RVBusiness, May/June 2018

objectives and run people over in the process Today I think its more of a wellthought out strategy focused on making this a great place for people to live and work one thats centered around values and caring about people in the workplace Its not a whole lot more complicated than that with a big focus on leadership versus just doing what everybody else does RVB Related to this whole conversation the Goshen City Council just approved an LCI annexation request for an expansive 330 acre plot southeast of town on which were told Lippert initially plans to build a 20 million light manufacturing plant It sure looks like you are indeed circling your wagons around Elkhart County Lippert Well we know were going to develop well engineered and designed facilities Weve grown so much in Goshen over the last 10 years where weve got multiple plants doing the same things because you just run out of space In some of those places we couldnt add on and even if we could we wouldnt have wanted to because it would have just been inefficient for production So part of it will be having better constructed and designed facilities And were going to put more automation in our facilities so that will be a big deal As far as what new facilities were going to put in there we havent completely landed on that because weve got a lot of things that were considering We werent going to go into planning mode until we actually got the OK to put the initial facility up there which just happened in early March RVB Any other plans youd care to mention at this point about this new Goshen area project given its wideopen acreage Lippert Not yet But it has the makings to be a really substantial campus for us We didnt buy 330 acres to use just a little bit of it Depending on what we land on and if we consolidate facilities its got to be a good time to move and sell off some of our existing plants We dont want to do that when the 56 RVBusiness M A Y J U N E 2 0 1 8 timings bad and weve got some plants that are older that we just dont feel good operating any longer In the process we want to give our people a better place a well thought out and better designed place to work RVB Now that youve mentioned it it looks as if youre serious about LCIs move into robotics something the industry has never embraced in a big way Lippert Robotics and automation are a lot more flexible today than maybe 10 years ago Were designing robotics and automation cells that if they are not doing one thing can be reconstructed to do another task somewhere else in our business So weve got a lot of areas that were automating Were putting robots in play so that we can get a better quality of work more safe workspaces and obviously get more output especially working second and third shifts because they are really hard to get labor for But weve got to run second and third shifts to keep the industry supplied So if we can automate those later shifts we can cut a lot of the turnover out and as you know turnover costs a lot of money RVB So robotics finally get traction in the RV industry Lippert You can go to a handful of our facilities and see how its picking up More and more of our vice presidents at our operations are jumping in with these automation vendors and are automating a lot of jobs that we do Now every time we are able to automate work were repurposing our team to different places in the business Today we have 500 job openings that we cannot fill and this is just LCI So I dont worry about it if we automate five or 10 jobs here and there Those five or 10 people have got a place to go today because weve got needs all over the business including in Goshen where weve got 3000 to 4000 employees RVB Do you expect that LCI which last purchased window supplier Hehr International Inc in February will maintain its acquisitive pace in 2018 Lippert Absolutely but were not going to acquire companies just to grow our top line Thats not the objective Our goal isnt sales Our goal is to acquire good companies businesses and products in industries and markets that we want to be in and we want to do that in a way thats sustainable RVB And the aftermarket clearly remains a priority Lippert Were six years into the aftermarket journey from where we werent paying a whole lot of attention to it to today where we pay a lot of attention to it Weve got a lot of resources dedicated to our aftermarket business largely in RV But one of the things its done that we didnt really anticipate up front is the fact that it gets us so much closer to the dealers and retail customers more so than we ever would have anticipated Today were seeing the benefit of truly taking care of the dealers in a way that we never used to interface with them in the past Now weve got relationships If they need training or if they need questions answered and they cant get it from the OEMs were there for them So weve got this really close connection thats been built over the last six years and continues to get stronger and its helping us RVB Mobile service work were hearing is also on your radar Lippert Yes Its small right now with Camping Connections locations in Florida and South Carolina but our goal is to figure out how to best move that strategy into a place where we can impact more people Thats more of the retail customer side of things Ultimately we want to have service vans and service techs available in more parts of the country versus the limited area we have them available in today to service our products and non LCI products dealing with a lot of issues that RVers commonly face We want to be able to help RV owners the minute they get into trouble So were developing some technology and service and mobile strategies around helping the retail customer Ultimately I think that the traditional stationary service bay is going to be of less help to the consumer than what it is today RVB As an 11000 employee company LCI operates dozens of plants in Elkhart County Ind Its taking a strong stance to become the best employer in the region LCI opened its Marketing Design Center in 2016 as a showroom for customers