The celebration was one for the books. The greatly anticipated Shape Guangzhou grand opening ceremony took place on Tuesday, February 21. This was an incredible milestone for Shape and the event was a huge success. Around 70 people attended the event from Shape US, Shape China, our customers DFL, NCIC and Toyota, and local government in Tanbu town, as well as all associates from the Shape Guangzhou plant. Before the ceremony, Mark White, president, shared our vision to build a unique and special company which improves and enhances the lives of our associates, our customers and the communities in which we live and work. Patrick Sullivan, general manager, shared Shape’s commitment to delivering the same level of performance from Shape Guangzhou as our customers have come to know and expect with Shape’s brand promise. The speeches kept flowing with sentiments shared by Sumi Li, deputy general manager from DFL and the Major of Tanbu Town. A traditional performance of drum and lion dancing opened the ribbon cutting. Mark White shared the honor with Patrick Sullivan, Nakayama-san, Purchasing SAO from RNPO, Haigan Wei, Deputy Purchasing General Manager from GTMC, Weiyu Zhou, Town Major and Wensheng Wang, Deputy Town Major from Tanbu Town. After the ceremony, attendees were invited to partake in a plant tour and luncheon to learn a little more about Shape. Congratulations to Shape Guangzhou on a successful event. This celebration truly displays your hard work and dedication to Shape.

The Bluegrass Automotive Manufacturing Association (BAMA) bi-annual Learning Conference brought together executive level leaders from numerous tier-one Toyota suppliers. The conference highlights each region’s development and training packages over the last two years. Organizations can then adopt the new content, share it within their organizations and leverage the learnings to help to build momentum. Daric Morell, director of manufacturing, presented to five groups of roughly 25 participants regarding Shape’s lean journey. “It was great. We had a lot of attendance. It was really cool to see different people from different backgrounds and different companies go through the process of trying to find the problem we were able to create. It was really fun,” said Ryan DeBoer, 1900 plant manager. Shape received great feedback from attendees, highlighting that the problem solving activity in conjunction with Daric’s message about our transformation was eye opening to leaders of other companies. “I think everyone who took our training session saw how powerful it is to use moment by moment problem solving, and really finding the point of occurrence before you start down your five why problem solving tree,” said Ryan. The power of the SPS program at Shape keeps people engaged in our lean journey. Congratulations to Ryan DeBoer, Jay Blanchard, continuous improvement manager, and Daric Morell, director of manufacturing on the honor of being asked by the OMDD team to teach with them, side by side. This is definitely a feather in Shape’s hat.

After completing the challenging course design and development workshop in November, Shape China conducted delivery skills training for new trainers by master trainer Jerry Zuo. The training focused on adult learning theory, teaching skills (including verbal and non-verbal skills), as well as presentation and feedback skills to help the participants deeply understand how to be an excellent trainer. At the end of the course, the participants were encouraged to utilize a mind-map to summarize what they learned from the training. For the action learning, the participants were required to pass a teaching demo by using the skills they learned. Ken Zong and Nick Li attended the training and successfully passed the demo with valuable feedback from certified trainers, and finally were certified as internal trainers. Now, we have an internal training team with 19 people including 6 managers who lead the way in talent development.

With the automotive industry heavily focusing on lightweighting for improving fuel economy, Shape as always, is eager to support our customers with innovative, lighter weight components. For years we’ve been developing bumper solutions that are some of the best in the industry, utilizing ultra-high strength steels, unique aluminum alloys, and patented cross section designs. Still the need to do even better continues. Shape is now developing a unique technology to bring carbon fiber bumpers to our customers. Carbon fiber is an extremely lightweight, but expensive material, not traditionally suited for automotive high volume programs and the common car. However, Shape’s roll forming process and design experts have found a way to market and manufacture one nonetheless.  Zeroing in on pultrusion (due to its relative speed and likeness to roll forming) as the best process for the job, Shape, with a partner in Germany, has already made and tested production-intent bumper beams. “This is a great demonstration of Shape innovation, but it takes foresight, innovation and partnerships,” said Danni Schertzing, commercial manager. “One significant partnership was officially formed last month with a signed commercial agreement allowing us to use a patented process owned by Thomas Technik.” Thomas Technik is a family-owned German pultrusion company with several process patents around curved pultrusion, a few of which are key to furthering our development. There have been many teams involved in the development, maturation and commercialization of this new technology. It is an exciting step that demonstrates our connection to industry demands, customer needs and innovative Shape capabilities.

