January/February 1991
Riverside Products has raised the stakes in the recycling equipment market, bringing its production totally in-house and adopting an aggressive marketing stance to capitalize on new opportunities worldwide.
By Kent Kiser
Kent Kiser is associate editor of Scrap Processing and Recycling.
Patrick J. Comparin, general manager of Riverside Products (Moline, M.), likes to recount a luncheon he attended in London last summer. He had been with Riverside less than a year and was at the luncheon to explore European markets for the company's recycling products. He found himself seated with six scrap industry businessmen-three from England, two from Japan, and one from West Germany. He introduced himself, mentioned the company, and was greeted with nods of recognition: They all knew Riverside Products.
"I was impressed," Comparin says. "Here I was in London, and these men from all over the world knew the company. I felt proud to know that Riverside had been in business for a long time and was known as a manufacturer of a good quality product. "
Riverside is recognized as a leading manufacturer of shredder rotors, associated wear parts, and shear blades. It is also credited with developing the concept of throwaway replacement shear blades for shredding equipment. John C. Stelk, Riverside's manager of engineering, says, "We set a lot of trends in the business that are still used today. I can't think of anybody who has done as much as we have."
Dwelling on the past is not Riverside's way, however. In the past two years, the company has launched several corporate and product improvement programs, while boosting its marketing efforts in the United States, Europe, and Asia.
"Riverside's goal," Comparin says, "is to be the world leader in the manufacture and supply of rotors and wear parts for the scrap and associated recycling industries
Benefiting From In-house Production
Riverside's name matches its location--close to the Mississippi River. It is nestled in the closely knit communities of the quad cities, Moline and Rock Island, Ill., and Bettendorf and Davenport, Iowa. Its parent company, Sivyer Steel Corp., and Sivyer's foundry division, sit on the opposite bank of the Mississippi in Bettendorf, only a few miles away.
Bettendorf was also Riverside's first home. Founded in 1959, the company was originally named Riverside Products Corp. It made its first shredder parts when a local scrap processor asked the company to create a shear blade that wouldn't crack or spall in the frigid Iowa winters. Riverside cast--rather than forged--a blade out of a new, durable alloy (Riverside knife steel), and its success story in the industry had begun.
In 1987, the firm moved across the river to Moline. The company purchased a 44,000-square-foot plant and established a 25-person machine shop. "We went out and bought machinery, hired a capable workforce, and here we are today," Comparin says. Most importantly, the company brought all of its previously subcontracted machining work in-house--a significant move toward quality control.
Riverside and the foundry division have developed a symbiotic business relationship, with the foundry casting all products for Riverside--and others--and Riverside providing machining services for the foundry's products--and others. The partnership gives Riverside total manufacturing control, covering the melting, casting, heat treatment, machining, assembly, and shipping of its products.
Riverside says this quality control is invaluable in the equipment industry, in which most manufacturers contract out for some services. "Our customers demand a consistent, quality product at a very, very competitive price," Comparin observes. "We try our best to do that. We're not the cheapest, but I believe that our customers receive the performance they need out of our products." For example, Comparin recounts, one client could process only 2,500 tons using a competitor's shredder hammers. With Riverside's hammers, the client processed 5,300 tons per hammer. "So if he went from changing his old hammers once a week to changing ours once every other week, is that worth a little more money?" Comparin rhetorically asks. "It's like the Cybill Shepherd ad for L'Oreal hair products: It costs a little more, but you're worth it."
In another example, an English scrap processor sought shear blades that wouldn't crack or spall while cutting I-beams. The company tried Riverside blades and later sent Comparin a fax that said the blades were the best it had ever used. The company continues to use them. Kris Brotherton, Riverside's manager of inside sales and administration, says, "The customer is looking for a good, sound product with as few problems as possible, and I think we offer that. If there is a problem, we work to resolve it."
The company's new slogan--Tougher Than Scrap--emphasizes the durability and reliability of its products. "The thought behind the slogan is that our products can withstand whatever you put in them,” Comparin explains.
Riverside's in-house production also gives it an edge in quick delivery of products, Comparin says, particularly in emergency situations. While one rotor can often take four to six months to manufacture, Riverside rushed one to a Canadian customer in 10 weeks. The company can ship hammer orders in approximately three weeks, Comparin says, compared with an industry average of six to eight weeks. He notes that Riverside ships several hundred tons of products per month.
"We pride ourselves on being customer-oriented," says Claude D. Robinson, president and chief executive officer of Sivyer Steel Corp. "We try to structure our activities to be very responsive to our customers' needs.”
Innovation First
With eight patents to its credit and three more pending, Riverside has established itself as an innovator in the industry, a commitment it continues today. “Our objective is to always be a step ahead,” Comparin says.
