Ebsco Spring Is On The Cutting Edge Again, This Time With the E-Cig

For the world at large, the year 2014 may be most remembered for the e-Cigarette, or e-Cig craze and for Ebsco Spring Company, 2014 will be a monumental year with the request from Forbes to interview one of their own regarding the e-Cigarette craze. This battery-charged device that looks like a cigarette is the latest thing for smokers to use to quit smoking. They are filled with liquid nicotine that produces vapor when the heating element is started by battery. The user can inhale this solution into their lungs and puff just as they would a real cigarette.

The vapor they produce is odorless and is said to be harmless to those around the user. There are some groups that caution use of the e-Cig in public, stating that there isn't enough evidence just how safe this product is for sure. Those who are for the use e-Cig give it high praise. While some companies have lumped this smokeless cigarette into the tobacco group that is prohibited, there are a few employers who praise the product.

Among those companies is Ebsco Spring. Forbes requested an interview with the CEO and President of Ebsco Spring, Cheryl Dooley. It is exciting for the company that Ms. Dooley participated in the article with Forbes. As a long time, two packs-a-day smoker, it gave her a wake up call when a blood clot was found on her lungs. It was a personal honor and pleasure to be interviewed by Forbes. After trying numerous ways to quit smoking over the years with no success, she purchased an e-Cig kit and was successful in kicking the habit.

Ms. Dooley felt that the purchase of 28 e-Cig kits at $100 each was a worthwhile investment for the company to help one of their most prized resources – their employees. This wasn't a step in cutting health insurance cost or getting more productivity from her employees. It was simply assurance for anyone with a smoking habit to know that it could be kicked.

Experts aren't expecting other employers to follow this step any time soon. In fact, there are more and
more companies such as General Electric, Stiles Corporation, Wal-Mart and others that are including the use of the e-Cig in their “No Tobacco” policies. The concern is that the e-Cig is still putting an unknown substance into the environment and some have complained the vapor from them irritates their allergies and sinuses.

For now, Ebsco Spring Company is proud to be a pioneer company in what they hope will be come a trend for other companies to follow. The honor to for Ms. Dooley to have been interviewed by Forbes is definitely a proud moment for Ebsco Spring and every member of their team.

Severe accidents never happen here

Well we hope they don't, but it is always possible. That’s why it is important for manufacturing companies to create, design, implement and practice a safety program like the one Ebsco Spring Company has recently. There is always the possibility of accidents happening and it is important to have a plan of action that minimizes the results as quick as possible.

Ebsco Spring knows that when accidents do happen, minutes count. So to that note, even though the whole team at Ebsco Spring always expects the best, they now have safety drills in plan for the worst. Efforts between management and staff created and designed the company's “First Responder Drills”.

With certain employees that are clued into the exercise, they are each given a 'script' of sorts to act out scenes of major work related accidents. These drills test the whole company's response reaction and timing to accidents and how quickly things are brought under control and the situation handled.

These drill exercises allows the company as a whole to see where improvements can be made and to see how each employee responds individually as well. The company as a whole has been surprised by the things they have learned with these surprise exercise drills, such as discovering how many employees did not know how to use the paging feature on the phone system. The company phone and paging feature should be one thing that every employee, regardless their position, is familiar with and knows how to use it. In that particular exercise, precious time was lost while an employee found someone to make the page.

The President and CEO of Ebsco Spring Company says that safety is first with the company and with that priority in mind, they start training employees on their first day to practice safety in everything they do at Ebsco. The company knows that even with the best training and preparedness, accidents will still occur. Having a plan in place to get the situation under control is the key. The company plans to have these types of events that relate to their daily work and practice these safety drills quarterly.

WATCH THE FINAL PRODUCTION HERE!

Ebsco Spring is Proud to Be a Part of the Future

Ebsco Spring has recently filmed a promotional video with the “Dream It Do It” organization, who is working with the support of the National Association of Manufacturers in an effort to bring the awareness to high school students that careers that are available in the manufacturing sector.

The pipeline of trained people to take the jobs of the quick approaching retirement of Baby Boomers is at an all-time low and Ebso Spring is proud to take part in this initiative here in the Tulsa area. The “Dream it Do it NEOK” is focused on providing program activities that will include visiting local middle and high school classes, career fairs as well as educator and student tours of manufacturing facilities such as Ebsco Spring.

This recently filmed promotional video at the Ebsco Spring facility was just the kick off and there are plans for more. Not only does the “Dream it Do it NEOK” aim to bring awareness to manufacturing careers, but filming the promotional videos also incorporates another group of Tulsa Tech students with the video production team, Dreamboard Productions.

