Anderson Fabrics, Inc.
Training helped this northern Minnesota company get back on track — and back on time.
Anderson Fabrics, Inc., based in the small town of Blackduck (population 755), is the nation’s largest customer’s-own (material-provided) workroom, supplying draperies, bedding and other custom products to the interior design industry. The company employs 330 people. It has about 15 percent of the U.S. market in its niche. “Labor-intensive business has tended to go overseas,” says General Manager Steve Cochem, “but Anderson Fabrics is still here.”
Founded in 1980, the company was taken over by its employees in 2002 through an employee stock ownership program. Most of the company’s managers had little training in management or supervision. As is typical of companies started by an entrepreneur, the company previously had an autocratic style of management, with most decisions coming down from top managers and little opportunity for input from employees or supervisors. “Managers were expediters,” says Cochem. This discouraged employees from taking charge, making decisions and implementing new systems, even those they felt would improve productivity. When Cochem was hired as general manager, the business was struggling to adapt to changing conditions. Orders had backed up — sometimes taking as long as three months to complete — and profits had dwindled.
Cochem arranged for training for 24 employees through business specialist Bill Martinson at Minnesota Technology, Inc. The management training, which included department managers, office personnel, the company controller and Cochem, focused on two areas: listening to employees better and developing a process for making decisions that was inclusive and fact-based. The training included opportunities for employees to practice the decision-making process on realistic case studies. Since the training, the change in management style has enabled the company to improve on-time performance and even the most complex orders are now typically completed in three to four weeks. “You can’t get that kind of turnaround from [overseas],” says Cochem.
— Anne Mason