Automation - "Why I Automate"

Narrator: The king of bagel baskets. It's hard to believe that at one time, that's all the Baltimore based manufacturer, Marlin Steel was known for. Day after day, each employee made 15 to 20 wire baskets for well known chains to display their bagels.

Drew Greenblatt: "When I first bought Marlin 15 years ago, our clients uh demanded a commodity product, so the quality really didn't matter that much. Our employees hand bent everything, there was a lot of safety issues, we had people missing fingers, missing eyes and we made things at a very slow pace." Then China came and they started bringing in baskets for cheaper than I could buy the steel. All of a sudden our business went away. So we really had two choices, we could either go bankrupt or we could morph, transform, and we pursued transformation.

Narrator: That’s when Greenblatt realized metal baskets could be used far beyond the bagel business. But they would need to automate.

Drew Greenblatt: "When you first start investing in automation, employees are skeptical, they're concerned, there's anxiety. And it's rational because they don't like change. However, in our case and I think in most cases, automation and robotics grows jobs. So for example, we've grown from 18 employees to 28 employees, but much more importantly, our employees are doing much more interesting jobs. They're doing jobs that use their brain rather than their brawn. They're not doing repetitive, mundane tasks."

Marlin Steel Employee: "It actually makes my job a little bit easier, less less less handwork and more machine work and more brain work. It helps me have job security and that the factory as a whole is more profitable. Whereas before automation it would take us three four days to do a job that now takes less than one day. It empowers you and you're faster and you're better and you're safer."

Drew Greenblatt: "We used to have three or four injuries a year, now we've gone and I'm so proud of this 1,680 days without a safety incident. I attribute a lot of this to our investment in robotics and automation."

Narrator: Employees were offered training to enhance their skills. With more employees qualified to operate the machines, Greenblatt expanded even further, purchasing more automation and hiring additional employees—from engineers to those with experience in manufacturing technology.

New Employee: "I came up with 12 credentials in a different forms of manufacturing which gave me a good opportunity and a good head start to be able to start into the manufacturing industry."

Drew Greenblatt: "Because the employees are so much more effective and so much more productive, we can afford to pay them more. All of our employees have Blue Cross Blue Shield, they have a 401K plan, they have vacation, and they're paid very well."

Narrator: Marlin has about $3.5 million dollars worth of automation equipment and industrial robots. From automated welders and routers to machines that can pull and bend hundreds of feet of wire a minute, with unmatchable quality. The company is also six times more profitable because of automation.

Narrator: Marlin is now a leader in its industry and has been recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest growing companies in the United States.

Drew Greenblatt: "When I first bought the company, we were plus or minus an inch in our tolerance. Now we're making parts that are plus or minus 4/1000s of an inch. So what's happened is is that we can sell now to clients in the pharmaceutical industries, medical industries, automotive, aerospace. We're winning jobs that we never could win. Jobs that have to be on a boat from China for four weeks, eight weeks, now could be made in Maryland and we could ship it in one day, three days, it blows away the customer because of our speed and our quality."

Drew Greenblatt: "The Association for Advancing Automation is leading the charge. We need an organization that tells the community how important it is for automation and robotics in our future. This is creating jobs in America, this is improving the workplace because we have a safer uh workplace and it's also giving us revenue increase because we can win more jobs with more automation and more robotics."