and unwilling to change. This would
drive a wedge into the “team” spirit that is being developed. “A
person that is mellow and flexible would work well here”, said
one member of the management team. “We need someone who is
tremendously analytical yet possesses a high degree of patience
combined with a strategic mindset”, said another member of the
management team. In the end, the selected individual will be one
who is viewed as being respectful, considerate, fair and
approachable by those they have worked with in the past.
The right candidate will have a moral compass pointing due north
and will personally exude the values espoused by the company,
such as integrity. The new Director of Product Development will
have sound judgment and bring several points of view into
consideration when making decisions versus “it’s my way or the
highway” type mentality.
The environment within Mercury Manufacturing is “one of
empowerment” and as such the new Director of Product Development
will need to exude leadership skills that reflect this versus
being a micro manager of tasks or people.
THE LOCATION
It is quite probable that the right candidate has enjoyed living
in a locale similar to Southeastern Michigan. Maybe the
candidate grew up in the immediate region or in the states of
Illinois, Indiana, Ohio or Wisconsin and would like to return to
their roots. Regardless, they must value the quality of life in
the “Midwest” as a great place to live.
Located in Southeastern Michigan, Wyandotte is a city within 20
minutes of metropolitan amenities. The city has a population of
28,000 people located over 5.54 square miles. Boating, fishing,
sailing and other water activities are located within minutes of
Mercury’s headquarters.
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