Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 Welcome to the Clear Impact Podcast, brought to you by PG t I University. Thanks for joining us today. My name is Sherry Connor, and I am your host. Good afternoon. We are here on the Clear Impact Podcast and we are being hosted this week by Western Window Systems and in this wonderful conference room right now, we have Mark Yk. Welcome, mark.
Speaker 2 00:00:32 Thank you. Glad
Speaker 1 00:00:33 To be here. Glad to have you. Glad
Speaker 2 00:00:34 I could be at Western.
Speaker 1 00:00:35 Yeah. I'm thrilled that we're here. This is an amazing, I love, it's a great facility. It is a great facility and everyone is so friendly and wonderful. It's really fun to be here. So tell us a little bit about you, mark.
Speaker 2 00:00:46 So, I'm Mark Inel. I'm the Vice President of Operations for the Western Division. I have dotted line responsibility to Amlin, but majority of my responsibilities here at Western, and I really enjoy what I do. So I oversee all of production, oversee shipping, maintenance, everything but sales basically in human resources and finance. Okay. And I love what I do.
Speaker 1 00:01:07 That's awesome. So tell us about your background.
Speaker 2 00:01:10 So I've been in the window business for about 37 years. I started out actually on the shop floor
Speaker 1 00:01:15 When you were like five.
Speaker 2 00:01:17 I know I look young <laugh>, but thank you for the compliment. But no, I tell people it was three. Okay. Uh, but I, it was three when I started, but I started at a window plant in Topville, Ontario, Canada. Okay. Or hunt windows and worked there. And I remember the day that I was interviewed with the guy by the name of Don Adams, and Don was like, so what's gonna make you successful? And I said, Don, I'll tell you what's gonna make me successful, is I'm gonna be your plant manager. What's in five years of starting. And he looked at me and he said, you're pretty cocky. And I said, no, I'm pretty confident. So we went through the interview process and they offered me the job. Started out shop floor loading trucks. Became a supervisor. Actually became an inventory auditor within about two or three months. Then I became a supervisor about four months after that. Then within a year I've had the opportunity to get to production. And that's really where I wanted to get into was production. Got into production. And then within about a year after that, I became a senior supervisor. So after being a senior supervisor for a while, they decided that I would be the plant manager. So within four and a half years, I beat my own timeline. I became the plant manager.
Speaker 1 00:02:27 Nice.
Speaker 2 00:02:28 During that time, I started going to school. Cuz at the time I'd gone to college, my stepfather told me that if you wanna go to college, you can pay for it. So I started working right out of, I went to college for one year and then started working after that. I didn't start in the window business. I started out actually in the automotive trade. Okay. I used to be a part owner in a Firestone franchise, but then got into the window business. So once I became the plant manager with Hunt, they went through some revisions and ended up going bankrupt. Oh. But anyway, went with another company. The company that took over Hunt was the P distributor in Canada for years. Then I went with this other company that took on the P distributorship and worked for them for a number of years. Really decided that they didn't align with my personal philosophies, the way they did business.
Speaker 2 00:03:13 So I decided to leave them, but I didn't leave them until I had a job cuz my wife and family would've been pretty upset. But I remember the time I said, I think I wanna apply for this job. And it was in Tacoma, Washington for a window company on the west coast. And I said, I think I wanna apply for it. She said, go ahead. So I applied for it and I sent in my resume and about, I'm gonna guess it was probably three hours after I sent in my resume, I got a phone call and she said, I'd really like to do an interview with you. And I said, okay, let's do it right now. Closed my office door, let's interview. She said, okay, I'd really like you to interview you in person in Simi Valley, California. And I said, okay, let's do it.
Speaker 2 00:03:51 So I went down to Simi Valley and left with a job offer in my hand. Flew back to Toronto, Canada. We were living in Toronto at the time, Brampton, Ontario. I said to my wife, is, you wanna go to the States? Sure, let's go. So I have all the respect in the world for my wife. She gave up her career for me to follow mine. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, she was in human resources for the bank of C I B C in Canada. And then when we moved the states going through the immigration process, she can't work when I'm working because we're on one visa. So I came to the States for a company here for 18 years. From 1999. We, I started in June 7th, 1999. Worked for them, learned a lot with that organization. I was, started out as a production manager, and again, told 'em I'd be their plant manager pretty quick.
