WINTER 2019

CATALYST

LINCOLN INDUSTRIES BELIEFS ▶ Our people and their unique individual talents are valued. ▶ Appropriate recognition motivates our people to be successful. ▶ Leaders create value. ▶ Innovation creates continuous improvement. ▶ Profitability ensures the survival of our company. ▶ Positive relationships build loyalty. ▶ Honesty is essential in all transactions. ▶ We create value for our customers. ▶ Wellness and healthy lifestyles are important to our success.

LINCOLN INDUSTRIES SUCCESS DRIVERS ▶ Quality in everything we do. ▶ Productivity improvement is a continuous process. ▶ On-time delivery because our customers depend on us. ▶ A safe working environment is our commitment to each other. ▶ Environmental responsibility is our commitment to our communities. ▶ People development because our people create our success. ▶ Company growth is the result of providing a superior service. ▶ Value-added service means doing more for our customers.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE03 BILL’S COLUMN

04 PACCAR PARTNERSHIP

06 A CUTTING EDGE PROJECT WITH AN EXCITING BRAND

07 THE FIRST OF ITS KIND

08 PLATINUM CLIMB 2019

09 LAB EXCELLENCE

10 WELLNESS HONOR

11 NEW PEOPLE AND TRANSITIONS

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For all inquiries contact:Kayla Jacox, Marketing Manager

Lincoln Industries / 600 West E Street / Lincoln, NE 68522 kayla.jacox@lincolnindustries.com 402.473.2057 LincolnIndustries.com © 2018 Lincoln Industries

Many achievements have marked the first part of our year. We understand this success is a direct result of supporting our customers’ initiatives, allowing them to be more successful. Our mission is to make great brands better, which has never been more accurate.

This issue of Catalyst spotlights our successes serving customers both established and new to our organization. The continued growth in the economy, combined with our customers’ strength in market share and presence, allows us to strengthen our operations enterprise-wide with talented people who are devoted to solving complex challenges, quality, and service issues. From honors at PACCAR’s Suppliers Performance Management event to new customers and evolving projects, we have exciting things happening.

We are especially pleased with our work in new and exciting industries with cutting edge projects. Lincoln Industries’ capabilities extend beyond our core business, creating opportunities to grow our business and

explore other sectors. The complimentary extension of capabilities from all of our locations allows us to do more for our customers and expand our market reach.

The growth of Lincoln Industries in the last five years has solidified our position as a fully integrated manufacturing and finishing company. All of our locations have had success in their markets, providing high-quality products and cosmetic finishing. With broadened products and services, Lincoln Industries can quote projects that were not possible in the past. We know that with the right leadership, people, and resources, the opportunities for success are endless. With that success will come new opportunities to grow our business serving new markets.

BILL’S COLUMN

With the right leadership, people, and resources, the opportunities for success

are endless.

“

Bill Ellerbee / President

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PACCARPARTNERSHIP

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Lincoln Industries celebrated an exceptional milestone in the company’s history in October with a ribbon-cutting ceremony formally launching an automated tube bender in partnership with PACCAR who produces Peterbilt and Kenworth trucks.

“We are pleased that eight executives from PACCAR joined us for our celebration,” said Chairman and CEO Marc LeBaron. “The evolution of our partnership with PACCAR has been remarkable.”

Lincoln Industries began as a Tier II plating supplier for

The Results of an Evolving Relationship

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PACCAR, then vertically integrated tubing products and invented unique coating applications to provide additional parts.

“As a result of our commitment to serving PACCAR with excellence, Lincoln Industries has become firmly positioned as a long term supplier,” says LeBaron

Lincoln Industries’ tube fabrication capabilities broadened through the acquisition of their Minnesota location in 2015 and the expansion of their Airpark facility in 2019.

The process for the new tube bender, which was purchased through PACCAR’s Supplier Investment program, begins with 20-foot-long steel or stainless steel tubes in diameters of four to eight inches. The tubing then goes through a number of operations including cutting, bending, swedging,

with a major percentage needing nickel chrome plated. Lincoln Industries is the only company that is fully integrated with the large pipe diameter exhaust business, offering fabrication, polishing, plating and insulation coatings from one company.

Lincoln Industries’ success is the result of a focus on quality and delivery, according to LeBaron.

“Performing at a high level is always important,” he said, “especially for our work with PACCAR. If our experience tells us anything, it’s that we must continue to improve. With the people we have working in our truck value stream, I believe our future is bright. Today, one-third of the people of Lincoln Industries impact our success serving our truck customers. I am proud to recognize all of them for their success.”

Two miles stand between Lincoln Industries and Hudl in Lincoln, Nebraska. A manufacturing company and a software company brought together with a unique project that has built an incredible partnership.