Last Wednesday 65 engineering and purchasing professionals attended our Tech Show at the Nissan Mexico Technical Center. Shape’s Nissan business unit intrigued the attendees with banners, videos highlighting our plastic capabilities, roll forming and pultrusion technologies, as well as a selection of parts on display. Nissan engineers and purchasing members were eager to learn more about Shape’s products and processes. They showed great interest and began discussing a visit to one of Shape’s plants to learn more. Specifically there was great excitement around the swept carbon fiber bumper. The Nissan attendees highlighted and showed appreciation for the support that we bring to our customer, including our regional teams in France, Japan, US and Mexico. This tech show yielded many new connections, teaching moments, and some lessons learned for future shows.

Shape is committed to conducting business in accordance with the highest ethical standards. As an organization, we hold high expectations for ourselves, as do our customers, communities and team members. We hold an open door policy, and want to ensure that there are appropriate channels available for our team members, suppliers and customers to securely, confidentially and safely report concerns or issues. This policy is available and updated within our associate handbook on ShapeWeb. At no point will there be retaliation on any individual who is reporting an unsafe, illegal or unethical situation. Team members are highly encouraged to report concerns or issues to their supervisors first, followed by human resources. If there are issues you are not comfortable sharing with your supervisor, please contact your HR leader. Should significant issues arise, Shape has established a new channel that offers an anonymous and secure reporting system called Ethics Point. Ethics Point is a third party system designed to ensure anonymity. This site is to be used in extreme circumstances only. An extreme circumstance includes the following scenarios (complete definitions are available on the Ethics Point ShapeWeb resource page and on the direct website: Accounting and auditing matters Conflict of interest Discrimination or harassment Embezzlement Environmental protection, health or safety law Falsification of contracts, reports or records Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations Labor issues Misconduct or inappropriate behavior Sabotage or vandalism Substance abuse Theft Time abuse Unsafe working conditions Violation of policy Violence or threat The Ethics Point website is to be used for the scenarios above, and/or in the following circumstances: All normal reporting channel efforts have been exhausted Significant concerns or discomfort in reporting through normal reporting channels Concerns of remaining anonymous This website is a safe place to report and allows individuals to make a report anonymously or not by completing the online form. In both circumstances, follow up will take place electronically ensuring your confidentiality.

Across the country, the unemployment rate is at 4.9%. In the state of Michigan it’s at 3.7% and Ottawa County sits at bottom with 3.1% – the lowest in the state. Low unemployment rates, as we know, makes it very challenging to recruit talent for a growing company. Impressed with our recent recruitment efforts in the West Michigan area, Michigan Manufacturers Association invited Julie Davidson, talent acquisition manager, to discuss recruiting challenges and solutions at their annual Manufacturing Talent Summit. Through extensive research, Julie broke down generational wants and needs in employers, followed by insight into potential promotional strategies. Over the past few months, Shape has had television ads in the Grand Rapids/Muskegon markets, radio spots with strategic stations and Facebook advertisements to attract potential team members. To build a long-term talent pipeline, Shape is educating local high school students on career opportunities, and continues to foster a long-time partnership with Grand Valley State University. The attendees, including many executive HR Leaders in Michigan, were impressed with Julie’s extensive knowledge in recruiting and left feeling inspired. If you know someone who would be a good fit for Shape, refer them today to Julie Davidson at 616.844.3226.

Open. Honest. Humble. Transparent. “We’ve only strengthened Toyota’s opinion of us as a strategic partner,” said Daric Morell, director of manufacturing, as he talked about his recent presentation at Toyota’s Fall Supplier Event. “Our philosophies regarding people, production and products align closely.” After impressing attendees and Toyota at Bluegrass Automotive Manufactures Association’s (BAMA) annual conference in February, Toyota invited Daric and Mark White, president, to speak at their Fall Supplier Event. Shape was the only supplier to speak at the event which was limited to their top strategic suppliers. Daric spoke to attendees, many of which were CEO’s or Presidents of other Toyota suppliers, about Shape’s lean manufacturing journey on September 22 in Tucson, Arizona. Toyota was impressed with our discussion that spoke to our leadership’s commitment to continuous improvement. Attendees were also interested with our most recent monozukuri (advanced continuous improvement), that dives deeper into reducing waste at the front end of production, Design for Manufacturing. After the presentations, Mark and Daric were able to talk with key leaders within Toyota about our partnership and the next steps of improving our production systems. In February, we will be speaking at BAMA again to continue the conversation.