Each year, the company adds to its wide selection of products. Its alligator and guillotine shear blades come in more than 500 widths and lengths to fit modem shears. The company offers more than 80 styles of hammers, including bow tie, keyhole, and bell-shaped models. Its shredder rotors come in two-, three-, four-, and six-arm versions and, like all of its products, are cast in Riverside's trademarked alloys rather than forged from plate, as other manufacturers do. The company, in fact, claims it produces the world's largest rotor, which weighs 50 tons and can process more than 1,600 cars per day. "There are many companies that have only used Riverside rotors," Comparin states, "and will only use Riverside rotors."
The company also asserts that it is probably the largest facility in the world devoted to making replacement wear parts and hardware for recycling equipment. Its spider caps, hammer pins, liners, grates, and patented end-disc caps have helped reduce machine downtime and given processors an alternative to daily weld buildup of worn parts. As an extra plus, processors can sell their worn parts back to Riverside, promoting scrap recycling and reducing freight charges by combining the delivery of new products with the return of old ones.
Focusing on Marketing and Expansion
In the last two years, Comparin has initiated an aggressive effort to transform the company from a manufacturing-oriented company to a marketing-and-sales-oriented company. The company's products are already used in the United States, Canada, Mexico, England, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and Japan. The manufacturer aims to increase its U.S. sales while taking advantage of the opportunities unfolding in Europe. Robinson says, "I would like to see Riverside establish the same market share worldwide as it has in North America." The company' whose export sales doubled in 1990, is working to make sure this trend continues in 1991. "We're expanding our product line and our market," Comparin notes, "while continuing our tradition of good quality products as a manufacturer."
To enhance its marketing efforts, Riverside hired a telemarketer in 1990 to talk with previous, current, and potential customers, ascertaining their needs and gleaning valuable market information. Riverside is also planning to conduct a. customer survey in early 1991 to help direct its marketing campaign. "With the management we've got now," Brotherton says, “we're a very progressive company and are more willing to take chances marketing our products than in the past."
In addition, Riverside has been adding equipment to provide machining services for outside clients and to accommodate nontraditional markets and new-growth industries, such as municipal recycling.
Expansion requires space, however, and Comparin has ensured room for growth by cutting Riverside's inventory in half. This streamlining, combined with close cooperation with the foundry, has enabled Riverside to decrease the throughput time for customer orders. Now the company maintains "just-in-time rather than just-in-case inventory," Comparin says, and it reviews its inventory quarterly, making adjustments in response to the marketplace. To keep in touch with the product, all management employees assist with semiannual physical inventories. Comparin, who has been through three inventories, says, "It gets us out in the shop and actively involved in the product. We count the product, we get to know the product, we ask questions about it. We get our hands dirty."
Improving Quality Through Communication
Comparin is proud to note that many Riverside employees have been with the company more than a decade. "For all practical purposes," he says, "we have a zero turnover rate." Stelk, for example, has been with the company 14 years. Brotherton has been with Riverside for 20 years, while other individuals in sales, purchasing, traffic, and the shop have been with the company for more than 15 years each. Devoted, well-informed employees are a company's best assurance of quality products.
To this end, Riverside has recently implemented monthly meetings with all employees and management. "The more the employees know what our priorities are, what our needs are, and what our customers' needs are," Comparin observes, "the better off the company will be." Beyond the traditional open-door policy, Comparin spends time each day in the shop, talking with employees, answering their questions, and examining production.
This openness extends to Riverside's relationship with the foundry division. "If we're going to get better, we have to work together," Brotherton observes. "When we have a problem, we get together with the foundry and immediately resolve it."
Riverside is also continuing its quality inspection and checklist practices in its machining shop. Employees inspect each casting before and after performing their work on it, making sure that the previous step was executed correctly. A routing ticket is attached to each product as it moves through the shop. When a rotor comes in for repairs, employees note each part as the product is disassembled, recording the exact measurements and hardness of the castings and the condition and measurement of the shaft, among other points.
"We've also put into place some checklists to make sure that feedback is going to the foundry," Comparin says. "We monitor all aspects of our product."
Sivyer Steel also emphasizes quality control through its practices of batching and bar coding castings. These practices promote uniform quality through the pouring, heat treatment, and cleaning stages, and allow the foundry to trace every aspect of the casting process.
With its new marketing focus, positive corporate culture, and innovative product ideas, Riverside Products stands ready to be "setting the pace in recycling worldwide," Robinson asserts. Riverside, in cooperation with the foundry division, has forged an effective give-and-take partnership in the manufacturing business, one that it hopes will provide better service and better products to all of its customers.
"I'm a believer in a lot of hard work, fun, and success," Comparin says. "I believe that our success in the past, our quality products of today, and our approaches toward tomorrow are going to help us be successful in the future. That, together with innovation, will continue to make Riverside a leader in the 1990s and beyond." •
Riverside Products has raised the stakes in the recycling equipment market, bringing its production totally in-house and adopting an aggressive marketing stance to capitalize on new opportunities worldwide.