Taco commitment to workers pays off

BUILDING BLOCKS: Taco Inc. has managed to significantly grow its business through increased efficiency and use of new technology by employees such as Guillermo Lugo, above, packing pumps for shipment. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD
BUILDING BLOCKS: Taco Inc. has managed to significantly grow its business through increased efficiency and use of new technology by employees such as Guillermo Lugo, above, packing pumps for shipment. / PBN PHOTO/BRIAN MCDONALD

(Editor’s note: This is the second in an occasional series of stories that will feature the companies and industries creating jobs in the region.)

When Taco Inc. of Cranston celebrated the opening of its new Innovation & Development Center on June 18, the official ceremony felt more like a family get-together. Dignitaries mingled with employees, touring the new state-of-the-art facility. John H. White Jr., president of Taco, and his staff, wouldn’t want it any other way.
The company manufactures hydronic heating equipment, systems that use water to transfer heat. They also specialize in ventilation and air-conditioning equipment for domestic, commercial and industrial applications.
One key to continued success is that Taco always has made commitments to its employees, customers, suppliers and the community.
And at the front of the line are the firm’s employees, said Kyle A. Adamonis, senior vice president and a 27-year veteran of the company. “As John White Jr. says, if you take care of your employees, they will take care of you and your customers. Every employee is treated as a stakeholder and as an individual. Nobody has a number, and everyone is treated well, and we have relationships with people, both at the employee level and at the customer level,” she said.
Another key to the company’s success is its commitment to education, and the Innovation & Development Center is the company’s centerpiece. The $20 million addition updates the company’s factory, creating a two-story, 24,000-square-foot addition that includes classrooms, several laboratories and a business center. It also features the latest in HVAC technology.
“We are pretty well-known for our education programs,” White said. “We were always ahead on that, we were doing it back in the 1980s.”
White’s company does a small amount of manufacturing overseas, and Taco is not benefiting from goods that used to be made in China returning to America. “I knew the trend of making things overseas would be cyclical,” he said, citing countries like Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea that have each had their moment in the manufacturing spotlight. Instead, Taco has embraced technology and looked toward the overseas market. “We are still the most creative manufacturing country … with the possible exception of Germany,” he said.
The company has boosted its export business, particularly in the Middle East. Taco is also considering a new facility in China that would manufacture for the Chinese market.
Still, White said the focus in terms of driving the company forward remains on developing its employees. “We had 500 employees when we were a $30 million company a few years ago, and we have 500 employees now and we’re at $200 million, but they’re the same people. A lot of what we’ve done to make it more efficient and productive has been done by the people in the plant,” he said.
A rise in market-share growth, growing product lines and new product development have resulted in the significantly increased sales.
The key, he said, was to learn about technology to create innovative, new products, a strategy that goes well with the new educational center. The constant learning of new technological developments has given Taco an edge on the competition. “We invest a ton of money on product development and product-line extensions,” White said.
There will be a little bit of manufacturing space added as part of the addition, but the project is about innovation and new-product development.
“This is the biggest thing we’ve ever done,” White said before a crowd of 100 employees and officials at the June opening. “We’ve done it with an element of class and certainly a whole lot of fun. It’s about taking Taco to another level.”
Started in 1920, Taco is a third-generation business that will enter the fourth eventually, when John III and Ben White take over for their father. “A lot of us have worked in manufacturing and have learned about the organization itself and how it functions,” Adamonis said. “There are those of us here who have worked out on the plant floor because it’s the way we really learn the business.”
The average length of service for an employee is about 17 years. The company experiences employee turnover of between 1 percent and 2 percent annually. The average employee turnover rate is 14.4 percent annually, according to the Bureau of National Affairs in April 2012.
“We tell our employees, ‘We will teach you anything as long as we have enough people for a course. We will teach you about your work or where you want to be in the organization. We also run classes that have nothing to do with work, but are things that make a person a whole person,” she said. “We create that learning culture, but we also have a culture of fun as well.”
The company provides a variety of classes, ranging from English as a second language to a master’s or bachelor’s degree taught by Roger Williams University’s School of Continuing Studies. Taco has a partnership with the school to teach a technology, leadership and management degree program. Other schools or groups, such as Underwriters Laboratories, hold classes at Taco as well.
Classes can vary in length but usually last one or two hours. In many cases, employees are paid for their time while attending, especially if the class is required.
“Learning isn’t bound to the classrooms,” she said. Teams have been created throughout the organization with employees from various departments working on major products or projects. “What that does for all of us is that it gives us all the opportunity to learn something different from other people.
“It’s our employees who brought us where we are today and where we will be tomorrow,” she said. •

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