400+ suppliers. 32 recognized. 3 awards given to Shape. At Nissan China Investment Co.’s annual supplier award ceremony, Shape China walked away with three awards, more than any other supplier on April 26. • Quality Improvement • One Time Delivery • 333 Activity Improvement Associates at our China facility have greatly improved their quality by improving their touch point effectiveness, reducing rust and improving the location and information found on labels to reduce the number of miss-shipped parts. During the 333 activity they were able to investigate the root cause of some issues and create an action plan to change where they were getting some of their materials, as well as restructuring a few processes. These awards showcase to customers everywhere that Shape is innovating and problem solving every day to exceed our customers’ expectations. “These awards will bring us more business opportunities in the future,” said Lee Li, sales account manager. “In the Chinese automotive market, a company who has cost competitiveness, local development capability, and willing to be innovative is indispensable to them.” Congratulations, team! Keep up the good work!

After 14 weeks of deep problem solving, students from Grand Haven and Spring Lake High School presented their findings at the annual FuturePrep’d Academy final event. In January, 11 students came to Shape to learn more about what we do, the manufacturing industry, and career opportunities that fit their interests. Throughout the 16 weeks, students met with their Shape mentors to discuss a chosen problem and possible solutions. “It was fun working with the high school kids,” said Amy King, engineering technician – process. “I enjoyed sharing with them what we do at Shape, and helping them develop solutions to the problem they were trying to resolve.” Students Isabella and Natalie from Grand Haven focused their deep dive on Julie Davidson, talent acquisition manager, to investigate more about her career. When interviewing her they found that there was a need for testing potential associate’s skills during interviews. Through external and internal research they came up with their solution: implementing a dexterity test, problem solving questionnaire, tool recognition exercise and a standardized work test using Legos. Students from Coopersville high school, Ally and Grace, were interested in helping Justin Mileskiewicz, test engineer manager, train his team on how to use a new piece of equipment, Intron 3385H (or known as the DIC Imaging Machine). They found that training associates on this machine can (and does) take a lot of time, so they wanted to find a solution to make training more efficient. Ally and Grace created a step by step video and a pamphlet with written instructions to go along with it. Other students from Grand Haven and Spring Lake chose other mentors from Brilliance Audio and JR Automation Technologies to interview. One of those teams mentored by Shape associates, Michelle, Emily and Trevor, created the most innovative and feasible solutions for Brilliance Audio, and each won a $500 scholarship from FuturePrep’D! Shape mentors: Patty Weed, account financial manager Sarah Schaible, corporate communications specialist Toni Sayers, plant quality mananger Brad Butler, machine repair I Ron Charles, program manager II Amy King, engineering technician – process Jay Blanchard, continous improvement manager Kelsey Juergens, coporate communications coordinator Justin Mileskiewciz, test engineer manager Dave Garwood, roll form expert Ed Szymanski, manufacturing engineer Eric Dudek, manufacturing engineer Thanks to all of the associates who took time to mentor these students and work through their solutions!

2015 was our safest years to date, and even MIOSHA took notice. Safety is our top priority here, and we have many resources to make sure everyone goes home in the same condition that they came into work. One of the resources we have available are GroPros, compact video cameras, used to look at issues within a piece of equipment. Just a few years ago we introduced GoPros onto the manufacturing floor to help associates solve problems, safely. MIOSHA was so intrigued by this that they selected us to share our best practice with others. “It allows you to be “inside the equipment”, without actually being physically inside the machines and potentially putting yourself into a risky or dangerous situation,” said Dan Tlachac, lead electrical engineer. “It also gives you vantage points you could never get without a remote viewing system.” “People realize they are great not just for troubleshooting equipment failure but also for identifying how quality issues are happening, or how cycle time might be changing part to part,” said Dan. “We have had everyone from maintenance, manufacturing engineers, electrical engineers, process engineers, and process experts using them.” Not only is this a great tool to use for a variety of things, it also helps keep associates safe when working on the equipment. “If we can prevent just one traumatic injury with these systems, they will be worth every penny,” said Mike Westbrook, safety and environmental manager. MIOSHA visited Shape on Thursday, April 14 to do some videotaping for their new web series that will soon launch. Stay tuned for more information regarding the completed video in the next couple of months!

