Business View Magazine | August 2019

71 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE AUGUST 2019 EBNER FURNACES , INC . that’s been processed through one of our furnaces. From the seatbelt buckle in your car and the aluminum foil chocolate bar wrapper, all the way to aircraft wings, and aluminum alloy plates that go into space. I recently came across an article about the Orion space crew capsule – the capsule was produced by one of our customers who only have Ebner furnaces. We’ve been using that article for promotion to our employees, so they can connect the work they do to some of these exciting projects, as well as everyday products. In that regard, we set up display cases throughout the company and put – not a whole space capsule – but everything from cutlery to soda cans to masonry trowels inside the cases to build this relationship with the product for our employees.” Ebner Furnaces has rolled out what it calls a “Together Platform” that is, essentially, internal social media accessible only by employees through a web browser. In fact, the start page on the company computers is the “Together” page that features the latest Ebner Furnace and industry news, the type of posts you would see on a Facebook social media page. A lot of information exchange is done in that manner, but it’s locked down to just employees because much of the information could also be used by competitors. Ebner has also installed LCD live- screen televisions in various areas of the facility; showing the Together information and company announcements to keep all employees informed. The office staff can see the news automatically when they log on to the web browser, and manufacturing employees, who don’t have a computer at hand, can get the information from these TVs. Treating employees well is a huge contributor to the firm’s long-time success. In fact, there are a handful of people that have worked at Ebner since the company opened in 1987. Currently in the works is a lean manufacturing project, looking at several areas in the workshop to optimize the manufacturing process and improve lead times, and reduce the cost that goes into the product to stay competitive in the marketplace. Gabriel explains, “There is a big push now in all three locations to rekindle the lean manufacturing project. Because, of course, you pictured Lab crew at Ebner R&D