Ebsco Spring is excited and just as proud to be a part of tomorrow's manufacturing professionals that are forming from this initiative as they are of being the number one source for custom spring orders.

Ebsco Springs in the process of ISO 14001 Certified

As you may or may not know Ebsco Springs is currently in the process of getting its ISO 14001 Certification.  We will keep you updated on this progress in the near future.

In the meantime keep reading and get the full details about ISO 14001.

Everywhere you turn today, there is talk about “going green” and saving the natural resources on Earth.

While it is all good and well for individuals to do this, it is even more important for businesses to practice going green as well. You may see it at the grocery store as they ask you to bring reusable cloth bags or at the automotive store where they are offering to take the used oil when you change your own oil.

However, there is more that can be done. It is important for businesses to use products from manufacturers that also put the going green practice to work as well. From that avenue, we now have ISO 14001 standards. ISO, which stands for International Organization for Standardization with headquarters located in Geneva, Switzerland and they have developed and implemented international standards of certain products and management issues regarding the environment.

ISO 14000 is a series of standards set by this development and when followed by companies voluntary,
will put every business on the same page of going green. Under ISO 14001 within the ISO 14000 series, there is the Environmental Management System, called EMS that lists standards such as auditing, performance evaluation, labeling and life-cycle assessment for environmental standards.

ISO 14001 gives exact instructions on implementing an EMS that is now recognized and used the world over. Within the ISO management systems, there are two primary aspects:

1. Continued improvement is a company goal

2. A plan, do, check, act methodology is in place to achieve number 1 listed above

ISO 14001 explains the methodology specifically so that a company can establish their environmental goals by creating objectives and targets the measuring them and then follow through with those plans. This is all achieved by individuals within a company being assigned actions to check on the process and they are then assessed to see how well they are following these guidelines that have been set.

When a company is ISO 14001, they are also saving money with many of the processes being refined with the ISO 14001 steps that have been implemented.

Most important, when a company has been certified as ISO 14001, it shows they are not only making a contribution to help the environment, but it shows their clients that they are concerned with the environment and are taking action.

Things Just Got Brighter At EBSCO Spring Company

EBSCO Spring Company in Tulsa Oklahoma has just completed what from the outside looks like a non-monumental project but will save the company thousands of dollars! They replaced the lighting system with a more efficient lighting system!

Not only will this save the company money over time and pay for itself over and over, but employees have better views of their tasks at hand. By being able to see better, they will be able to be even more productive than they already are, which will in turn, add to the bottom line for EBSCO Spring Company as well. In fact, as you can see by the picture below, it's so bright, the employees have taken to wearing sunglasses!

Ebsco Spring Elf On A Shelf Contest

The holidays are upon us and it’s the perfect time for a fun contest around the office. And as part of the holiday season we’ve decided to hold our own “Elf on the Shelf” contest for the holidays. Each department of Ebsco are taking photos of the infamous Elf on the Shelf in some wild and crazy situations. And if you go to our Facebook page you can see some of the amazing shots that the Ebsco departments created.

Plus, this contest was featured on the TV show The List recently, and you can see the exciting video of the segment here.

The winner of the contest gets a free lunch on the company, and we’re so excited to see the creativity and sense of community that each department has shown during this contest. Everyone brought the same excitement and dedication to this project as they do to their work on our quality springs every day. The same dedication that has made us an industry leader for the last seventy years.

It doesn't matter who you are or who you know, it’s all about the springs

One of the great traditions of American small business is that every employee needs to wear many hats while they work. 

If your business only has a small amount of employees, you don’t have the resources for extreme specialization. 

No one is above taking out the trash or answering the phones, not even the boss.  Or, as it is in this case, the son of the boss.

This photo here is of Nick Dooley, the CEO’s son and future CEO himself.  He’s currently working as our Production Manager, except of late he’s been putting a lot of time in at the shop. 

In order to make sure our parts order stay on schedule he’s been working in the shop himself getting his hands dirty.  This is the type of dedication to the company and overall product and process that you just don’t see in large scale businesses.  Every member of our team is familiar with every step of our springs and wants to make sure we offer the highest quality springs possible. 

And Nick is an excellent example of this dedication.  Not content to simply rest easy as the boss’ son, he’s working above and beyond to make sure Ebsco keeps its schedule commitments, and meet’s our own high standard of quality.

The great roman general Agrippa once said that an Empire was only as strong as its line of succession. And looking at the determination and commitment Nick is demonstrating, we’re confident that the next seventy years at Ebsco will be just as bright and successful as the last seventy years have been.