E13: Jeremy Barber - Buhler Quality Yarns

“As a manager, the people that work under you are the ones that decide whether you're doing your job, right or not. And so, if you can help them do their job and better themselves, they, in turn, better you and make you look like you're doing a good thing.” — Jeremy Barber

Jeremy Barber is the maintenance manager at Buhler Quality Yarns Corporation in Jefferson, Georgia, and he's here today to share his leadership style of authentically focusing on developing those under you. Our conversation begins with a brief introduction to Jeremy and the company before we get into the development path that led him to his position and the biggest obstacles facing the textile industry right now. We then dive into the importance of good mentorship and his top advice to anyone wishing to follow a similar path, as well as the specific growth-orientated characteristics he looks for in a potential hire! You'll hear all about the typical daily processes, machines, and safety protocols in place, as well as the challenge of having to get creative with maintenance because production can’t stop. From memes about 10-millimeter bolts to how the face of technology has changed the industry, tune in now to hear another rich conversation on The Industrial Movement podcast!

Transcript

EPISODE 13

[INTRODUCTION]

[00:00:02] MH: You're listening to The Industrial Movement, where we discuss the people, the processes, and the equipment that drives American manufacturing. If this is your first time listening, then thanks for coming. The Industrial Movement podcast is produced every week for your enjoyment, and the show notes can be found at our website atwww.theindustrialmovement.com.

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Now, let's get on to the show.

[INTERVIEW]

[00:00:40] MH: Hi, folks. Welcome back to The Industrial Movement. I'm your host Morty Hodge, and with me as always, my trusty sidekick, Greg Smith.

[00:00:48] GS: Hello, everyone. Welcome to the show.

[00:00:49] MH: Today, we are so honored to have a guest in studio. Jeremy Barber is the maintenance manager with Buhler Quality Yarns Corporation in Jefferson, Georgia. Jeremy, welcome to the show.

[00:01:00] JB: Thanks for having me.

[00:01:02] MH: Jeremy, tell me a little bit about Buhler Quality Yarns, and what you do there?

[00:01:06] JB: Yeah, we are a yarn manufacturer that specializes in high-end, high-quality specialty yarns. We do cotton Supima, which is the finest quality cotton that there is. And we also do a lot of Nomex for fire retardant stuff for military, and Carhart for like workwear and stuff of that nature. So, we take the raw cotton and process it through all the way to yarn for clothing.

[00:01:38] MH: What do you do there for the company? What does your day to day look like?

[00:01:42] JB: I am the maintenance manager. I'm responsible for all of the infrastructure technicians and the maintenance technicians for all of the different departments.

[00:01:53] MH: Great. What career development path or history have you had that's brought you along to where you're at now?

[00:02:01] JB: So, I started working full time at the age of 16, and just kind of spent my time in the trenches, learning everything that I could about any position I found myself in. I've always been a hands-on maintenance kind of guy. So, that was a path that I always found myself kind of going back to, and I just did everything I could to learn as much as I could and make the right connections. Because a lot of times it's who you know, not what you know. But mainly, I just have a passion for hands-on technician work and so here I am.

[00:02:37] MH: That's great. As far as previous jobs or training, or companies or schooling that you've had for maintenance, tell us about that.

[00:02:45] JB: I spent eight years in the Army as a helicopter mechanic. And so that's where a lot of my formal maintenance training came in. But before that, and after that, I've always kind of worked on all my own stuff and taught myself by just getting in there and figuring it out and breaking things, figuring out how to fix them. But the military afforded me the opportunity of the formal training to really learn in depth maintenance work.

[00:03:17] GS: That's great. Thank you for your service. What's the biggest challenge the industry is facing today?

[00:03:23] JB: For the textile industry, its cotton supplies. With the climate in California and their wonderful regulations, they have put a large regulation on the amount of cotton that the farmers are allowed to produce a year. And for us, in the high-end cotton, California is really about the only place that we can get our cotton from in our country. So, we've struggled with that, because our supplier lost three quarters of the amount of cotton that they were allowed to produce and sell due to regulations. So, it made a big damper on what we could do, so that's part of how we ended up, spreading into Nomex and doing the fire-retardant stuff because we had to supplement what we couldn't get in the cotton. And I think everybody's feeling that pain and struggling in like every industry. The price of stuff is through the roof and logistics is wild. So, we have the same struggles as everybody on that end.

[00:04:38] MH: When you think of California, you think of oranges and wineries, grapes? I did not or would not have thought that cotton was a big crop that they grew there.