Founded in 2006, Hudl revolutionized the way coaches and athletes prepare for and stay ahead of the competition. They offer a complete suite of prod-ucts that empower more than 160,000 global sports teams at every level to gather insights with video and data. One of Hudl’s most recent products, the Hudl Focus smart camera, came to fruition in large part due to the partnership with Lincoln Industries.

This relationship began with Lincoln Industries’ new-est acquisition, neighbor SourceOne. Having explored the sheet metal and stamping capabilities at Source-One, it made sense for Hudl’s leaders to tour Lincoln Industries’ Nebraska facility to see the additional offerings and explore the company as a whole.

The design teams from Hudl, Lincoln Industries, and SourceOne immediately collaborated on a design that would encapsulate the look and manufacturability desired. The original Hudl Focus designs were attractive but challenging to manufacture at scale. SourceOne Project Engineer, Ross Young, came up with multiple models focused on a design that could be manufactured to accomplish Hudl’s vision.

“Given the enormous success Hudl has had with other product offerings, we knew we needed to develop a solution that could be produced in substantial quanti-ties while maintaining the desired look,” said Young.

The fabrication of the camera units begins with sheet metal that is bent to the shape of the enclosure and then assembled at Lincoln Industries. The camera units, mounts, and wall bracketry are manufactured at SourceOne.

The nature of Hudl’s business is fast-moving and ever-evolving, which required the team at Lincoln Industries to be extremely responsive and reactive with design changes to improve the project. Because of the close relationships with Hudl’s team, communi-cation was always clear, which aided in a successful launch of the Hudl Focus.

Vice President of Business Development Brandon Rigoni says, “This partnership is a great one because we’re able to support a local company who is doing amazing things and building an incredible brand. There are no limits to what Hudl can accomplish as software technology advances, and the company moves into hardware and other areas.”

A CUTTING EDGE PROJECT WITH AN EXCITING BRANDLincoln Industries’ diverse capabilities inspire partnership with Hudl

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THE FIRST OF ITS KIND

Taking an idea, applying creativity with engineering and manufacturing experience, the people at SourceOne have built a reputation for machine-build excellence.

The most recent example is a robotic assembly cell for Becton-Dickinson (BD), which was designed to package hypodermic needles. The machine build comes nearly 25 years into the relationship between SourceOne and BD. While SourceOne has made many machine packers, and have worked on several designs for BD, this is the first time they’ve made a full robot application. This robotic cell is the first of its kind and impressively packages 300 pieces per minute.

Each of the three robots, by Fanuc, pick up 100 needles per minute and load them into nests. The parts are then picked by a fourth robot and placed, 20 at a time, into a vacuum form packaging machine.

“These robots are solving problems for the assembly challenges that BD was facing,” says General Manager of SourceOne Eric Slezak. “This machine gives us leads and

territory opportunities to leverage winning more robotic projects in the future.”

SourceOne has established a national reputation for successfully building one of a kind automated equipment.

“We usually start with the customer’s requirements and a blank piece of paper,” Slezak says.

This developmental process can prove to be one of the most challenging areas of the project. But with a renowned engineering team, SourceOne leverages its people to develop a machine that fits the customers’ requirements.

“Our biggest asset is our people at SourceOne. Our success is the result of years of experience addressing unique engineering projects”.

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This robotic cell is the first of its kind and impressively packages 300 pieces per minute.

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A pinnacle of wellness success for many people at Lin-coln Industries comes each July in the mountains of Col-orado and the company embarks on a mountain climb of a 14er. With a record number of people representing all Lincoln Industries facilities, the 2019 climb was another example of how each year’s premier wellness event is something special. The climb in July 2019 featured 70 first-time climbers, many of whom were experiencing Colorado for the first time.

To accommodate the large number of participants, 2019’s climb offered two options, Mount Bierstadt, 14,065 ft and Mount Yale, 14,199 ft. Bierstadt is a familiar moun-

tain for Lincoln Industries people and was the mountain of choice for 103 climbers. Mount Yale, a more strenuous mountain, was the choice of 49 people.

“This was my 9th climb and each one seems to be unique,” said Supplier Quality Technician Rob Rector. He has been a part of the support team for seven years. “It was great to climb with people from all of Lincoln Indus-tries’ locations. In many cases, we were meeting for the first time, but it felt like a big family reunion.”

Through Lincoln Industries’ growth, there has been huge attention to maintaining the company’s culture of well-ness enterprise-wide.

“It was especially good to see how all locations are em-bracing the wellness culture. We are Lincoln Industries no matter what location we are working. More and more, it feels like we are one company,” said Rector.

ENTERPRISE-WIDE MOUNTAIN CLIMB

“It felt like a big family reunion.”