Speaker 2 00:04:37 They hired someone else to be the plant manager. He lasted about three months. So I became the plant manager. Then I remember that was in Simi Valley. That was in 1999 through 2001, and it was in May of 2001. They'd had me mentoring a plant manager in Denver, Colorado. And it was kind of fun just to mentor people. I, I loved that part of it. And I was mentoring him and he decided that he was gonna leave the organization. I thought, wow, I hope that's not a reflection on me. But he wanted to pursue other careers, career path. So I was in Simi Valley and my boss came to me. He says, I'd really like to see him, my office this afternoon. I said, okay, let's go right now. About one o'clock in the afternoon. Sat down. He says, yeah, he closed the door. And I thought, oh, oh, what'd I do wrong?
Speaker 2 00:05:21 Mm. My immigration paper's not right. Something wrong. And he just said, we want you to go to Denver. I said, okay, I can be there. And you know, and I was thinking it was just, uh, he said, no, they want you there full-time. Okay, we'll go. And he says, no, you better go check with Kate. My wife. She, I said, no, I don't need to. He says, no, I want you to go check with her. <laugh>. Okay. So I went and called her and she said, yeah, let's go. So we moved to Denver in 2001. We were there. I was a plant manager there for five years. Okay. Um, was a plant manager for, I was the longest standing plant manager that this general manager ever had. So I thought that was kind of interesting. Then I, I was asked to be on the e r P team for this company, and I spent two and a half years on their E R P team, which is really where it broadened my base on my knowledge of the business.
Speaker 2 00:06:09 During that time, I decided I wanted to go back to school to get my bachelor's degree. So I finished my bachelor's degree while I was doing the e r P team. What it allowed me to do was to take things that I was learning in school to apply to work. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, things that I was learning in work to apply to school. So it helped me get through all of that. Once I got done with my bachelor's degree, decided that I wanted to move on to my master's. So it completed my master's shortly after, but in 2008, they decided to pull the plug on the e R P team. So I was like, okay, it's the best failure in my career though. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, when we look back at failures, we go, okay, how do we, what did we learn from it? Right. Learned a lot from that, and that was really cool to be able to learn that part of it, tell people all the time.
Speaker 2 00:06:48 It was best failure in my career. From there, I ended up working for the corporate office for this company and went around to the different plants and because I'd had so much experience, was helping them to get better at things that they were doing. And another opportunity opened up in Simi Valley. Plant manager decided to leave. So I happened to talk to the general manager and said, Hey, I hear he is leaving. He says, yeah, I want you to be my next plant manager. I said, well, I've already been your plant manager. He said, oh, I'm hiring you twice, <laugh>. So I was like, okay, nice. So that was kind of cool. So we moved back to Simi Valley in 2009 or 2008. I was the plant manager there from 2008 through September of 2009. Had an opportunity to become a general manager in Temecula, California.
Speaker 2 00:07:29 So we moved again to Temecula, California in 2009. And then in, I think it was 2014, I had the opportunity to become a director and had, uh, experience to go and open up a facility in Dallas, Texas. So I did a greenfield startup in Dallas, Texas for this organization. A lot of fun. Learned a lot again, just continually learning and learning and learning. And then we started a project with insulated glass. It was a vertical IG line that we started. And so went through all of that and implemented it at three different plants. And of course this organization decided they were gonna go through re restructuring. So my position was eliminated, which was okay. I was okay with it. I was comfortable with it. I'd learned enough that I knew I was gonna be successful wherever I wanted to go. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So I went to work for a supplier for about two and a half years.
