Product upgrade starts at staff level with frank talk

New management sent ripples throughout Micromanipulator last year when Bill Hartman, president and chief executive officer, came on board.

The company had been managed for decades by its founder, before its acquisition last year by investment group Flywheel Ventures.

It was a year of change, says Hartman, that led to roll out of a product upgrade the P300A, second generation semi-automatic 300 mm probe station at Semicom in San Francisco, the major West Coast trade show for the semiconductor industry.

"Flywheel Ventures is thrilled with what we've accomplished in a year," says Hartman.

"We got our entire team together, from manufacturing to customer service." That team, he says, redesigned the product to be more reliable and easier to install.

"In the old days, the company would have accepted orders at the show," says Hartman. Now however, when Micromanipulator debuted its creation at Semicom, it didn't start writing orders. Rather, it recruited companies to participate in a thorough beta test. Their feedback will be incorporated into the product.

"It's a product release discipline that's new to the company," says Hartman. But he holds the systems, which cost $250,000, to high standards.

Quality must be a concern of the entire staff, he says. And that was the initial challenge Hartman faced when he first came on board.

"I didn't know how the staff would respond to the new management style," he says about his plan to shift from a longtime operating mode of isolated departments to one of company-wide open communications.

It didn't help that he was new to the company and even to the industry.

"The very first days I had heart-to-heart talks with my management team," he recalls. "I trusted them and they rose to the occasion."

Everyone embraced the idea of open communications, says Hartman. To implement the change initally, he called an all-employee meeting every few weeks. Now an assembler on the shop floor can come up with an idea and be heard.

Employee buy-in was put into practice at the recent trade show as well. Total employment at Micromanipulator is approaching 50, but most of the employees went to the convention, to tour competitor booths and get a feel for the industry.

Since Hartman took the helm of Micromanipulator last year, the company employment has grown about 30 percent larger, although some workers are temporary interns from university programs and five are contract engineers added for the final surge to test and release the new product.

The goal for upcoming year is to solidify the past year's improvements and launch the revised product, says Hartman. And, after tests and trials finish, to sell and ship a significant number of units.