[00:04:48] JB: Yeah. I personally, myself, was surprised coming from Georgia and not being in textiles before. I know we've got plenty of cotton here. But the cotton we grow, they classify as upland cotton, and although it's a nice cotton and it works well, and a majority of clothes are made out of that, it's not your finer quality stuff. The environment in the land and stuff in California just grows a finer quality of cotton. I mean, I don't think anybody knows that unless you're in the textile industry.

[00:05:26] MH: That's a very interesting fact, though. Translating to personal mastery in your background, what advice would you want to give someone that wanted to pursue a career similar to yours? If I was a younger man, or woman, wanted to be a maintenance manager at a large manufacturing facility, what advice would you give them?

[00:05:45] JB: Just from my background, and what I like to see, put your time in in the trenches. Find a place to go, stay dedicated, and put your time in. Learn what the people that eventually will work for you need to do on a daily basis. That way, when you're in charge, you can tell them, “Hey, I know what you're going through. I know what kind of support you need. Let's get this done.” Because as a manager, the people that work under you are the ones that decide whether you're doing your job, right or not. And so, if you can help them do their job and better themselves, they in turn better you and make you look like you're doing a good thing.

[00:06:30] GS: Besides your military training, is there any other resources or books that helped you along the way?

[00:06:37] JB: I was lucky. Some of the jobs I've had, I've been blessed with really good leadership, and people that took the time to show me a lot of things. I did dabble in college here and there and had great intentions to get degrees and technical trainings and stuff. But I've had four young kids provide for, so working was always a priority for me. So, I just did my best to learn everything I could from the people that I worked with. That's kind of where I got where I was, put in hard work, put in the time, and show the people that are training you that you want better for yourself. A lot of times, it pays dividends. It has, for me, anyways.

[00:07:30] MH: I have to ask you a question about hiring. When you hire maintenance technicians to work for you in a manufacturing facility, or what are you looking for in candidates?

[00:07:40] JB: So, for me personally, I mean, obviously, a background in some kind of mechanical aptitude is great. But I personally look for a character in somebody, whether I think that they are eager to learn, willing to learn, and have a passion for what they're trying to do. Because if you work on cars, you can usually work on anything. If you work on helicopters, you can usually figure out how to work on anything. But it's your personality that really makes or breaks a good employee. If they're eager and hungry to learn and do better than you can teach them, the equipment that you need them to work on.

[00:08:26] MH: Tell us a couple of people that have influenced you.

[00:08:31] JB: When I joined the military, I initially joined as just like a warehouse clerk and one of my supervisors there actually pushed me to go into the aircraft mechanic stuff, and helped me transition from the warehouse thing. And then, as I got into maintenance stuff, he checked in on me and put me in contact with people that he knew from aviation world. I think that is the best you can get, is somebody that's willing to continue to try to help you better yourself and all of that. And then, I guess outside of the military, I've got a couple friends that are in similar leadership roles, and we all kind of feed off of each other with what we're doing and what we struggle with and how to better the people under us.

[00:09:29] MH: Jeremy, how many people on the face of the earth or at least the United States know what a swash plate is?

[00:09:35] JB: There's probably not very many.

[00:09:42] MH: I don't know if you know this, but I that's what I did. I went to school for aviation.

[00:09:44] JB: Yeah. I remember. I think we briefly touched on it. But yeah, the swashplate is most people I think, would think of pirate ships, when you start talking about swashbuckling and swashplate.

[00:09:58] MH: And for the listeners, the swashplate is the difference on top of a helicopter that really goes from the flight controls to adjusting the rotors to give the helicopter direction.

[00:10:08] GS: What is your biggest lesson learned? And what did you take away from that?

[00:10:13] JB: As a leader, biggest lesson I learned when I first started out, I focused on myself, and I focused on trying to do what I thought I needed to do. I learned that I needed to focus on the people that are under me. If I focused on them, and did what I could to help them improve themselves, then I usually ended up doing what I needed to do, and I looked good to the people that were watching me.

I think a lot of times, especially in our society, nowadays, the focus is selfish, everybody's worried about themselves and trying to get better and a lot of people, unfortunately, are willing to step on the heads of the people under him to try to get higher, when really, you support the people under you, they will lift you up into where you want to be.

[00:11:10] MH: As a maintenance manager in a manufacturing facility, what are some of the day-to-day challenges that you face?

[00:11:18] JB: For us specifically, and really, all maintenance places I've been in manufacturing is the production obviously, is the goal and the importance. So, when production is not meeting what they need to do, that the scapegoat tends to be maintenance. It's easy to say, “Oh, we're not making our numbers because maintenance isn’t doing what they're doing.” So, that's a daily struggle and I've seen that everywhere I've been. It's not just Buhler, production has to find somebody to blame and maintenance is there to take that beating. But you just got to drive on and make sure your guys are doing the right things, and that will prove itself, in the end.

