[00:00:05] Speaker A: Welcome to the Clear Impact podcast brought to you by PGTI University. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sherry Connor, and I am your host.
[00:00:16] Speaker B: So, good morning. We are here on the Clear Impact podcast, and we are recording from Anlin Windows and doors today, and we've set up a little studio in a conference room office and have been roping people into coming in and chatting with us. So today we are chatting with Bryce Vidmar. So, Bryce, we got a chance to meet you yesterday, and I'm excited that you were available to come and chat. And so tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do and a little bit of your history.
[00:00:48] Speaker C: Yeah, of course. Thanks for having me. So, at least from the educational standpoint, I went to junior college at Fresno City, got my aa there, and then after that, I went to Cal State East Bay for their business program and did a bachelor of Science in business administration and then minors in supply chain management and corporate management. So I was interested in their business program there. I played a little bit of baseball there, so that kind of made it a little bit easier for the decision.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: Right.
[00:01:13] Speaker C: But that kind of got me interested in the business world, because prior to that, it was more just athletics, team building, things of that nature, and that helped me kind of get an introduction into the controlled chaos over here.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: Gotcha. And so, are you a native to Fresno?
[00:01:27] Speaker C: Yes. So our family has basically been born and raised here. So I know, at least for my siblings, we were all born and raised here. Annlin actually started with my grandfather, of course, with Eric and Greg. And I want to say in 1990, that's when Annlin first started to get rolling a little bit. And the mindset of that was, my grandpa was in Ford, and I don't know the full extent of how he was involved, but he basically traveled nonstop, kind of operations management. How can you become more efficient? The accounting, the financial aspect of it, and then future state, he was just thinking, what is this going to get me in the long haul? And he wanted to create an environment to where he can be around family and that we're together as a team. We're not just split up, we're not traveling, and we have that quality time together. So that was on the forefront of his mind. And a suggestion came up for vinyl replacement windows, and he kind of just ran with it a little bit. So he put everything he had into this company, and it was truly a do or die scenario. But the thought process on that was, hey, we're going to build this, but we're also going to build this team and this family. So it was awesome to see over time how much this has expanded and just organic growth in general, and how we're a part of this community, how this business is a part of the community, and ultimately creating careers here for people that are around this area with the same mindset as we're family driven. Not only do we want you to have the peace of mind to go home and come back to work, but we want you to enjoy what you do and enjoy who you work with. So that's kind of the foundation principles for the most part, that I personally feel. But it hits me a little bit different because I do have the emotional ties with this. We do have still existing family members in this, and as big as we are, everyone thinks that we see each other on a daily basis, whereas that's not the case. It's almost like every now and then, I'll see you. So the family dynamic behind this works. In my mind, I think it excels because we can have these heart to hearts with each other, whether it's here or at home. But that's the kind of environment we want. We want to be personal with everyone on this floor. We don't want to make it seem like they're an object on the production floor. It's just along the lines of, we're going to treat everyone the same. It doesn't matter about your ranking. We're going to show each other respect with love, and we're going to get through ups and downs with production as a team, and we want them to feel supported at the end of the day.
[00:03:49] Speaker B: So you graduated from college and you came right to here. So tell us a little bit about your journey within the company.
[00:03:57] Speaker C: Yeah, so when I first started here, I believe at the time it was order entry, and it was just basically processing quotes. It's the beginning stages of how our work orders get released to the production floor. So it was kind of nice to work with Bert and the team on how their process works, what information they need from the dealer, just the basic concepts of what is a window? Because prior to that, I'm just thinking of it as, okay, it's a frame and glass, big WHOOP. You don't understand how the nitty gritty details on frame type, glass type. What series are you going to order? All the multiple configurations we have. So that was a good start. After that, there was a position that opened for shipping in terms of just scheduling deliveries with the dealers, working with production on incomplete units or backordered units. So I kind of understood the beginning aspect and the end aspect, but the big monster was production. So I had a little understanding, but nowhere near. But the thoughts in my mind is, I want to understand how this whole operation works. And that kind of gave me the opportunity to kind of see where our strengths were, where our weaknesses were. So previously, we produced all of our glass in house. Right now we currently outsource with Cardinal. So at the time, we had three lysic cutters. We finished with four lysic lines, a manual line. It was a very in depth process.
[00:05:08] Speaker B: And you oversaw all that.
