Open up, let's go! My name is Jim Antler.
I'm an instructor at the Ansel Fire School.
My job and the job of the other instructors here is to teach first aid fire training.
I've been with the Ansel now nearly 25 years.
I've been working there with the Fabrication B.
My son Jim is an instructor for fire school.
Sort of a family affair with Ansel now.
Now many of the women at Ansel are getting involved in jobs that require more skill and mechanical ability.
I work at Ansel because it's a good place to work.
The scenic view is good.
There's a lot of good It's given me a great pleasure to come here to the Ansel.
Ansel has been really good and they have the right know -how.
The absence of time clocks at Ansel is indicative of the trust the company places in its employees.
I find myself wanting to work harder to keep that confidence.
Ansel has had a long history of getting people involved.
We have been guided by the principle that people support what they help create.
We started here in Marinette, Wisconsin in 1915 as a small chemical company.
Since then we have evolved into a worldwide chemical and fire protection company.
We get a good deal of feedback from the work environment in Marinette that makes us more aware and more sensitive and it has had a positive bearing on the quality of our company's direction.
Generally expanding size changes and erodes values.
For us our Marinette setting has fortified our ability to relate on a worldwide scale.
We bring something in addition to products.
We train managers overseas.
We have a company approach that makes a difference in how we come together in our mutual needs.
This we feel is another facet of our Ansel Mosaic.
Ansel I believe is a unique company.
Although we are a small to middle sized company, we are very strong in those special market segments in which we have chosen to compete.
Particularly in our fire protection area we have evolved a systems or problem solving concept which essentially addresses itself to meeting customer or market needs.
I see Ansel continuing its policy of concentration in our fire protection and chemical markets with particular emphasis on our special market segments in the US and further concentration in our European and Australasian areas.
Approximately half of Ansel's business is located outside the United States.
There are major chemical production bases in Australia and Malaysia and fire protection manufacturing operations in Europe.
Ansel products are sold in almost every country in the world.
I feel we've been successful outside the US because we've located these operations in places where we could make a meaningful contribution, encourage local ownership and local management.
Ansel is America's pioneer in dry chemicals, the most effective agent for flammable liquids and electrical fires.
Ansel fire protection products are made in Marinette and across the world and sold everywhere.
35 years ago Ansel started in the dry chemical business.
At that time we introduced the first dry chemical extinguisher to the marketplace.
Since that early introduction we have added 10 additional dry chemicals to our product line.
These are needed because often a customer has a problem that there is no known solution to.
So we pride ourselves in the innovation of having developed agents to meet a specific customer's needs.
What you're seeing here is a computerized system analysis which we developed to eliminate the problem from the time a customer realizes he has a fire protection problem to the point where the solution has finally reached.
In the past this could take up to a week or more.
This system condenses that time to a matter of minutes.
This computer program is one of several programs representing Ansel's unique commitment to solving fire protection problems.
The Ansel approach is defining the customer's needs and then designing a product in services around that need rather than developing a product and then trying to find the customer for the product.
Now when I speak of customers Ansel basically services the Fortune 500 customers.
Petroleum, petrochemical, chemical, utilities, transportation, steel, and I would say that would cover the majority of the customers that we target.
Music It was obvious to us that the extinguisher was only as good as the operator that used it.
So it became mandatory in our minds to develop a very detailed training school here in Marinette, Wisconsin as well as taking the training to the customers at their own site or location at their plants.
Since that time we have trained over 18 ,000 students here in Marinette plus thousands out in the field at the customer's location.
This has been a very significant difference we feel in the success of Ansel because we recognize and the customer recognize that when he buys a product that he will have the services and particularly the training to support him in the use of his product.
Firefighting equipment is of no value unless you know how to use it.
Here we teach people how to use it.
The people we teach fall into two categories, general industry and what we classify as high hazard, high risk.
Music One of the other areas that Ansel has developed is a fire training simulator.
Now this is the first one of a kind in the world and it's just typical of our commitment to the increased need for a fire training by customers both in the field as well as at Marinette, Wisconsin.
Looking ahead three to five years when the procurement of fuel and the restrictions to burn are going to become tighter and tighter, the Ansel company developed this firefighting simulator to supplement hands -on fire training.
Because it's mobile, this unit can be driven to the customer's facility where his employees can be actually trained in the use and application of fire equipment on fires topical to his particular industry.
Dean, do you want to step forward? Come on up here by the extinguisher.
Okay, now we have the fire on the screen.
Now remember you start at the bottom, sweep your nozzle side to side and work it slowly to the top.
That's it, you're doing fine.
Music Extensive testing is performed on all the extinguisher shells and the cartridges and these tests are performed throughout the entire manufacturing operation.
Several years ago I was involved personally with field complaints, various customer types of complaints and I sensed that there was a very low level of cartridge failure in the field.
To satisfy this curiosity I generated a very simple informal type of survey which was intended really to give me the answers to my curiosity.
The survey was set up to cover a five -year period of time.
During that five -year period of time we looked back and determined all of the customer complaints that we had had regarding leaking or empty cartridges.
We compared this number with the total number of cartridges which we had produced during that same five -year period.
The result was an astoundingly low percent level of defects of 14 one -millionth of one percent.
This means that for every 100 million cartridges which we produce we can expect to have approximately 14 field failures.
That 100 million cartridges involves over 150 years of production at ANSEL's present level of production.
Music Manufacturing people are often asked what do you do that is different or unique.
Normally they're referring to a process or a piece of equipment.
What we feel here at the ANSEL company is unique is the way our people work together.
We do not use time clocks.
We have an honor system.
We organize into small work groups where each person does a number of different jobs.
This is an asset to the ANSEL company because of the many different types of product that we produce.
As an example a 20 -pound unit has some 15 different variations.
When we have problems to solve we work together because they know the job best.
We set performance goals as together so that we can improve productivity.
Music Music Music ANSEL produces chemicals for industry and agriculture.
ANSEL herbicides are used to control weeds in cotton, citrus, soybeans, and other crops as well as for many non -crop uses.
We have developed new herbicide applications for weeds that affect wheat and sugarcane and have received experimental labels from the Environmental Protection Agency to cover these crops.
Music Sam I'd like for you to spray the ANSAR treatment on plot 102.
It's in the red tank.
I manage ANSEL's field development section here at the West LeCoe Technical Center.
Our main functions are to obtain the necessary field data to expand the uses of our existing products.
Also to provide technical support to our marketing organization and to coordinate the research and extension programs with the various state and federal agencies.
Music Music The main thrust of our work here at ANSEL has been to improve our present production processes for industrial chemicals.
And also we've been doing some work on synthesizing derivatives of our present line of arsenicills in order to further improve their efficacy.
Quality control is an important function in every company, but it takes on even added importance to a smaller company such as ANSEL wherein products are sold based on quality and performance.
Our laboratories operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, analyzing raw materials, in -process materials, and final products.
Music Music ANSEL's industrial chemicals have multiple applications.
Many of them are used to manufacture other chemicals.
We have manufacturing bases in the United States, Australia, and Malaysia for our chemicals which we market on a worldwide basis.
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