Taking Machines from Design to Production: This is Theresa’s story
Meet Theresa Hilderbran, a Buyer for Major Laser Components with Cincinnati Incorporated. Learn more about Theresa and her career journey at Cincinnati Incorporated.
How long have you been with CI?
I have been at CI for almost three years.
Tell us about your career.
In our role here at Cincinnati Incorporated, we work strategically with our suppliers and buying components and raw materials. We look to find partners that have the best pricing, quality, and delivery on goods that best meet our schedule for production.
Tell us about the departments you work with and what the relationships you have look like.
We have internal relationships here at Cincinnati Incorporated. We work directly with the engineering team to find the product that they have designed and created. And our job is to go and find the suppliers to produce products that they design.
We also work with our after sales team to supply the components that are going to care for our machines, for the life of the machine.
So we go and we work for replacement pieces and replacement parts and service the machines out in the field. We work directly with production and timing in all aspects of each area in production, each cell that needs the components or raw material to build the machine from start to finish.
Lastly would be the shipping team; working with the packaging and creating supply to be able to ship the product out the door.
Tell us about the collaborative process in your role.
It’s been interesting to be involved in the new product development and seeing the thoughts and the ideas and the creativity behind it down on paper and working with the engineering team, just the design aspect of it. And working directly to find the correct partners to bring their ideas to life. It’s been a real pleasure to be a part of that creation.
Talk about some of the relationships that stand out to you with some of the vendors?
Beckhoff, we got to visit their site and build a partnership and understanding from their aspect of how their business functions and flows. And therefore it would help us in our understanding of what we need to request of Beckhoff. We build those relationships that help with partnering and creating stocking agreements and creating pricing structures that work for both parties. It’s a pleasure to get to work with those partners.
What is happening in your role or in your team’s role from a supplier audit?
That’s something that is a continuous improvement. We are working on currently coming up with vendor score cards. We have different areas that we grade our suppliers and quality and pricing and delivery. Are they shipping when they say they’re gonna ship, are they delivering good quality product? Do we have quality metrics that can define those numbers? So it’s a number of factors that go into play when determining a good supplier and deciding who that strategic partner is going to be.
And we have those quarterly reviews with those suppliers and we should them here, here is where you’re scoring. And we work with them to come up and be strategic with how are you going to fix it and make yourself better. And those key strategic partners would be willing to work with us to improve their service.
What do you enjoy most about what you do?
I enjoy working at CI and getting to build those relationships and meeting new people.
We work with partners all over the United States, getting to see the different manufacturing facilities and see these materials come to life of everyday items that we create.
What is it about CI that stands out to you the most?
The history, the 125-year-old company, it’s amazing to see the products that we have built in this time and they’re still going today. And to be a part of that is really unique and interesting.
Have you had any experience with some of our suppliers that have some legacy equipment? And if you did, what did that look like?
I personally haven’t had that experience, but in the area I work in, you know, electronics are ever changing. And we still have machines out today that have the old legacy electronic pieces that we have to go and work and source to find those products. And if they can’t, and if we’re not able, they’re obsolete and you just cannot find them anymore. We have to work with the after sales and engineering teams to create an upgrade to be able to design something that will be able to be a direct fit for the obsolete product.
What was your experience going to the 125-year anniversary company picnic?
I have never experienced working with a company celebrating 125 years and the magnitude that CI has created. For a celebration celebrating 125 years, it was massive. I was very thankful to be a part of an owner that would be able to and willing to celebrate the employees the way they did.
What was your family’s impressions of Cincinnati in that celebration?
We came in and we took the tour, and they were in awe to see the size of the building, the size of our machines. And then to be able to make little fidget spinners with a machine that they had set up, and they were very intrigued. Then just the food trucks and the fun activities that they had for the family, they were very impressed.
What is your takeaway from seeing all that from a company?
I think it says a lot, family owned companies care about their employees, to be able to give back in their community. It’s good to work for, it’s good to be a part of a small family owned company, to feel like you’re heard and your thoughts and your ideas are being put into place.
Why Cincinnati?
I would say that it’s the family-oriented atmosphere that has been created. The history is just very intriguing. I mean, we’re history. We’re making history and our machines are used after 125 years. It is a pleasure to be a part of that.
If someone asks you, ‘Why should I buy from Cincinnati?’, what would you tell them?
I would respond, you should buy from Cincinnati. We are very customer driven. We care about our customers. We care about the quality of our machines. We want to be able to make sure that they continue running and we go above and beyond to make sure that our customers are happy.
What are the things you’ve done that you are proud of?
When we had a goal to have a cost savings project to work with our suppliers and save money. And last year we saved over a million dollars, working with our suppliers to be able to help with the cost of our machines. Our supply chain was able be creative, and come up strategically to save a million dollars for the company.
What are your impressions with some of the efforts CI makes towards hiring veterans?
I think it is a wonderful idea to be a part of a veteran’s company. I was very surprised my very first year when I was hired here at CI and the veterans’ program that we did for Veterans Day. I was very touched, just the celebration in itself and having the color guard, and just honoring our veterans. It’s a great idea.
What’s the bigger picture here?
The supply chain is the core, in my opinion, to a company. We service externally and internally. In today’s world right now, with we have the tariffs going on, we have to make sure that we protect our business. It’s a daily challenge to make sure that we’re getting the best quality, the best price, and the best delivery. So keeping in today’s world and functions and knowing what’s going on helps us service externally and internally.
