Page 36 - MetalForming Magazine March 2022
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From Textile-Mill Teen to Metal Forming Executive
 While Doug Johnson spent his teen Johnson saw an opportunity to attention to detail and great communi- years toiling in a North Carolina textile improve the company’s stamping busi- cation skills.
mill, he knew that greater opportunities lay ahead. Convinced that there had to be a better work environment than the mills, especially during the hot Carolina summers, in 1986 while in his early 20s Johnson moved to just outside Boston, MA, to join a friend’s startup metal-plat- ing company.
“We were silver-plating plastic parts used in electrocardiogram (ECG) equip- ment,” Johnson recalls. “The business really took off and quickly the owner (his friend) took the company public, and then left the company. That marked a turning point for me personally, as the new CEO came in and took me under his wing. He asked me what my goals were, and I said, ‘I want your job.’ From that point on he mentored me and made me the leader that I am today.”
Johnson eventually managed nearly every department in the company, including sales and marketing, and was challenged to grow its global customer base. After 4 yr. of personal and profes- sional growth, and the support of the company CEO and Johnson’s mentor, Johnson enrolled in and eventually grad- uated from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute School of Industrial Management. Thereafter he was named vice president and COO at the company, and eventually reached his goal of becoming company president, replacing his retiring mentor.
“I was 35 yr. old,” he recalls, “and we had grown to 80 employees and $40 million in annual sales. However, by that time we had been acquired and I dis- agreed with some of the decisions being made by the parent company. My dad always told me, ‘Life’s too short to work in a job that you don’t love,’ so I felt the need to move on. Soon after I resigned, a customer of ours, a metal stamper here in Cheshire, CT, which stamped a mating part to the ECG part that we made, hired me to help launch a new medical-device business unit.”
While running that new business,
stepped up these last couple of years, exceeding expectations in terms of ded- icating their time and efforts to help members navigate the pandemic. I know that for me personally, their sup- port, timely knowledge and advice has helped me sleep at night.”
(See the accompanying sidebar, A Laundry List of Critical Issues Being Addressed in Washington, D.C., for a glimpse at where the One Voice team
ness, and eventually took on those added responsibilities.
“Eventually our stamping business expanded beyond what we could man- age inhouse, so we needed a stamping company to make parts for us,” Johnson explains, “and that led us to a local stamper in Cheshire—Marion Mfg. In 2010 the stamping company was sold off and I found myself unemployed. Fortunately, the owners of Marion Mfg. recruited me to take over their opera- tions, which I did with one caveat: If I was able to improve their operations and profitability, I wanted to have a chance to buy the company. Well, the rest is his- tory, and I acquired the company in 2015.”
Since that time Johnson has nearly completely overhauled the firm, includ- ing the addition of many relatively young but smart and hard-working mid-level managers. That lineup includes quality assurance manager Katie Barry, produc- tion manager Sal Rubano, marketing director Ashley Wells (Johnson’s daugh- ter) and plant manager Tyler Johnson (Doug’s son).
“My mentor believed in taking care of the people that worked for him and strived to develop them to prepare them to achieve the next level, myself includ- ed. I try to do the same with the people that work for me. I can’t move if they don’t move.”
Barry, as with many at Marion Mfg., is a good example of this philosophy, Johnson says. “She came here as an operator, and I saw something in her and put her in charge of our shipping department. She had it running so effi- ciently that she had extra time to work in another department as well, and I also would find her helping out in our quality department when she had the time. So, when our quality manager left, I offered her the opportunity to move into that role, and she proved quickly that she was ready for that responsibility. Our customers immediately praised her
will focus its efforts in the coming months.)
On the workforce-development front, PMA has been very active in recent years bringing its METALFORM EDU online training package— launched in 2018—to metal forming companies large and small. Says PMA president David Klotz:
“Doug has been vice chair on the PMA executive team for the last 2 years
“I ask our team to hustle,” Johnson adds. “And, we want them involved with new customers and projects from the beginning, working with the engineering team. We can offer a lot of advice on design for manufacturability and on material selection, based not only on product performance but also on materi- al availability and price.”
     and has played a big role in what we’ve accomplished as an organization, including our efforts to expand the roll- out of METALFORM EDU training. Our annual meeting of members, the Form- ing our Future Leadership Conference (February 13-16, in Key Largo, FL), sold out. And, we just completed a significant renovation to our headquarters facility in Cleveland, OH, that includes the latest A/V technology for meetings, including
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