ESTABLISHING LAB EXCELLENCE

Lincoln Industries is proud to manage a state-of-the-art lab for their Lincoln, Nebraska facility. “Everything we do is science, backed up by statistical data,” says Carl Witte Processing Control Engineering Manager.

Every tank in the plant has multiple specifications: rinse tanks, plating baths, etc. are all controlled using both, in-process checks and analytical analyses. The Process Control team is continually performing in-house analysis on Lincoln Industries lines to provide rapid responses to issues that may arise.

“Our goal is to prevent any problems that would re-quire emergency issues by understanding how chemi-cal concentrations and plating abilities change over time and during the operation of the processes,” says Witte. “We need to be able to prevent anything that may impair our products.”

Lincoln Industries has invested in adding analytic capabilities and highly qualified team members to establish process capabilities. High-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is a tool that we use to determine concentrations of proprietary organics. Process Control partners with the vendors to provide standards, cross-checks those standards against prior standards, and then uses the standards to analyze chemical composition.

The Process Control team is made up of control chemists who are either highly experienced platers or highly trained technicians. By working together, the experienced and trained people can help each other understand the needs of the plant and balance those against the abilities of the processes. Additionally, a

laboratory information management system (LIMS) was put into place to ensure continuity of knowledge.

According to Witte, “with the experience and knowl-edge of our long-term people and standardization of the processes, we’re able to operate at our highest ability possible.”

As Lincoln Industries experienced a significant amount of growth in the last year, it’s been important to keep the process controls in place and functioning well. The Process Control team continually invests in aspects to minimize cost and maximize success. Lin-coln Industries Nebraska location has been partnering with the labs at the Minnesota and Wisconsin facili-ties to improve equipment and capabilities.

“When we implement processes in Lincoln, Nebraska, we want to ensure that those processes can also be applied at our other facilities so we’re able to main-tain consistency across the enterprise,” says Witte. “We are establishing long term goals to understand the differences of the control systems at all locations from analytical labs to calibration to documentation to control methods. We continue to find the best prac-tices and work to get them standardized among all facilities.”

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The Process Control Team continually invests in aspects to minimize cost and maximize success.

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LINCOLN INDUSTRIES WELLNESS HONOR

On February 23rd, 2018, our transition to the IATF 16949 Quality Management System Certification succeeded. Our lead auditor, Bob Wallace, from our external certification body, commended Lincoln Industries for our culture of people helping people.

This certification is a brand-new revision with an automotive focus that is required by several customers. There were various risks based assessments required through the auditing process, including engineering specification and documentation of processes and how to report them.

Obtaining IATF 16949 certification allows us to work closely with premium brands as they require this certification to bid on jobs. Lincoln Industries was

allotted two years to become compliant with the IATF 16949 requirements and have made immense improvements throughout the company since.

“Of the companies who applied for the new standards of IATF 16949, only 30 percent were granted certification. We are proud that we had such a successful conversion to the IATF requirements,” says Audit Coordinator Josh Hinman. “The requirements focus on continual improvement and in doing so, protecting our customers.”

Lincoln Industries has made a successful transition, furthering our commitment to quality in everything we do.

NEW PEOPLE & TRANSITIONS

NATE MEIERGERD Director, Branded Products

NNate Meiergerd was selected in October 2019 to serve as the Director of Branded Products. In this role, Meiergerd will be responsible for leading the company’s division that serves customers in the aftermarket exhaust systems and truck components. Meiergerd has a record of success in sales from his former experience at Sandhills Global.

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Lincoln, NE

BRANDON NOERRLINGER Wellness Manager

Brandon Noerrlinger transitioned into this new role of Wellness Manager in August of 2019. Noerrlinger was previously serving as a Business Development Engineer and has been with the company since 2014. Wellness has been an integral part of Noerrlinger’s life and he is eager to provide new and innovative ways to drive wellness across Lincoln Industries’ enterprise.

JIM DAWSON Business Development ManagerLincoln, NEJim Dawson joined Lincoln Industries as a Business Development Manager in July of 2019. Dawson previously worked as a Sales Representative at Sandhills Global focusing on the agriculture, heavy equipment, and truck industries. Dawson will be working with the Business Development group focusing on new business opportunities that impact all of our Lincoln Industries locations.

Lincoln, NE

600 West E Street Lincoln, NE 68522

A spirit of innovation is rooted deep within the his-

tory of Lincoln Industries. Now, as we develop new

solutions we draw inspiration from our

customers’ visions, our innovative legacy and

the hard working mentality of our people.

That inspiration allows us to continue to excel at

moving our world-class customers forward.

I N N O V A T I O N I N S P I R E D . ®