Speaker 2 00:08:22 So I traveled from 2014 through basically to 2019 on the road. Kate always said I was just a weekend guest. Mm. Coming home on weekends. Don't interrupt the flow. We had a lot going on here. Don't interrupt anything. So during that time I was working, I started my doctorate degree as well. So I decided partway through that I would pause that. I went through my first residency and decided to pause that education. There were other things in life I needed to enjoy. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So my wife being one of those things that I needed to enjoy being with her. Right. So in 2019, the company I was working for, the supply company decided they were gonna go through a restructuring, took their fenestration division and their cabinet division and made two separate entities out of them. And my position was eliminated. Again, it's like, okay, that all happens for a reason.
Speaker 2 00:09:11 Right. Just go with the flow. The funny part about that was, at the time I was interviewing with Lin, who we now own, we've owned for almost a year. Right. They had offered me a job as one of their vice president's production, and I turned them down to go work for a company in Tennessee. So I went to work for this company in Tennessee for a year. It was, I had to apologize for my wife for that one, to Kate to say sorry. I know it was, but she liked it in Tennessee. But the company is not really what I wanted to be a part of. So the opportunity came in here at Western and I'd worked with some of the folks here before and the opportunity arrived Rose, and I said, let's go. Kate said, okay. So here we are and Phoenix, Arizona.
Speaker 1 00:09:51 Nice. Yeah. That's awesome. Be sure to tune in for upcoming episodes to help you understand the Fest station industry, what you need to know when buying windows and doors and other related topics. You can find out more about us at pg t i university.com. You can also find us on Facebook and LinkedIn. That sounds like an amazing career path. And it's interesting that you had considered working at Alan and then now you are working with Alan. Yeah. That's fun. Yeah. One of the things that I like to know from people who have had successful careers is what is a great piece of advice that they received? So what would be a great piece of advice you've received?
Speaker 2 00:10:32 So one piece of advice I received early on in my career as a production supervisor was by a little lady. She was about four 10. Her name was Annie Bedford and she was from Ireland. And I like to change things like move things around like we've done here at Western at the plant. We've changed everything around. Right. We've changed the entire plant for the better. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> early in my career, I thought, I'm gonna do this. I went in the plant on a weekend on my own time, and I changed the entire front end of the line around on my own. I prepped ahead of time. I had this bin system set up all this stuff, and everybody came back in Monday and I thought, they're gonna love this. She didn't love it. Mm. She came to me and she said, mark, I appreciate what you're doing, but you have to get buy-in from people if you're gonna make changes.
Speaker 2 00:11:18 And I remember that early, I remember that often. And I still remember Andy Bedford looking at me going, she was just disgusted with me that I didn't involve them. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And that's the best piece of advice that I've ever got from someone when it comes to the business part of things. Sure. Because we need to change things to get better. That's why we do continuous improvement. Right. We want to continually get better and better and better every day. And if you don't involve the people, they're not gonna come along with you. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, they're gonna resist you. So I learned that lesson really well. So when I started here at Western, I thought about Andy Bedford and I thought, I've got 90 days of learning to do so I came and I did what I called my listening tour for 90 days, listening to people, what do you want? What's your hurdles? What's the obstacles to getting done? What we're doing, what we're trying to get done? And listening and creating the action plan based on what the hurdles that you're hearing. So that's really what I tried to do here at Western. And now we've been able to take, give Annie credit for that. We've been able to take our production from 450 to 500 assemblies a day to 900 to a thousand assemblies a day.
Speaker 1 00:12:25 That's amazing. Yeah. What a great piece of advice. Yeah. Get buy-in. Yeah. If you're gonna make changes, get the buy-in. Yes. Because people resist otherwise
Speaker 2 00:12:35 People resist change. And change is the constant that we have, but people resist it. They don't like it. And it's how do you get them to accept that change? Some people you have to make it their idea. Right? You have to say, Hey, what do you think? Other people, they want to tell you right away how things should change. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and if you adapt their ideas, or if you adapt part of their idea, give 'em credit for it. Sure. Show them, hey, yeah. This is what we adapted from you. I remember when I went, we walked the, the shop floor, Adnan and I adnan's our director of operations, director of manufacturing here, and I said, I wanna move the store room from the plant floor. I said, I wanna move it to the back corner. He looked at me like I had a third eye in the middle of my head and I said, no, listen, it'll create more.
