Hoosier Gasket makes a deal to remain in Indianapolis.

When Hoosier Gasket Corp. decided it would need a larger facility for its growing gasket business, the company had its choice of suitors offering tax breaks for the chance to have a large employer move to their states.

But instead of leaving its home state, Hoosier Gasket worked with the city of Indianapolis, the state of Indiana and the federal government to make sure the family owned business could remain in its hometown.

"We're moving less than a mile north of our current location to an area targeted by the city as an urban redevelopment area," says Ben Jackson, executive vice president. "We're moving our facility into a previously blighted area that is desperately in need of jobs. We're trying to find a productive work force, so you see why the city was interested in helping us stay."

Jackson says Hoosier Gasket will double in size in two to three years after it moves into its new, 120,000-square-foot facility Jan. 1. The governments helped Hoosier Gasket by offering a low-interest, interest-only note on the facility for its first seven years. Jackson says that gives Hoosier Gasket $2 million for investments in new products, technologies and testing capabilities.

"The debt service is predicted, controlled and planned, which makes more cash available to make investments," Jackson says. "We'll invest in automation, new manufacturing equipment and, most importantly, we'll be able to partner with customers to provide the technical resources they require."

Jackson says Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and particularly South Carolina were actively soliciting Hoosier Gasket to make the move. But the government package was too good to pass up. "Gamecock Gasket doesn't have the same ring as Hoosier Gasket," Jackson adds.

Hoosier Gasket was founded in 1960 when Argyle Jackson, Ben's father, bought the company with a group of investors. Argyle Jackson bought out his partners eight years later, and he soon brought his daughter, the late Jennifer Wetzel, into the company. Later on, brothers Jeffrey and Daniel Jackson joined the company, as well.

Ben Jackson joined the firm in 1999, and today Hoosier Gasket has grown from $5 million to more than $20 million annually. The company makes gaskets and seals, both die cut and molded, primarily as a Tier I supplier to automotive and diesel OEMs. Jackson says the company serves more than 20 countries, and its end-users include Cummins Engine Co. Inc., Allison Transmission, DaimlerChrysler, GM and Ford.

"We're the industry leader for die-cut gaskets and seals," Jackson says. "We've been primarily a die-cut fiber and gasket house. We've always cut hot gaskets. But we have injection and compression molding, a lot of rubber-edge molding and straight-edge molding."

Keeping up with Competition
Jackson says Hoosier Gasket finds it is competing more with overseas manufacturers, especially companies in China. "We're competing against low-labor-cost countries and finding ways to be competitive while maintaining quality and maintaining cost competitiveness," Jackson says.

To remain competitive, Hoosier Gasket has controlled overhead, which allows the company to control and contain the costs going into the products. "We're very efficient at what we do, and we continue to look to find ways to do what we do better," Jackson adds. "We're utilizing lean manufacturing and just-in-time inventory, and we work cooperatively with our suppliers for cost stabilization."

Jackson also understands that quality is the No. 1 concern for his customers, so Hoosier Gasket has taken steps such as investing in technology to add more automation to the manufacturing process, to make sure the company is on a level playing field when it comes to quality. "You have to have 100 percent quality, which is defined by zero defects, compliance with customers' critical data and 100 percent on-time delivery," he says.

When it came time to get lean about three years ago, Hoosier Gasket brought in an outside auditing firm, which introduced the company to new concepts, including Six Sigma, 5S, TS16949 and ISO 14001 certification, layered process audits and quality systems basics. Jackson says the company then looked internally to find employees who supported these ideologies. Today, Hoosier Gasket has a master black belt and a master green belt, several green belts and one black belt on staff.  

©2006 Schofield Media Ltd.