Industry Challenges Play Out Differently Among Members

By Matt Westendorf

What’s your biggest challenge?

The Association staff has been asking members that question. Some of what they’ve heard is probably what you would say if you were asked. But, they found nuances. Labor isn’t a problem everywhere, for example. In some places, inventory is a back-burner worry.

In broad strokes, everyone wants happy customers, happy employees, and a healthy bottom line, and the things most likely to stand in their way are:

• An inability to find employees.
• A supply chain that has been turned on its head.
• Exceptional demand for equipment, aggravated by too few workers and supply chain challenges.

“In 16 years, I have never seen anything like this,” said Kenny Lee, purchasing manager for Landoll. “I have never seen lead times like this. We have seen certain products slow down before, but this is every product.”

Lee said Landoll, based in Marysville, Kan., waited for four months for a shipment to come from overseas. Its usual travel time is six weeks.

At McFarlane Manufacturing in Sauk City, Wis., parts and material inventory is not a standout challenge. Theirs is labor.

Todd Lassanske, general manager for the manufacturing division at McFarlane, said the facility has 85 employees today and has enough work to add another 20-plus—if it could find them.

“We have done creative things to get people in here and reward the incumbents,” Lassanske said. “Sign-on bonuses. Higher wages. Our most creative strategy is offering a very flexible schedule. We ask folks what hours they want to work. They tell us. Then, we hold them to that.”

The company also has capitalized on a state-funded apprenticeship program that, through partnerships with schools, brings teens into the workplace as welders, assemblers, and small equipment operators.

In North Bloomfield, Ohio, Kenny Kuhns, owner of Kuhns Mfg., is less distracted by these industry challenges but concerned about where it all might lead. The company had 37 employees in early 2020 and has 65 today. It has suspended its just-in-time inventory management philosophy to create a cushion between what’s in the warehouse and what they’ll need on the production line.

“Your losses with no inventory are much higher than your cost of high inventory, so this is the way to do it,” Kuhns said, “but how is it going to look as the market comes back into balance? ”

You can hear more from Lee, Lassanske, Kuhns and others in this issue of Ag Innovator. They are among member executives who contributed to a conversation about what’s facing the industry and how their company is responding.

Full disclosure: You will not find the solutions to your problems on these pages. You will though be reminded that you are not alone in facing them. You may also pick up a tip that could work at your plant or read a thought from a member that leads you to your next thought.

That is one of the immeasurable values of membership in this Association. We want to help one another. And, we’re smart. When we communicate—at conventions, during phone calls, through publications—we move forward collectively.

“What are we going to learn through this season,” Kuhns asked. “It is a season. We will correct it, but how are we going to come out different and better?”

It is a fantastic question. This season might lead to more plant automation. It might lead to a more robust domestic supply chain. We may emerge with models to cross train employees or more versatile production capabilities. I don’t know.

What I do know though is I can get a clearer picture of what’s ahead through conversations with you. Please engage with the Association however you can. You will find something that helps you move forward, and you will say something that moves someone else forward, too.