Speaker 2 00:13:19 What's in it for you? It creates more manufacturing space, it gets it off the floor. And then when we moved it, that was the first move that we made here. And when we did that, people started to see, oh, changes for the better. And there's unintended consequences of the change. When we moved the store room to the back of the building, our inventory accuracy went up. People didn't wanna walk to the back of the building to get product. Whereas before they could walk right inside the cage, pull parts, walk back to their line, no consequences. Now they've gotta walk all the way back to the building. So now our CommonBond system works really well.
Speaker 1 00:13:56 Oh.
Speaker 2 00:13:57 So there's unintended consequences, that kind
Speaker 1 00:13:59 Of thing. Interesting. That's awesome. Yeah. So one last question because we are P T T I University and obviously education is our game. How do you see our team becoming an asset to the Western family?
Speaker 2 00:14:12 There's several ways that I see. I think it's multifaceted and I think that part of it is new hires. How do we get new hires up to speed quicker? How do we get them into our vernacular? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I remember when I started in the window business, they started talking about things that I had that had a jam, a sill. I'm like, what are you talking about? But getting into that vernacular early so they understand what we're talking about. Jam depth, all of those things that nomenclature to say, here's a glossary of terms. Right. What we start to talk about and having a tutorial to say, I wanna learn about what is a jam. You click on it and there's a story of a jam. Right. So those are things that I think would help. And then as we acquire new organizations, amlin, how does that differ?
Speaker 2 00:14:57 What's their product line? Well, how does their product line integrate with ours, with Western, with pg t total? I think that those things, when you look at the product part of things from an education standpoint, I think is really cool to be able to see. The other thing I think is part of what we try to drive is the culture of our organization. We talk a lot about culture, but what's it mean? The culture? We talk about culture code, those things. What's it mean to those people that are just coming in and how do we educate them on the culture code? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, how do we educate them on those type of things? For us here, I want to put the culture code on the big blank wall that's in our lunch room. I want to have it underneath the culture code and the learning map up above it so people understand that they're a part of a bigger thing. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. It's not just Western, it's not just Lin. It's not just the next acquisition. It's this big organization that we have. It's pg t Innovations and what's the label mean underneath the sign outside that says that pg t Innovations brand. Right. What's that mean? And that you're the part of that greater good
Speaker 1 00:16:02 And casting vision and helping people understand the bigger picture is always a win.
Speaker 2 00:16:06 I agree. Yeah, I agree. Makes you feel like you're a part of a team. A bigger team. I'm a sports guy, so I love being part of a team. Nice.
Speaker 1 00:16:14 Yeah. What's your favorite sport? Hockey. Ah, there you go. Well that makes sense. You're from Canada.
Speaker 2 00:16:18 Yeah. These chicklets aren't mine.
Speaker 1 00:16:20 <laugh>. <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:16:22 I just played Monday night,
Speaker 1 00:16:24 Actually. So <laugh>.
Speaker 2 00:16:24 Yeah, I still play.
Speaker 1 00:16:26 That's awesome. Yeah. Anything else?
Speaker 2 00:16:28 I think that's about it.
Speaker 1 00:16:29 I'll come. Well, I appreciate your time today. Thank you. Great. Thank you for your time. Yeah. It was great to get to meet you and learn a little bit about what you do and what you're passionate about. That's amazing. Well,
Speaker 2 00:16:38 I appreciate you taking the time to come to visit us at Western.
Speaker 1 00:16:40 Ah, it's a fun place to be.
Speaker 2 00:16:42 It is. Thanks. Thank you.
Speaker 1 00:16:44 PG t I University is the customer education team for an entire family of brands. We began with the original Ezb Breeze Porch en closure line, then became P G T, America's leading brand of impact resistant windows and doors. We then added cgi, C G I C window, Western Windows Systems, new South Windows, echo windows, and doors and land, 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. PPG t I University is here to educate you, our listener, so that you can be a more informed consumer of window and door products.
