Transportation Equipment
Bend, Oregon
Founded 1998
60 Employees
Composite Approach’s Journey with OMEP
Composite Approach, a Redmond-based maker of advanced composite components for industries ranging from aviation to marine technology, partnered with OMEP to embed lean systems and prepare for rapid growth. With a reputation for craftsmanship and innovation, the company wanted to ensure processes could scale to meet increasing client demand while avoiding costly rework. Since 2014, OMEP has supported Composite Approach across strategy, financial decision-making, leadership development, and operations. This included building a stronger leadership team to free the owner from day-to-day tasks and training newly promoted leads through Tools for Conscious Leadership. Over the course of their partnership, Composite Approach has expanded from 13 employees to 60, hiring 40 new staff as demand grew. By improving both office and production processes, the business achieved $500,000 in cost savings and a 400% increase in sales. With a $2 million investment in a new facility and lean principles guiding their work, Composite Approach is well positioned for continued growth and long-term success.
$500,000
Cost Savings
400%
Increase in Sales
40
Jobs created
Background
From an early age, Brian Harris, owner of Composite Approach would often be found taking apart clocks, microwaves, or bicycles just to put them back together. It is now no surprise that he leads a team of craftsmen building composite component for a wide variety of industries, including cutting edge aircraft, custom auxiliary fuel cells, ocean drones, RV’s, composite molds and plugs, and just about anything else you could imagine. Harris and team thrive on the development of new projects and the creation of streamlined manufacturing practices.
The Situation
Today, Composite Approach continues to broaden its services to new markets that may serve to change the world of transportation as we know it. With the crew’s extensive knowledge and experience, they are confident in their ability to produce quality, superior composite products. However, they want to ensure lean enterprise systems are in place so they can create products that meet client demand, increase profits, and avoid re-work.
The Solution
OMEP has provided ongoing support to the Composite Approach leadership team in implementing lean as a business operating philosophy since 2014. OMEP’s work with Composite Approach has been over the 5 key business areas of strategy, top line growth, financials for decision making, leadership, and operations. Over the last 5 years, Composite Approach has grown from 13 employees to 60. Initially, OMEP worked to build a leadership team to free up the owner’s time and allow him the freedom to pursue work outside of the day to day business operations. Current priorities include Tools for Conscious Leadership training for the many leads that have been promoted over the past couple of years. Composite Approach’s results, working in conjunction with OMEP, shows what long term commitment to continuous improvement can accomplish.
The Results
In their multiyear partnership with OMEP, Composite Approach has seen significant growth. Due to increased demand and expanded service offerings, Composite hired 40 new staff members. They were able to save $500,000 by becoming more effective in both their office processes and production. Composite Approach has increase sales over 400% from 2014 to 2018. As their capacity and demand increased, Composite Approach also invested over $2M in a new facility.
“Working with OMEP has truly been an incredibly rewarding experience. The depth of knowledge and resources that they have brought to our business is immense. We are a healthier organization today because of the relationship that has been created between the two of us.”
Ben Zimmerman
Operations Manager, Marketing and Sales