Small to medium-sized manufacturers can grow faster by applying lean management techniques and emerging technologies, the president of Marlin Steel Wire Products, one of the country’s fastest growing private manufacturing companies, will discuss at a pair of national conferences this spring.

Drew Greenblatt will discuss “Beyond Bagels: How a Basket Company Remade Itself Through ‘Quality Engineering Quick’” at the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) conference in San Antonio, Texas April 15-18. By focusing on quality control, lean manufacturing, engineering and new technology, Marlin Steel went from a company in decline to one exporting stainless steel baskets and wire products to 36 countries. Mr. Greenblatt will give a keynote address about how a change in focus can help American businesses compete in what the late management theorist and author Eli Goldratt called the “blue ocean” of higher quality products, higher margins and higher wages. Continue reading →