Business Spotlight: E.F. Marsh Engineering Company

E.F. Marsh Engineering Company was founded in St. Louis in 1947 and has been manufacturing its products in the Ozarks since the early 1960s. The company specializes in the engineering and production of conveyors used in a variety of fields such as agriculture, mining and construction.

In the spring of 2002, the company was forced to relocate its Monett manufacturing plant. The building had become unstable due to a large sinkhole, so the operation moved to Mount Vernon.

E.F. Marsh Engineering Company used the move as an opportunity to re-evaluate its business. It hired business consultant Stephen Carr to help it do so.

"I was hired initially as a consultant to help them with the new factory. When I looked at the design, they hadn't really employed the synchronous flow technique in the factory design. Essentially, synchronous flow is what Henry Ford did a hundred years ago which is to build complex machines on an assembly line where products flow into the assembly line where they are needed. With this process, we reduce a lot of the picking up and putting down' that would usually take place on an assembly line so that there is less duplication of effort and less handling required to make these products," Carr said.

What this means to E.F. Marsh is a safer, more cost-effective plant better able to maneuver in a competitive market.

"In North America, the conveyer industry is worth about $2 billion a year but there is not one manufacturer doing more than $20 (million) or $30 million a year," Carr said. "So there are many small manufacturers out there which makes the field very competitive."

Carr said E. F. Marsh Engineering Company has between $6 million and $10 million per year in sales.

"To speak to what has been the effect on E. F. Marsh; when we were in Monett we employed 61 to 64 people in the shop. Now we employ 32 people in the shop and they produce more than what 62 people did in Monett. We're not necessarily working any harder, but we are working smarter," said Carr.

Company owner Jeffrey L. Marsh was unavailable for this story.

Carr said because of the design of the shop, E. F. Marsh Engineering Company has the capacity to construct a variety of products not directly related to conveyors.

"We primarily focus on conveyors, but because of the way the factory is set up a lot of things are on wheels and work stations can be maneuvered at our leisure our plant could be used for the construction of hundreds of different products. We could build tractor trailers or boat trailers or garbage containers if we wanted to do so," Carr said.

E.F. Marsh's increase in productivity has allowed the company to move into new markets, such as conveyers used to construct roll-compressed concrete dams. The conveyer for the dam in Jordan is the first overseas project for the company; Carr hopes more overseas contracts will follow. E. F. Marsh Engineering Company has constructed two such conveyers for use in the United States: one near Columbia, S.C., and one in Olivenhaim, Calif.

"There are over 40 (roll-compressed concrete) dam projects out there but they are all offshore. So if we want to be strong in this business, we have to do business offshore. We are pursuing four or five (of these) projects at the moment," Carr said.

Carr said the plant is also working to better meet the challenge of customizing conveyers to meet clients' needs with its new system.

"The synchronous flow system allows us to exercise better quality control, because now our work is more visible to everyone on the shop floor. If there is a mistake we can pick it up very quickly rather than have that piece of equipment get to the field before we realize there is a problem."

While allowing for customization affords the company the ability to adapt to its clients' specific project needs, it challenges the staff with every new project.

"Although we make lots of conveyors, no one is really similar to the one before. So it's an extra challenge for us to have a custom shop but employ synchronous flow techniques as if we were building black Model T Fords one after another," Carr said. "It's a matter of sitting down and planning the parts that we need to build and designating the right amount of time to do that so we can just let the project flow through the shop in its entirety."

Said Controller Karen Reppy: "These projects are very large scale. One thing I have tried to do in my time here is to create some standardization for subassemblies and parts, because even though a lot of the end products are custom, the subassemblies are usually standard."

Both Carr and Reppy agree that since the installation of the new system, worker injuries have decreased, "getting rid of unnecessary steps also reduces the potential for injury. Our lost-time record in probably 50 percent better than before," Carr said.

Carr and Reppy also believe that the initial expense of converting the factory is already benefiting the company.

"There is obviously an expense to do this," said Carr. "You have to shut down for a while to re-organize and educate the staff, but once you have that, the savings to your company are forever."