Tapemark, Idea factory

Manufacturing in Action, Source : The Manufacturer US
Published : May 2006

Tapemark sticks to a customer service focus and finds itself unique among manufacturers. Jenn Monroe reports

Any business in the middle of a transition knows that it’s a challenge, often expensive, and filled with risk. Some survive, some don’t, and some, like Tapemark, excel. This West St. Paul, MN–based contract manufacturer today is emerging from a significant transformation even more successful than it was when it went in.

Just over three years ago, Tapemark, a contract manufacturer that provides integrated coating, printing, converting, and packaging of adhesive components and end products, was in the process of expanding its focus on customers in the medical, pharmaceutical, and consumer products markets. Today, $10 million and tens of thousands of hours of training later, Tapemark has earned FDA certification in drugs, devices, cosmetics, and food. Its annual revenue from pharmaceutical accounts doubled between 2004 and 2005, and its customers are happy, giving the company an overall rating of 4.12 (out of 5) in the 2005 customer satisfaction survey. “That’s really pretty difficult to achieve for a manufacturer,” said Andy Rensink, vice president of operations.

But looking into how Tapemark works with customers, it isn’t so surprising. Many companies are looking to outsource product development, and Tapemark understands this shift. “More and more firms are relying on partners like Tapemark to come up with ideas to extend product lines and brands,” said Kim Mueller, vice president of business development. “They’ve reduced internal staff and held the view that they could increase access to ideas by using partners like Tapemark. It’s exciting, but there’s also an expectation, and you have to be ready to support them.”

To support its medical and pharmaceutical customers, Tapemark invested $10 million in facilities and equipment upgrades, and now has nine active cleanroom suites for manufacturing. “Each has its own segregated environment,” Rensink said, “so we can run a number of different products at the same time. They’re all connected to a building automation system that monitors and controls everything—the air pressure, humidity, temperature, and air flow turnover in the room are all automatically monitored.” This effort is getting noticed. “One of our suppliers said we were five years ahead of the largest pharmaceutical manufacturer in the Twin Cities,” Rensink continued. “We didn’t just dabble in this; we jumped in with both feet.”

Tapemark customers also are benefiting from the company’s dedication to its six sigma program, which is built around launching new products. While the program started with process improvement, today the focus is design for six sigma. “We put in place a strong project management system with six-sigma-style gates,” Rensink said. “As we launch new products, we’re getting the product and process right from the beginning.”

As an outgrowth of the six sigma success, Tapemark now has in place a professional project management staff composed of people who are either certified project managers or in the process of becoming certified. “It’s a value-added opportunity for us,” Mueller added. “We have the capability to work side by side with customers right from the beginning. From the customer’s perspective, the sooner we can identify what is feasible to take all the way to market and what is not represents real value to them.”

Current customers seem to want more and more of Tapemark’s expertise. “We’ve proven ourselves,” Rensink said. “Our key accounts come back to us with ideas a lot earlier in the process, which allows us a lot more input into what is and what isn’t possible.” Mueller agreed. “We’ve earned, if you will, the opportunity to be considered their process experts,” she said. “About 42 percent of the products we make today didn’t exist three years ago. We don’t market anything under our own name, but we have to keep up with what they need. It’s new all the time.”

Of course, operational excellence is at the heart of all of Tapemark’s customer relationships. Throughout the transition, Tapemark has expanded its investment in its visual manufacturing system for information management and is adding on new modules that assist in regulatory compliance. Lean manufacturing also plays a role in Tapemark’s operations, with visual tools in place to show just how well the company is doing in these efforts. “The focus is on not only doing things right but doing the right things,” Rensink said. “It’s our ability to very quickly turn customers’ ideas into output, whether it’s a product being launched or being shipped out the door. That’s how they measure us.”

Customers aren’t the only ones measuring Tapemark. The last few years have seen the company come into compliance with a number of quality certifications. In April 2005 Tapemark passed its first FDA Pre-Approval Inspection for Drug cGMP compliance. In September it received a Certificate of Conformance to TGA/Australian Good Manufacturing Practices, and in October it upgraded its ISO 9001 certification to the 2000 standard and its ISO 13485 to the 2003 standard. Currently it is undergoing its European Union audit. “Each has its own nuance, and you have to adapt your system to incorporate the nuance,” Rensink said. And then there’s the training. In 2005 alone, Tapemark logged more than 9,700 hours of training across the organization to meet the requirements of all the regulations.

Tapemark has drawn up a clear presentation that sets out what is necessary to be a supply partner and how a vendor will benefit from such a partnership. “They recognize us as an avenue to increase their business,” Rensink continued. With this type of goal-setting in mind, Tapemark will host its first suppliers conference later this year. “It’s not lost on us that our customers rely on us to help them be successful; we’re doing the same thing with our suppliers.”

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