Size Does Matter by Tom Harper
Go ahead, tell Custom Processing Services Inc. to pound sand. They would do it, and with pleasure. They also would grind it,blend it, coat it, whatever you wanted them to do. That's their job, and that's their name.
"We try to make our name fit what we do," says CPS co owner Gregg Shemanski, who founded the company in 1998. "We will take somebody's materials and we will process them ... do whatever they (the customer) would like to do to the materials to make a more usable new product, and we send it back to them."
So whenever an end user or an original manufacturer has a product in one form and wants it turned into another form, that's when the phone rings at CPS. This manufacturing service provider specializes in micronizing and allied processes, which basically means this: If you need a product reduced to a size significantly smaller than, say, the diameter of a strand of hair, you need CPS.
And virtually any kind of product is capable of being transformed using CPS' high tech equipment. Wax pellets, for example, can be converted into a form small enough to become an additive to paints and inks. The same with earth. "We can take a mineral right out of the ground and make it into a reinforcing agent for plastics to make it stronger," Shemanski says.
It may sound like another company's slogan - and it does - but CPS helps to make their clients' products better. And just who are those clients? You'd have better luck finding Hoffa than finding out who utilizes CPS' services. Shemanski says that due to confidentiality agreements, he can't divulge who his clients are.
The secrets don't end there, however. He admit, that CPS sometimes may not even know where the material to be processed came from or what it will be used for when a client brings it in. Like a variation in the "Don't ask,don't tell" policy all CPS does for some clients is just convert their product from A to B, no questions asked.
Before you start whispering conspiracy theories a la Oliver Stone, relax, Shemanski explains all the secrecy. "We are the outlet for people who can make a chemical formulation but then need that converted . ... That's where we come in. We provide that knowledge and service, which is why they always want us to sign confidentiality agreements"
He will admit, after some considerable gentle persuasion, that "any large or small mineral producer, any large or small dry powder chemical producer, any large or small food additive producer, any large or small plastics manufacturer, they are all potentially our customers."
You likely have reaped the rewards of CPS' work without ever knowing it. The paint on the walls in your office, the varnish on your conference table, the plastics in your phone or the ink in your pen all have something to do with what CPS does.
Shemanski says that because the nature of his business is capital intensive, he closely monitors CPS' three biggest costs: equipment maintenance, labor, and power. In fact, the company does most of its operations at night during the third shift to take advantage of lower electrical rates.
Regarding equipment, CPS has aligned itself with Netzsch Inc., a German based firm that specializes in the design and manufacturing of milling and grinding machinery. Much of the core machinery found in CPS' 30,000 square foot manufacturing area comes courtesy of Netzsch, Shemanski says.
Because service is part of the CPS name, it's crucial that Shemanski and his staff of nine live up to and meet their clients expectations. "That's what we strive for. It sounds so simple ... but a lot of folks just don't do it. That's where we're finding a lot of our business, too, from people who aren't getting the service that they require."
Part of that service involves sitting down with the client and getting all the information needed for the conversion process, nuggets of knowledge such as product form, surface area, conductivity and reactivity. Shernanski uses a five page checklist of questions he created to find out this information and more, since clients often haven't thought of such things themselves. "As we go down the list, we start to help them define their needs better."
CPS has defined itself as a leader in micronizing despite being in business for less than two years; the company officially opened for business on Dec. 1, 2000. Still, it has grown enough through word of mouth and Shemanki's 20 years in the size reduction business to attract clientele from all over the world.
"Our service is global; materials from Europe or Asia or anywhere can be sent here and sent back out "
Interestingly Shemanski Says CPS doesn't interact much with Berks County manufacturers even though those manufacturers may in fact use a product that CPS altered for a third party. "Mostly, we're just spending a lot of money in Berks County making the products for everybody else."
And there's no need for CPS to worry about money in this down economy. Its capabilities reach far enough in many industries that it doesn't matter when one industry goes south, he says. Still, reaching out to more industries is one way CPS is going to enlarge its potential to make things small.
"That's how we're going to grow the business, by just constantly providing solutions to people's processing needs and giving them benefits." (Reprinted from Berks Business 2 Business, March 2002.)