[00:12:03] MH: I've always said that, the maintenance team inside a manufacturing facility are the unsung heroes. It is a thankless job. But at the end of the day, they're the ones that make sure the equipment is making money. It's operating, it continues to operate, they prevent it from failure. And when it fails, they're there to fix it. Because if those machines aren't running, we all know, no money's being made.

[00:12:26] JB: That's right.

[00:12:27] MH: So, Greg?

[00:12:28] GS: Yeah, let's talk about the processes of your facility. So, tell us about a typical a day at the facility. What is the process?

[00:12:36] JB: Okay. So, they deliver the cotton in large bales, and we unpack that, lay it out, we have a machine that kind of runs across it, like a comb through hair, so to speak, and it sucks up the cotton, sends it through line. There's what's called a card machine. That's the kind of the first line in the process and those take that cotton and start to straighten it out from the rough bundles, and it pulls the dirt and leaves in the sticks and stuff out of it.

And then from there, it goes to a machine that’s called a draw frame. And then that just again, continues to pull the cotton, stretch it out, and straightened out. Really, that's our whole process. We start with a ball of cotton and it goes through several steps to where it's a nice, fine, twisted yarn at the end of the line. But from the drawl frames go to what's called a roving frame, and that's when you really start to see when you think of yarn, you think of your grandma with her her bundle of yarn. That's where the roving frame kind of comes into play, and it gets it to form into those twists and the thicker concept of yarn. And then from there, it goes to what's called a spinning machine, and that drags that down to the real fine yarn that are used for shirts and pants and all of that stuff.

So, it's a multi-step process, but it's really all about the same of going from that bundle of yarn to just stretching it out and getting it down to real fine piece.

[00:14:19] GS: Now, do you guys do all the coloration there too?

[00:14:22] JB: We do not. All we do is take it from the bundle to the yarn. We package it up and sell it to our customers and then they do whatever they decide to do with it, depending on their applications. But we don't do any dyeing or knitting or anything in house.

[00:14:41] MH: So, it's dyed after you guys -- it doesn't come in dyed.

[00:14:45] JB: No. The regular cotton comes in, in variations of white. The finer cottons are obviously more pure white. The upland cotton, we make a lot of here in Georgia is more of a tannish yellowish color. So, whatever color it comes in raw, is what we send it out to.

[00:15:07] MH: What processes does Quality Buhler Yarns use for efficiency and productivity?

[00:15:14] JB: It's a numbers game for us like any manufacturing place. We've got to send more out the door and then we bring in raw. So, we're numbers, numbers, numbers, numbers and efficiency on machines. Our machines have to run at about a 90% efficiency level. So, every day, we get reports on how much pounds the machine is producing, and we've got a team of people that sit there and dissect the numbers and adjust things, how we can keep that 90% efficiency to meet our goals.

[00:15:52] MH: Is that a full-time job, efficiency?

[00:15:54] JB: Yeah, it's more than a full-time job. Because cotton is real finicky. The machines are obviously a major part, everybody knows that struggle. But cotton is very temperamental to the environment. The humidity level and the temperature – throughout our process, the humidity level starts at about 50% with an 80-degree temperature, give or take. And then towards the end of it, it's about 70 degrees with about 30% humidity, and it's all in one building. So, we're constantly battling. If it gets outside of 3% or 4% humidity or three or four degrees, the cotton will start getting real sticky and won't run through the machines properly and then quality is affected and production and everything. So, it's a constant battle of adjusting climate and machines and everything to keep the production numbers where they need to be.

[00:17:04] GS: What safety programs you guys have in place, and or any safety protocol specific to your industry?

[00:17:11] JB: Everybody in our country has the beautiful OSHA regulations. I think we all know the struggles and the deal with that. We follow all that same stuff. But textile industry has a struggle with fire. Cotton is fairly flammable. So, we deal with with fire a lot, training on preventing fires, and then also dealing with fires because we can try to prevent them as much as possible, but they always seem to pop up the machines. Going back to the climate and the cotton getting sticky and stuff, if it gets sticky enough, it'll start to choke the machines. The machines will catch it on fire pretty quickly. So, our main focus is fire protection, and then the usual, don't stick your hands where they're spinning things with needles on them.

[00:18:06] GS: That's a good one.

[00:18:06] MH: What causes the fires? Is it the dust in the air from the cotton?