“Leadership is right here in this room,” explained Mark White, executive vice president of Asian and European operations. “You don’t need to have direct reports to have leadership skills – you can lead yourself to success.” There are tens of thousands of books, programs, classes, articles, speeches, and videos that discuss leadership. It’s an important topic and the skills that encompass leadership have been a point of discussion for many, many years. In order for the North to defeat the South in the Civil War, or the Chicago Bulls winning the 1998 NBA championship they needed to have good leadership skills to drive results. Here at Shape we have a number of avenues to access leadership development skills. From SPS for Leaders, Boot Camp for Leaders, a Mentoring Program and more, it all goes back to Shape’s investment in the associates. Shape Professionals Group is another program that aligns with the corporate strategy to allow associates to grow within the company and professionally. On Friday, Mark spoke to a crowd of more than 100 associates about leadership. While he claims he’s no expert (we beg to differ), Mark honed in on several factors that we need as Shape associates to keep our company moving forward. All giving great insight to what it takes to succeed as a professional and a member of the Shape Family. Mark noted that there are several different characteristics that make an associate stand out at Shape: their energy, ability to energize others, their competitive edge, how well they execute, passion for Shape’s success, ability to work well in a team and collaborate, and last but not least, humility. We also learned about his “secret sauce”, the underlying need for any good leader: transparency and trust. Without transparency and trust, nothing else matters – it’s only half baked. A big thank you to Mark and everyone who attended Friday’s professional development luncheon. Shape Professionals Group is looking forward hosting a variety of other events this year including networking, volunteering, and more professional development classes.

Last month we achieved a Training Top 125 award, coming in at #12 on the list. People are the biggest asset to Shape and our efforts on employee development and training are a critical part to our continued success. Recently, our global training and development program was featured in Training Magazine. Read more about our Global Leadership Development Program at their website https://trainingmag.com/shape-corp%E2%80%99s-global-leadership-development-program.

The room was packed with fellow Toyota suppliers at the annual Bluegrass Automotive Manufacturers Association (BAMA), sponsored by Toyota, conference last week. Daric Morell, director of manufacturing, walked up to the stage to speak in front of hundreds of people about Shape’s journey with the Toyota Production System. BAMA reached out to Daric, Jay Blanchard, continuous improvement manager, Craig Arends, 1900 plant manager, because of the unique story behind Shape’s journey. Usually when Toyota comes into manufacturers to help them with their production systems, it’s because the supplier is in crisis mode – meaning that if they don’t change their ways, they could ultimately shut down Toyota. But this wasn’t the case for us. Shape reached out to Toyota because we wanted to learn from one of the best manufacturers in the world. This was the first time that a company has reached out to Toyota to engage in a learning experience and not because of a crisis. For this reason, and the great success that Toyota has seen with Shape’s commitment, they wanted us to share the experience in hopes that other suppliers would seek out this benefit as well. “It was privilege to present our lean journey to BAMA. Part of a lean culture is sharing what you learn. So the opportunity to share both where we are having success, and some of the problems that we have had in the past, with other organizations felt good,” said Daric. “The feedback after the event from Toyota and other BAMA member organizations was very positive.” Our journey started last fall, when Toyota VIPs visited Shape to learn more about our production system. Over the course of the following months, Toyota sent representatives to guide us through improving our production system by using their finely tuned tools. The changes have been small, but the results have been big. Our production system continues to use the tools that Toyota taught us. Over the next several months, Toyota will be stopping by to see how we’re progressing and continue to strengthen our Shape Production System. “Using the TPS tools is still fragile, however we are making strides daily to better understand where we are, what we have to accomplish, and what lies ahead,” said Jay. “We have quite a bit of momentum at this time and we are actively cascading the philosophy to numerous team members at all levels of the organization. Cultural development is paramount, we have to build a culture that sees the value in work done at this level.”

