Category: Capabilities

Recently, several individuals from a new customer toured RAM. After the visit and tour, the person in charge of the group asked his co-workers for one word that described our company. Our Sales team waited, very curious as to what they might say. Below are the 5 words resulting, with “Fast” being primary. The visitor challenged his team that if they were going to work with RAM, they would have to match our speed and not hold us up. A refreshing and encouraging visit! If you are interested in a company that exemplifies these attributes, check us out!

He shouldn’t have made it. The distance to the train…the luggage he was carrying…all of it conspired against him. For any ordinary man, this would be impossible.

But then, this was no ordinary man.

This was Kreston Welch.

RAM’s Director of Global Business Development broke into a sprint as the seconds ticked down to the train’s departure. Like a resourceful and nimble Jason Bourne, Kreston maneuvered with maximum speed – a virtual human Formula One car in a sea of people. There was no way he was going to miss the Foam Expo in Hanover, Germany. There it is! Just yards left. The doors start to close. No! A final heroic push, taxing his muscles and lungs to the limit as he lunges into the train passenger car, leaving barely a second to spare as the door closes behind him.

Such was a day in the life of RAM’s representative to the global business community, as he proudly represented our capabilities, technologies, global reach, and exciting materials to a whole mess of people. Technically, a Deutsche Messe full of people.

With RAM increasingly partnering with customers from all corners of the planet, we were well situated to explain our excellence and show our wares to an international gathering.

In the space of just a few days, new connections and friendships were formed, and new customers were gained; showing the exciting European adventure was more than worth it. We’ll see you next time, Foam Expo!

You know how the old saying goes: “Necessity is the mother of invention.”

In an ideal “lean” world, smooth production lines with locked-in takt times, and equally smooth communication across all internal and external teams, results in seamless, continual, predictable work environments.

And as companies become disciplined in lean, they do indeed move in that direction.

But sometimes, something intervenes. The unexpected. The unpredictable. Just look at the magnesium plant that was providing just-in-time deliveries to Ford and other automobile power players. Were they TS16949 and ISO14001 certified? Yup. Did they have a quality system that was robust? You bet. Did they know how to account for, and plan for, risks and opportunities? Duh. Don’t be insulting. You don’t get where they are at in Ford’s supply chain without that. And yet…the whole thing – literally – blew up.

On a much smaller scale (thankfully), “life” happens to us at RAM, too. What do we do when a customer decides they need to expedite parts? What do we do when material has to be sourced yesterday? What do we do when there’s a port strike? What do we do when a *crack team of Soviet commandos parachutes into Colorado, setting off World War 3?

It is in those circumstantial crucibles that you will see NECESSITY becoming the mother of INVENTION at RAM. While it’s true that we only build and ship to customer spec, everything outside of those parameters is a vista of opportunities for us to use our creativity, resources, grit and determination to wow our customers with awesome parts, awesome service, and awesome teamwork.

Necessity can be a demanding mom, for sure. But the inventions she’s birthed at RAM have helped make us the sharp and responsive team we are.

*Less of a concern now than it was in 1984.

Our own Kreston Welch is going to be representing RAM at the annual Foam Expo in Novi, Michigan, taking place from 3/6/18-3/8/18.

Stop by our booth and ask Kreston to get you up to speed on our growth, capabilities, and cutting edge opportunities in the world of foam and fabric.

While you’re thinking about that, consider this strange coincidence:

Lew Welch was from Novi, Michigan; and he commissioned the design of the Novi V8 car engine for use in the Indianapolis 500.

Kreston Welch is going to Novi, Michigan; and he is also going to be driving a rental car that has an engine.

#mindblown

Because they don’t hold a candle to our lamination techniques.

Lots of our customers require foam-to-foam and/or foam-to-fabric lamination.

Our method of using special and safe adhesives has proven reliable and effective over thousands of SKU’s and multiple decades.

Flame lamination can be very effective as well. But some of our competitors use it when they shouldn’t. For example, flame lamination has an adverse effect on fabric’s ability to wick and retain its antimicrobial qualities. What that means in layman’s terms, is: flame lamination has an adverse effect on fabric’s ability to wick and retain its antimicrobial qualities.

So when it comes to antimicrobial fabrics, contact RAM and stick with the sticky that isn’t tricky.™