[00:18:12] JB: There are several different focuses for us. The dust in the air is extremely flammable. So, we've got to be mindful of that. Obviously, we're a no smoking facility. We can't cut or weld or do any of that kind of stuff out on the floor. So, that creates a whole different struggle on the maintenance side, because there's a lot of times where it'd be nice to have a torch and blow something off and keep going. But we can't do that because cotton dusts will catch fire and then the entire building will you know, burn up pretty quick. On the machine part, it's more of a friction thing. As the cotton starts to build up and the machine continues to run, you get friction and you eventually catch fire.

[00:19:00] MH: Jeremy, tell us about what equipment that you guys use at your facility.

[00:19:05] JB: Yep. So, textile industry in our country is becoming really small, but as far as equipment goes, there really is no American based textile equipment company. So, all of our equipment comes from overseas. The majority of ours comes from Switzerland, and then we also have some stuff coming out of Korea and Japan. Mainly for us, we have older stuff. A lot of our machines are 30 years old company, called Rieter. They're one of the bigger manufacturers of textile machines. Our card machines, our roving frame, spinning frames, all are Rieter equipment. It's good stuff. I mean they're 30 years old and we generally speaking don't have a lot of trouble out of them with proper maintenance.

[00:19:57] MH: Any other equipment that you guys use to support those or that they need?

[00:20:04] JB: Surprisingly, in the textile industry, they have gotten away. There's not a whole lot of specialty tools. There are other industries, I've been in a lot where it's like, you got to have a whole toolbox, just as specialty tools to get jobs done. But other than everything being metric, which here in America, we pride ourselves on being different. But most of everything we work on is metric stuff. So, the technicians we got are used to it, but new technicians coming in kind of get a little confused on the metric system. But for the most part, the machines are fairly self-sufficient, as far as any kind of special equipment goes.

[00:20:49] MH: I got 99 sockets, but a 10-millimeter is not one. There are so many memes on the 10-millimeter socket. Tell us why there's so many memes on the 10-millimeter.

[00:21:01] JB: It seems the 10-millimeter bolt seems to be a favorite of the metric system. And so, I'd say probably 90% of bolts in the metric system are 10-millimeter. And you alway seem to leave that joker sitting somewhere, or it grows legs because somebody else left there somewhere.

[00:21:25] GS: In regards to the equipment, the machines, besides the 10-millimeter bolts, what is the biggest challenge to keep production going?

[00:21:32] JB: For us, it's just we're at a stage where we have production that can't stop. And so, we've got to get creative with maintenance, because there's obviously things where the machine has to stop in order to do it properly. So, finding that middle ground of doing maintenance enough to keep the machine running properly, but not stopping the machine to where production stops is a tricky animal to wrestle with sometimes, because there's times that we really need to do a complete overhaul, but we can't. We're not afforded that opportunity due to production.

[00:22:15] MH: Do you guys have any energy efficiency initiatives?

[00:22:18] JB: Everybody should be. And I think outside of, if you really care about energy or not, the cost of energy, like everything is through the roof. So, if you're not focusing on that, you're probably going to be in a bad spot. But we are and we’re getting into the whole carbon footprint thing like everybody. We have a farmer now who grows cotton and does not till his cotton at the end of the growth cycle. If you dig into it, that whole carbon effect on the planet, March, April, and May, is like the worst three months of the year for the world as far as carbon effect on the whole environment. Those three months are when farmers are tilling their properties.

And so, I mean, it's not just cotton specific, right? Every farming industry chooses to till their land. But we're working specifically with this one, one farmer that has decided that he's not going to tell his property anymore. He just lets the plant run its natural cycle and rot away. And then he grows the next year and he's actually producing some really nice cotton out of it. And his carbon footprint is minimal compared to most farming operations. So, we're really trying to support people like that and things like that, because we all want our ancestors and kids and everybody to have a nice planet to live on for for years and years to come. And if we don't start doing something now, they may not have that.

[00:24:05] MH: That's incredible. Think of that farmers, that profit gain, because he lowers his expenses. Meanwhile, he's doing good for the environment. It is literally a win win.

[00:24:15] JB: It is, yeah. So, we're really working with him to try to promote what he's doing and of course ourselves. We've got a business to run. But he's making really good quality cotton and we're able to make really fine cotton with it. And so, we're hoping that we can change the industry, at least on that side of things to help everybody.

[00:24:42] GS: Yeah, I mean, we need more farmers to do that. Otherwise, we won't find out if cotton can grow on Mars. What is the most common myth or what is one common myth about your professional field that you would want to debunk?