[00:05:10] Speaker C: So it was a group of about, probably 40, 45 people for the most part. And we were basically a glass and vinyl plant. And as these years progressed, and as this business evolves, more and more changes are needed. And especially with the growth that we've encountered over the past ten years, sooner or later we came to a decision on, are we going to try to expand both, or are we going to try to expand just glass, just vinyl. And after laying everything out, we deemed that, hey, let's focus on us being a vinyl plant. How do we perfect this, for the most part? And who would be a legitimate partner in producing our igs? And sure enough, Cardinal has a state of the art facility over in Buckeye. They have the resources and the capital to do this, because at the time, Anlin didn't, since we were privately owned. And that was honestly the best decision that we could have done. Because with COVID and just the growth that we've acquired over the years, I don't think we would have been able to scale both. So then that transitioned into how do we work with it and purchasing on how do we create the requisitions, all the part numbers for the glass, and how do we sequence it for production. So that was kind of like my main focus going into that. But with that kind of knowledge, at least, it helped me understand how this business process works as just a singular cohesive unit. So with that, I was kind of able to give suggestions on certain barriers. How do we provide more value to the dealer, to the homeowner? What are some small things that we can do to become more efficient on the plant? Just small things like that, that naturally blossom this future position. So currently, my role is senior manager of sales operations. I report to Jimmy, but I also kind of work as a hybrid. In my mind, obviously, I'm more on the sales aspect of it, but I also work with production on certain barriers. If we're in it, what's the best way to get out of it to minimize our exposure to the dealers and the homeowners. So I like it because it's challenging. Every day is different. It's not like I have just set tasks per day, there's a lot of ad hocs in it. But the best part about it is not only do we have just the growth and knowledge from our existing people in our plant, but now that we've grown, we've hired talent outside of our organization that has also played a huge impact with us. So the collaboration between kind of like the old school, with the new, not new school, but new mindset and just.
[00:07:24] Speaker B: Outside of the box a little bit fresh perspective.
[00:07:27] Speaker C: Exactly. I think it gave us kind of like a clear set of eyes on we only know what we know, and not only just with the outside talent, obviously with the acquisition, we now have resources with western, with PGT in general, with PGTI University. So these are additional resources that we didn't have that we can now use to just continuous growth in general, whether it's product knowledge, whether it's just financial aspect of it, how to go to market strategy, just things like that. But at least we have a group of experienced individuals that are also in the same position. They only know what they know. So now it's just a melting pot of just ideas and collaborations and just knowledge in general, which I think is going to be huge for us down the road.
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[00:08:24] Speaker B: Yeah, and I love that you took the time in your career path to be involved in the basic order entry and like how does this work? And then out in the shipping area and how does that work? And then to have a really comprehensive understanding of everything because it all is connected and it all then does tie back into what is the dealer experience, what is the homeowner experience? And it's much harder to problem solve the front side if you don't understand the backside. And it sounds like you have a very thorough understanding of all of that. So kudos to you for being willing to put in the time and the energy to learn all of that, because with your family name you could obviously just say, hey, I'm going to be in charge of blah blah blah and not really understand any of it. So that shows great character. That's awesome.
[00:09:17] Speaker C: I think part of it too, is like, I personally don't like using the last name, because then it's just not necessarily expectations, but I like being in the trenches, because when I'm working with these individuals, it's not like it's a hierarchy. This is strictly how I see it. I'm just a minnow in this. So I like this as just. This is specifically just coworkers, and how can we work together as a team to get the final outcome or what we're trying to achieve? And sometimes I'm not the most experienced, and I'm going to rely on your expertise, but at least I understand the functionality of that department, because as we get bigger, silos could start to come up. In my mindset is, I want to try and bring those down so at least we can see it from an organizational view and not just a department view.
[00:09:57] Speaker B: Well, and the impression I get, and we were here all day yesterday and hung out with you and several others, and then I've gotten to meet a few people this morning, too, is that everybody cares as if their name is Vidmar. It's not like they're just here to do their job and they don't care. I mean, I get the impression that everyone has that same kind of connection, maybe not to the same level, like, they didn't hear the stories when they were little of your grandpa or your dad or whatever, but they do take pride in being here, and there is a great sense of ownership amongst the teams, so that speaks very highly of the culture here, which is amazing. So it's been really fun to get to know some people. And so your current role is sales operations and supporting and figuring out what the hurdles are, what the roadblocks are. And so you manage the inside sales team?
[00:10:43] Speaker C: No. So that is Sergio. Sergio is our director right now. I just oversee our samples department, and then it's basically I'm assisting managers and directors on just future objectives, or what are some pain points that we have and what can we do to kind of minimize that exposure?
[00:10:58] Speaker B: Okay. That's not a small job.
[00:11:00] Speaker C: No. But at the same time, I like it because it also keeps me connected with each and every department. It's not like I'm in my silo and I'm in sales, and it is what it is. So don't get me wrong. Jimmy still has his vision on what he wants to do for this organization, but it's kind of nice that I get to kind of tag team it a little bit, both with sales and production. So production is in my heart, because that's what I grew up in, and that's where I learned most of my values on how to treat people. How do we collaborate, how do we work as a team, how do we work through conflict in a professional manner so that I'll always hold dear in my heart. But it's also nice to get the exposure on the front side, especially on the sales aspect, because prior to this, I haven't really dabbled with it. I'd say that in it, for the most part, it is a foreign language to me, but it's nice to get to see the strategy, what Jimmy and Dan are trying to set out to do, and they're holding their own on what they're trying to achieve.
[00:11:45] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm excited to record with them soon. Hopefully I'll get them both in here. And so, one of the things I love to learn whenever I'm interviewing people, especially when it's people that I don't know super well, I love to know what kind of advice they've received somewhere along the line that has been helpful to them. So what would you say would be a great piece of advice you've heard.
