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<\/p>\nTwenty years ago, Len Morris, Chief Executive Officer, founded Viewrail in the basement of his home. From these incredibly humble beginnings, the company today is the leading national provider of modern stairs and railing. Based in Indiana, its multi-facility campus sprawls across the Midwest and offers proudly American-made goods. All of its raw materials are domestically sourced and locally produced, and its 400,000 square feet of manufacturing space boasts the most advanced equipment available.<\/p>\n
Len made the decision to change the company\u2019s direction eight years ago, by focusing on its own product line and ideas. The market had been calling out for a systemized approach to modern stairs and railing, one that could rapidly model designs with the implementation of 3D modeling software, and allow for the use of a range of materials from steel, aluminum, wood and glass to porcelain. Today, this encompasses the company\u2019s mainstay output, but as Len states, there\u2019s something deeper that is responsible for Viewrail\u2019s vision and subsequent monumental success.<\/p>\n
Built on values<\/strong> Despite the swathes of uncertainty in which industry is currently operating earlier this year, Viewrail implemented an inflation protection plan for its employees to help them cope with the cost-of-living crisis. The company is reviewing staff members\u2019 wages against inflation at the end of every quarter, a policy that has come less than a year since it decided to make its minimum hourly wage $25 and salaried income $55,000. A spokesperson stated that it\u2019s simply another way in which Viewrail can apply its ethical and individualistic approach to each employee and their family members.<\/p>\n This idea is fundamental to Viewrail\u2019s working culture, as Len details further: \u201cWe have three values: eternal, responsive and flourishing. We treat each and every individual as an eternal being, knowing that their value is held in far more than just their work. We are an incredibly responsive company; running through development cycles in correlation with market trends, to be sure that we are giving our customers and vendors what they need to be prosperous. In everything we do, we always bring our focus back to each team member as an individual. We\u2019re always striving to figure out how we can pay that person a little bit more by creating the correct situation in which they can deliver more value to the customer.\u201d<\/p>\n The \u2018people first\u2019 mentality weaves through Viewrail\u2019s approach to manufacturing and product development, with its strong commitment to giving customers what they want. The typical process starts by identifying market needs, above plant capabilities, then building the required methods and equipment to carry out the necessary processes. Its arsenal of equipment includes 15 robotic arms, a highly developed pick-to-light inventory system (for the management of hardware, given 50,000 pieces on average are shipped out per day) and 2000 axes under CNC control.<\/p>\n Seamless operation<\/strong> Furthermore, Viewrail impresses a great deal of importance on its green strategies; it has moved its plastic-free deadline up to next year and is currently on target to generate 75 percent of its own renewable energy too. The company has fitted all of its manufacturing facilities with solar panels and employed algorithms to assist in managing its lumber utilization, to the point where it\u2019s operating on a closed loop with regards to wood waste. Besides its glass recycling program, the transportation division has been greatly restricted \u2013 meaning that the supply-chain-owned material plants are located within ten miles of the manufacturing facilities to reduce unnecessary travel. Len takes great pride in Viewrail\u2019s domestically produced materials: \u201cWe have to become less reliant on imported products. In the US, we need to get better at utilizing resources on our home turf. The foolishness of harvesting trees, sending them to Asia for minor work and then shipping them back has to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u201cBesides being the best fighter pilot who ever lived, John Boyd was a great thinker \u2013 one whose vision has hugely influenced the ethos behind Viewrail,\u201d Len opens. \u201cHe believed that people came first, followed by ideas and then things. Our emulation of this is to primarily focus on our people, with ideas, coming up sharply in second \u2013 with these two factors set in place, they can be applied to the things, which in our case includes the hardware, machinery and manufacturing equipment. \u2018Things\u2019 are only there to support people and their ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAs Len explains: \u201cWe run through the development cycle at twice the rate at which the market is going to make sure we\u2019re always a full cycle ahead. We have devoted 20,000 square feet of our manufacturing space to research and development, and every two months, we host a new product showcase \u2013 the last of which featured 43 new items. In terms of customer sales, once we have the project signed off and the deposit has been made, we have a ten-business-day manufacturing timeframe on anything the customer wants. This is then shipped out via one of our five distribution centers across the US. We can fully control the design as we have ownership of our supply lines \u2013 with investments into lumber, all the way back to the log, and in aluminum, all the way back to the extrusion process. These ownerships have really helped us to weather a lot of storms and challenges.\u201d![\"\"](\"https:\/\/manufacturing-today.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/01\/Viewrail-207c.png\")
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