[00:24:56] JB: I think, as starting out looking into maintenance, I think, a big thing, I know what I was facing was that I felt like I needed specialized schooling and certificates and all. Don't get me wrong, those are great, and they will help you advance in your careers. But you don't have to be this college educated, technical school certified person to get in the trenches. Put your time in, learn your craft, and find yourself in a maintenance manager position like myself.

[00:25:33] MH: Jeremy, how has technology changed the business, your industry, and your job?

[00:25:38] JB: Yeah, it's like any manufacturing industry. Everybody's going to robotics and automated processes. Unfortunately, for people that want to do the jobs, getting away from people. Where I’m at currently, we're a little behind the times. Our machines are 30 plus years old, so we're still supporting the local economy. But the industry as a whole is going automated and using robots to do a lot of the stuff that people do. There's a place for it. It's nice, especially if you're a business owner or in a management position. People are difficult machines. Machines have their own difficulties, but they usually work. Your production level is a little more stable when you're automated. So, the bigger textile industry companies are they're all fully automated. And, you know, there's a lot of really impressive stuff out there for the textile industry specifically. We just aren't there yet.

[00:26:49] MH: It’s amazing. The robots and the machines don't get sick. They don't call in. They don't get a flat tire.

[00:26:57] JB: They don't need vacation.

[00:26:59] GS: Car doesn't break down. Awesome. What is one thing you want to share with our listeners that will help them become better leaders?

[00:27:07] JB: Like I said earlier, it's the people under you. Don't forget where you came from, right? Nobody I know ever started in a leadership position. If they did, they're probably not a good leader.

[00:27:21] MH: Or related to the owner.

[00:27:23] JB: Or related to the owner, and then – but for the most part, we started out at the bottom, we know what that was like. Remember that, because there's good people that are doing the same thing. And if you want to do better in your career, somebody is going to have to replace you. So, I always try to tell my guys and the people under them, that I'm going to show them and teach them everything I know, because I don't want to be in my position forever. I don't want to have to hire somebody from the outside and hope that they do the right things. I want to teach the guys under me to replace me, because I'm trying to do better. So, just take care of the people under you, and they'll take care of you.

[00:28:10] MH: Where do you see the textile industry in the next 10 years?

[00:28:14] JB: That's a tricky question for the textile industry. I mean, obviously, we all currently like to wear clothes. For the foreseeable future, I think that clothes will be –

[00:28:26] MH: Greg's up in the air about that. 

[00:28:28] GS: It's a little overrated, I'm going to be honest.

[00:28:31] JB: Masks are mandatory. I'm going to assume clothes will stay that way in public for a while. So, there's going to be a need for it. But it's definitely a change in industry, like we talked about earlier with California and their regulations. As the climate stuff continues to grow to be more important, at least for the government, it's going to continue to affect all industries, especially us. So, it's just going to be a fluid roller coaster, I think, just like most industries. We’re looking more at synthetic fibers and getting not as focused on cotton, more man-made type stuff.

I don't know. I think, potentially, it'll revert back. We think we know what's best for ourselves. But I think sometimes we try to do too much. And 10 years from now, we may be back around and like, “Oh, yeah, this whole man-made synthetic thing sounded great. But let's go on out here to the cotton field and do what we need to do.”

[00:29:37] MH: One of our goals is to create a community for manufacturing leaders to connect with each other. If one of our listeners wanted to connect with you, what is the best way for them to reach out?

[00:29:47] JB: Yeah. I am all for talking to anybody, spreading my knowledge and learning from everybody. LinkedIn is probably the best way to reach out. Look me up, Jeremy Barber, I'll be happy to accept friend requests and take messages and tell you best I can. I'll be honest with you and tell you if I don't know, I don't know. But I'll do everything I can to guide any questions and put them in touch with people that can help them if I can.

[00:30:18] MH: That's a gracious offer. Jeremy, thank you so much for being on The Industrial Movement today.

[00:30:23] JB: Thank you guys. 

[00:30:24] MH: Have a good day.

[00:30:24] GS: It's a pleasure.

[OUTRO]

[00:30:26] MH: Well, folks, that's it for this week's episode. Be sure to visit our website www.theindustrialmovement.com to view today's show notes and get more golden nuggets of value that we have collected from manufacturing industrial professionals in our archived episodes.

On our website, you can also sign up for our newsletter and find links to join The Industrial Movement community on Facebook. The Industrial Movement podcast is where we discuss the people, the process, and the equipment that drives American manufacturing. I'm your host Morty Hodge, wishing you great success.

[END]