[00:12:05] Speaker C: Again, I'll date back to production because Mike Roy, our vp of operations, was kind of my mentor through this. But it's different if you just go out there and point fingers and say, I need you to do this, I need to do that. My personal take on that is, do not ask anyone to do something that you're not willing to do yourself. And if they are not necessarily against it, but if they don't understand why they're doing it, we need to enlighten them on why we're doing this, how this is going to have a positive impact for both the department and the company as a whole. I think that was kind of starting off. I was not necessarily saying, do this, do that, but I wasn't telling them why we were doing this. So that was my main thing, is just get everyone on the same page, get that feedback, get that buy in, and then roll it out. So that was one of the main things, because at least in production, your processes change on a weekly basis. Now you're trying to just do continuous improvement for the most part, but sometimes it could be like, okay, what are we trying this week? So just showing them why we're changing it, why we're trying to improve just small things like that for the most part.
[00:13:05] Speaker B: Well, and just like the outward mindset training that everybody's been doing, are we treating people as people, or are we treating people as just a way of getting something done. And so I like to know why I'm doing something. I like to know if we've had a change in a system or a software or a process. I want to understand why did we change it just because somebody was bored and they didn't know what else to do with themselves that day? Or is there really a benefit because there's a curve to learning and you're going to slow down your efficiency on some level and so you want to be able to prove that out. Like, why do I have to do it differently than I have been? Oh, it's going to be easier. Oh, it's going to be better. Oh, okay. Well, I can get behind that. I can work through the challenge of getting more familiar with something that's new and different. But I think it keeps us young too.
[00:13:51] Speaker C: Well, even like what you mentioned with the outward mindset. So I'm not saying I'm perfect, but now I'm starting to realize at that moment, hey, I'm outside. I need to take a step back. I need to get back to what I need to relay out to the team. So that training with Arbinger was awesome. It's enlightening and I think it will pay a benefit to know to everyone who experiences this kind of training.
[00:14:13] Speaker B: Yeah, I know Brian's planning to roll it out to a bunch more people next year, so I'm excited about that. But the books are available and we just did a series on that that's actually posting now, but it'll be over by the time this airs. But yeah, that leadership mindset is the name of that series. All right, so one last question. Part of the reason we came out as a team was just to introduce you to the university and the product training that we're rolling out for you and your sales teams and the dealers and their employees. And so how do you see that as benefiting Anlin and just the business in general going forward?
[00:14:46] Speaker C: Well, I think prior to this we never really had any exposure to this. So it was basically, know we have our AMA trainings and stuff like that. But it's nothing to the extent of this thorough knowledge of our product, of our process installation. And it's more of kind of just a dynamic of everything because previously it was just, we were very minimal on what we not were willing to offer, just what we offered at the time. So now, at least with this, whether it's required training, whether it's additional training that the dealer or maybe even the homeowner wants, we don't know what their expectations are of this, but at least if they have a better idea and the more information we can provide them, the better they're going to feel about wanting our product or anyone within PGT's product offering.
[00:15:30] Speaker B: Yeah, hopefully it will help the sales team be more effective too, because they can't be everywhere all the time. And not everybody can step away from their daily tasks to go to a training or log into something. They can do it on their lunch break. We have a mobile app, they can do it while they're stuck sitting in the carpool line or whatever they're doing. Hey, I'm going to knock out a class real quick and just go back and remind myself, like, what were the frame depths on that or what were the color options on that? So we found with the other brands that we've been providing content for that, they've found a lot of value in it. So we're excited to see the results that happen for Anlin as you guys kick that out and make it available to everybody.
[00:16:11] Speaker C: Yeah, and I think in the end this is going to pay dividends because I don't know what other window manufacturers are doing, but the fact that PGT and you and your team are going above and beyond this also shows the partnership that we have with our dealers saying this is how we want to invest in your business and just future state in general on what we want to do for our sales team, you, the dealer, your installers, the homeowner. So it's just things like that that's going to make us just well rounded as a whole in that way. But we're giving them all the tools that they need to succeed. That's what it comes down to.
[00:16:42] Speaker B: Yeah, and that's our whole mission, because when the dealers are successful, then we as the manufacturers are successful. And so the more we can help them do what they need to do, the better off we all are.
[00:16:52] Speaker C: Agreed?
[00:16:53] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, I really appreciate your time today, bryce. Thank you again for your hospitality yesterday and of course, this has been a great conversation. Thank you so much.
[00:17:00] Speaker C: Thank you, I appreciate it.
[00:17:01] Speaker B: All right, have a great day.
[00:17:03] Speaker A: PGti University is the customer education team for an entire family of brands. We began with the original easy breeze porch enclosure line, then became PGT, America's leading brand of impact resistant windows and doors. We then added CGI, CGIC, Windor, western Window systems, new south windows, echo windows and doors, Anlin windows and doors, and our latest acquisition, Martin garage doors. We create products built to withstand major storms, keeping people safe, secure and prepared our exceptional brands give you the protection you need without compromising design or functionality. PGTI University is here to educate you, our listener, so that you can be a more informed consumer of window indoor products.
