D'Addario Brand Spotlight
This week I was lucky enough to spend the afternoon with Jim D’Addario and tour his Long Island, NY production facility. Arriving at the campus I noticed in the lobby a bunch of patents on the wall along with an industrial looking machine. This was a hand string-winding machine from the 1917used for making orchestral strings. I thought it was a nice touch having something like this right in the lobby. Most companies are so caught up in looking progressive and cutting edge that they ignore their lineage.
1917 Winding Machine and multiple patents
On my way into Jim’s office I also caught a glimpse of some original patent drawings framed up. I found that Jim in particular really appreciates where the company has come from and its roots. Personally I never viewed the string making process as an art but after spending just a few minutes with Jim I could tell there was more than met the eye. He was quick to explain that there are records of D’Addario’s making strings dating back to the 16 century.
Before we went on the actual tour of the facility Jim and I sat for about an hour in his office to chat. Turns out Jim is very active in local and national politics. Just this year he has had visits with advisors that meet directly with the President about counterfeited products online. Jim has also recently sponsored a local bill to keep businesses in Long Island and has been part of a national Think Tank on how to police online auction sites from selling fake goods.
Which one is real? Fake D’Addario sold on an online auction site
Jim also spoke a lot about Lean Manufacturing and adding value to his products without increasing the price. I didn’t even realize it, but there has actually been a decrease it pricing on some of D’Addario’s products in the last year, this is due to Lean Manufacturing.
Now onto the tour, the first stop was the production facility where a team designs the machines to make D’Addario strings. Almost completely from top to bottom the facility is outfitted with custom machines made in house. Jim is directly involved with every aspect of the company including the tooling. Jim has designed a number of the machines that are still in use today.
Jim explaining how D’Addario strings “grip” the Hex Core
There was one machine that is about to be rolled out on to the floor first time. It was a string winder that was no louder than a microwave, if that loud. Usually they will build one prototype and if it does what is hoped they go into production slowly weeding out older machines. There is a full workshop dedicated to these prototypes and manufacturing of these tools right on site.
From there we went onto the actual production floor. I was expecting it to be much louder and dirtier. You could tell that everything was laid out in a specific way to be as efficient as possible. About 1 year ago Jim enforced the new Lean Manufacturing program at D’Addario. This program has allowed the company to basically run with no sitting inventory. There is never a point where there are more than just a couple hours of inventory on the floor, meaning that they are never days backordered. This is one of the reasons why D’Addario has not had price increases and has been able to bring jobs back to America.
While on the factory floor we visited the machines built to flatten flat wound strings. Jim explained to use the differences in the cores and the materials used to make a string react the way desired. Some strings require a core that will resonate after being struck like a guitar string, while a violin string need to deaden when not being bowed. D’Addario pays strong attention to these details.
Flat wound machine
Next we went across the street to the building where Planet Waves and Evans products are produced. The first station we viewed was the new American Stage Instrument Cable assembly station. It basically consists of one worker building cables from scratch using a soldering machine and some jigs. D’Addario is constantly bringing manufacturing back to the USA. This seemed to be one of the main benefits driving Jim to enforce the Lean Manufacturing process. The more the company can save the more jobs he can bring back to Long Island and his other facilities in America.
American Instrument Cables being produced
Also in this portion of the building is the custom pick printing machine and the Inked Drum heads manufacturing line. These are all done as one offs and a small team works on them.
Walking through an open door way we entered into the print shop and when I say a print shop, it is a real print shop. I worked in a print shop for about a year and this was on par with that. Large 5 color presses and dye cutting machines guys jogging paper, it did not resemble anything you would associate with the music business.
Large Printing Press
Bumped up against all of this is the Evans production floor. Creating a drumhead goes something like this. A huge plotter cuts the layers into desired size. From there they have holes punched around the exterior where the glue is to be placed to make sure of a good fit. Then the film is fixed to a metal hoop that is bent and welded from bulk material in house. Next the drumhead is heated on a table for a specified amount of time with weight on it to ensure the glue cures evenly. Then it is into a box and off to the warehouse.
Drum Head Curing
Which was our next and final stop. D’Addario has a warehouse about a block away that is state of the art. Automated machines twirl and whirl to make it easier for the workers to pick orders.
It was really cool being able to have Jim himself give us a tour of his facility and he was very accommodating. His passion for bringing jobs to America has lead way to a complete company paradigm shift involving efficiency and it is refreshing to see someone doing something not just talking.
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