“Every piece of heavy construction equipment needs a device on the front to make it productive,” says president and COO Dan Shaffer, describing the products created at Rockland Manufacturing. Rockland, which provides front-end attachments to major global heavy equipment manufacturers, called on Catalyst Connection for help in building a plan for growing the company in its core market.
With guidance from Catalyst Connection and a cross-functional approach inside Rockland, Dan explains, “We did the traditional SWOT analysis – strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. We conducted the analysis for the markets that we currently compete in as well as additional markets we were considering. Then we evaluated our relative competitive position.” A survey of 100 heavy equipment dealers, Rockland customers and non-customers alike, provided Dan’s team with key insights. “We created the questions in the survey with expert guidance from Catalyst Connection. We aimed to secure validation for information we suspected to be true.”
The results confirmed the fact that Rockland needed to create both an external marketing and sales plan and an internal strategic plan. Dan notes, “We identified an opportunity to improve our sales department. We determined that we needed to be able to deliver products quicker.” He adds, “We’ve realigned responsibilities within the engineering department in order to refine and improve existing products faster.”
Dan thinks any small- to mid-sized manufacturer should take advantage of the services Catalyst Connection offers. “Manufacturers must continually evaluate and improve their processes. Doing this requires a well-planned strategy. Without it, a company can’t survive. Continuous improvement is a rigorous practice and smaller companies don’t have the internal resources to do it. That’s where Catalyst Connection comes in.
“Having a third party direct and lead our effort was a great benefit; it was important for us that they kept calling and asking, ‘How are you progressing?’” he says. Dan expects the current three-year plan to benefit Rockland. “Based on simple economies of scale, with increased throughput revenue, we should generate more profit.” So far, Rockland is ahead of schedule in achieving its revenue growth goals, as it expands into new geographical territories and develops additional supplier relationships to increase product offerings.