Header Die & Tool News
A Success Story
After 57 successful years in business, Header’s leadership is committed to keeping the company from becoming complacent. To ensure employees are focused on customers and committed to continuous improvement, the company exposed its entire workforce to lean concepts through an IMEC-conducted training session, then decided to embark on several projects to begin implementing improvements.
Learn more about IMEC training
Header Die & Tool featured as local manufacturing spotlight.
Manufacturing continues to play a key role in the Stateline economy despite taking some punishment during the recession. Some local manufacturers, such as Header Die and Tool are continuing to grow despite the tough economic times. Header has added 7 new employees over the past six months to raise their total number to 45. President Lucas Derry says, “We are looking forward to an even better 2011. We’ve seen a nice recovery in 2010. We actually grew a little bit over our 2008 numbers.” Derry adds he hope to hire even more new workers during the upcoming year.
View Header in Manufacturing Spotlight
Lucas Derry named Rockford area 40 under 40 leader
Being named a 40 under 40 leader is special to Lucas Derry for one particular reason. “It’s good to show that there are younger people involved in manufacturing, and that it’s a viable career choice,” he said. Lucas runs Header Die and Tool, a Rockford-based company founded in 1954 that has grown as a global supplier of cold forming tooling and other specialty manufactured parts. His father, Tom, bought the company in 1976; Lucas went to work for his dad in the shop when he went to Guilford High School. “I was handed a putty knife, shop rags and solvent and told to clean the sludge off the floor,” said Lucas, laughing.
Local Company Looks To Hire More Skilled Workers
While many manufacturering jobs have left the Stateline, there are some local companies that are acutally looking to hire skilled manufacturing workers. Header Die and Tool is one of them. The President, Lucas Derry, says the company currently has about 40 employees and hopes to increase that number by about 10 percent in the near future. Derry adds the key to being successful in tough times is flexibility and adds, “There is no more doing business as usual….time restraints are tighter….it is all about knowing the needs of your customers and meeting them.” Header Die and Tool makes many different kinds of manufacturing parts for local and national companies.
View video clip about Header adding more workers
Stateline Manufacturing Increases Compared To 2010
Rockford manufacturers rank July as a solid month, and remain cautiously optimistic about the future. At Header Die and Tool Company, some workers got overtime because of increased orders.
View Video About Manufacturing Increases