Shape is partnering with FuturePrep’D again, to inspire and educate students about the manufacturing industry. Students received the opportunity to learn more about Shape, the manufacturing industry, career opportunities that fit their interests. During this program, they will also obtain more confidence going into secondary education and workforce. The program allows students to explore different career opportunities within Ottawa County. These students will spend several weeks visiting the locations and investigate problems that they could help solve. They will be paired with a Shape associates who will help mentor them through the problem solving process and ultimately prepare them to speak in front of Shape and a final competition.

Nissan held their 2015 Annual Supplier Conference on October 28 and 29 in Franklin, Tennessee. Rebecca Vest, vice president of Nissan Purchasing for North America, presented Shape Corp. with the prestigious Nissan Monozukuri Spirit Award. Shape was one of only three suppliers that achieved this high recognition of Monozukuri Spirit for 2015.  In Japanese, Monozukuri is a compound word comprising “mono” which means “products,” (literally, “thing”) and “zukuri” which means “process of making or creation”. However, the concept embraces more than the literal meaning. It offers the idea of possessing the “spirit to produce excellent products and the ability to constantly improve a production system and process”. The concept carries “overtones of excellence, skill, spirit, zest, and pride in the ability to make things good things very well. Monozukuri is not mindless repetition; it requires creative minds and is often related to craftsmanship.” According to Mark White, executive vice president of European and Asian operations, the Nissan Monozukuri Spirit Award is recognizing Shape’s commitment to total customer satisfaction with our Nissan-Renault business. “I am extremely proud of our global Shape team. Monozukuri Spirit symbolizes our commitment to servicing the customer throughout the entire business cycle from new business award, design-development, launch execution, manufacturing, quality, delivery and continuous cost improvement,” said Mark. “Thank you to everyone who supports our Nissan-Renault business and keep up the great work.” Shape was also recognized as a 2015 Regional Supplier Quality Award finalist for Shape Corp. Grand Haven and for Shape Corp. Mexico operations based on quality performance and responsiveness to resolve issues. “This award once again exemplifies the four pillars of our brand image with Nissan/Renault; People, Engineering, Passion, and Customer Service,” said Jason Bricker, business unit vice president. “Thank you for the extreme dedication and sacrifices over the past year!”

When Ryan DeBoer, Comstock plant manager, started at Shape just three years ago, the Comstock facility had the worst safety incident rate in the company. Since then, Comstock has turned their safety incident rate around and have now gone two years without an injury. It wasn’t easy getting there. It took an entire team to accomplish something as big as this. Ryan notes that the creation of their safety team has had a big impact on their safety success. “The consistent focus and drive to resolve safety issues has made a big difference,” said Ryan. The safety team meets twice a month and includes all shifts. During their meetings they focus on a variety of findings to help keep their workplace a safe environment. 1. Review corporate and plant safety measures. 2. Review any injuries that happened at the plant and any injuries around the other facilities.  Then discuss if or how that injury could happen here so preventative actions can be taken.   3. Review safety audit findings. 4. Review open safety issues and work orders. 5. Take a section of the plant and perform a safety walk. The team then writes work orders to address any issues discovered on the walk.   “Everyone on the Comstock team should be very proud of this accomplishment,” said Ryan. “Their daily focus on safety is what has gotten us to this point.” On September 25, the two year anniversary of remaining injury free, the team had a pizza party celebration. The Comstock team will be having a larger celebration later in October, where Ryan will be shaving his head; an agreement he made with the team if they made it another year without an injury. Congratulations Comstock on all your continued hard work to stay safe!

The Robinson Township Park is a beautiful place to take the family for an afternoon of fun. Many residents use this area year-round for walks, football games, family gatherings and much more. On September 11, the electrical engineering group headed over to the park for a day of giving back. The park was in need of some improvements. The team completed several different projects including rebuilding the scorers shed for the football field, replacing the mulch on the playground, replacing bench seating, and cleaning the long walking path. Although the day was long, and a bit rainy at times, the team was glad to give back to such a great resource in the community.