Prent Corp., a manufacturer of custom thin wall thermoformed packages for the medical, electronic and consumer industries, is an ISO 9001 certified custom thermoformer specializing in medium run, deep draw, nestable, high-quality precision parts.

Prent's core business is custom thermoforming. The company's primary markets include the medical and electronics markets.

Prent employees operate some of the 24 thermoformers designed and built in-house. Each of the three clean rooms has eight machines capable of forming and trimming medical packages in-line.

Prent averages 250 setups each month, half of those being custom business. Custom can be defined as setups running an average of 2 to 4 hours and producing 10,000 to 15,000 parts, with the other half of the business typically performing 16 to 32 hour runs. Very few of these production runs will go five to six days before setting something else up.

Prent History Prent was founded by Jack Pregont Feb. 13, 1967, with production beginning in a 10,000-square-foot former silo manufacturing building in Janesville, WI. With an initial employment of 15 people, the company specialized in thermoformed packaging, injection molding and decorating. By remodeling the facility in 1970 and adding an additional 16,000-square-feet, Prent established its model and tool department with employment now up to 35 people. By 1973, Prent's sales had doubled for the sixth consecutive year and the work force eclipsed 100. The company broke ground for a 50,000-square-foot facility and began production of Glade Solid Air Freshener packaging for S.C. Johnson Wax. In the following 15 years, Prent received a patent for the 3 panel fold-up (Rack' n Stand) which became an industry standard, thermoformed the first RF-welded "twinwall" package, invented the "fade away" hinge, utilized computerized drafting and design technology for new package development and became the first climate-controlled thermoformer in North America to have its entire facility air conditioned. Now employing close to 500 people, Prent was also the first custom thermoformer to gain ISO 9001status. Prent operates domestic plants in Janesville, WI (corporate headquarters), and Flagstaff, AZ, and new global manufacturing facilities in Johor Bahru, Malaysia and Costa Rica.

A family-owned, privately held company, Prent handles jobs from start to finish. Coming up with initial concepts, creating the models, constructing the tools needed to form the package, Prent brings the project to the point where it needs hard tooling to put on production thermoformers, then makes the tooling. All this, at no extra cost to the customer.

"If we can handle a project from beginning to the end, involving no one else for the most part, we will. Our obligation to our customer typically is the package, but we want to meet and exceed the customer's service requirements as well," says Walt Walker, executive vice president of operations at Prent Corp., which has operations in Janesville, WI, Flagstaff, AZ, Johor Bahru, Malaysia and San Jose, Costa Rica.

Vertical integration is evident at each of Prent's locations. "If you took a tour of all of our facilities, you would see a lot of similarities and a lot of continuity for all the right reasons. This is a proven text-book way to run a business. When you see a row of thermoforming machines here or at our Flagstaff location, they are all mirror images of each other," says Walker. "We have the flexibility in that we aren't held to run a certain job on a certain line. It also allows us the luxury to not have to depend on anyone else. Jobs can be run on any of our lines. It is fantastic for training and maintenance &emdash; line 8 today, line 15 tomorrow, whatever."

Walker explains it as the same philosophy that McDonald's used when it decided to expand its franchise around the world. "They wanted to make sure that when people ordered a Big Mac in Chicago and a Big Mac in Taiwan, they tasted the same. That is the same philosophy that we have with regards to our packages," says Walker. "We have to produce packages for our customers who have locations in different parts of the world. They want to know that when the package is developed, designed and proved out at corporate here in Janesville, that when we produce that package at one of our other sites around the world that package will function exactly the same way.

"It has to be that way and we have to maintain control in order to do that &emdash; designing, developing and proving out," explains Walker. "Once that first production run is done and we have successfully met the expectations of the customer, we can package up the information that we generated here and send it to any of our other plants which have the same identical equipment and same operating procedures. All they have to do is install it the same way and they will be able to produce the same quality product that we started here."

According to Walker, in the thermoforming industry the clean room is the jewel; Prent is utilizing this jewel to the best of its ability. Prent has three clean rooms at its Janesville location and one in Arizona.

"We have found that eight of our thermoformers in one clean room is the way to go and that is what we have done here and in Flagstaff," says Walker. "That allows one individual to manage that room by himself &emdash; including order entry, ordering materials, scheduling and hiring personnel. He is essentially managing a company within a company."

A thermoformed part starts with design, and Prent's award-winning development group combines experience with computer technology and innovation to achieve the best solution to each project, according to Walker. Customers choose designs from numerous concept drawings and solutions are then detailed using CAD technology, allowing accurate modeling and sampling to prove out the package function.

Prent makes hand samples from its models to show size, basic function, product layout and color. A large variety of thermoplastic material is stocked to meet those needs.

Prent also has the luxury of having one of its suppliers of plastic material within shouting distance. The proximity of the two businesses has been a unique relationship and has proven to be a successful one for both.

"We were stumbling at a period of time where our customer demands 15 years ago were greater than the materials we could purchase to meet those demands," says Walker. "We took control of the raw materials that we needed to satisfy our customers."

"If it is out there and it is being extruded to be thermoformed, we are using it," says Walker. "If it's marketed for thermoforming and if our customers have a need, we will work with them. If a customer has a choice and they aren't sure if they want it in styrene or PETG, by the time we go to cut the aluminum for the tool, we have to know because how you space the cavities and design the tools is completely different from one plastic to another."

"What the package is going to be exposed to will sometimes answer the question (of what material to use) for you," says James O'Dierno, senior vice president of sales. "Is it clear? Is it for the medical business? Does it have to be sterilized? How do you want it sterilized? Answer those questions and that pretty much starts to dictate where you're going to go. There are times where that same part can be made out of two different materials but the tooling is developed for a particular plastic."

Prent supports a complete in-house tooling facility, utilizing computer, digital and other state-of-the-art technology to produce quality form tools at minimum cost. As the business moves around the world, the same tools, same equipment, same operation and the same process is utilized. Prent has 24 identical thermoformers with inline trimmers in Janesville, WI, eight in Flagstaff, AZ, five in Johor Bahru, Malaysia, and three in Costa Rica.

"We have around 300 customers and a tool base to satisfy those customers in excess of 1,000 active tools. It is quite an extensive operation," says Walker, "to design the packaging, satisfy the customer's needs, come up with concepts, do the modeling, make the tools, bring the package to the point where they need hard tooling to put on the production formers to produce the packages. To bring it to that point at no charge to the customer is unique."

Once Prent's design team starts working on a product, Walker says they must have a pretty good idea that it will have a great chance for business and the investment (tooling, design and time) will be worth it.

"We can't afford to spin our wheels," says Walker. "It becomes so important to meet today's needs and expectations of the customers because many companies are doing concurrent manufacturing or concurrent engineering. We are actually designing virtual packages for products that don't even exist yet. In order to do those kinds of things right and meet time lines, there has to be a pretty successful qualification rate."

Once thermoforming is completed secondary operations may have to be performed. Roughly 10 percent of what Prent thermoforms will need some type of secondary operation. "Whether it be decorating, sealing, RF sealing, sonic sealing or solvent sealing." says Walker. "We may punch additional holes into a part or package, decorate it with a label or use hot stamping or pad printing procedures. Once again, doing what needs to be done to satisfy the customer."

Prent has earned state and national recognition for its thermoformed products.

"A big recognition we were given last year was when Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson awarded us the Manufacturer of the Year award for the state of Wisconsin for all large companies," says O'Dierno. "That in itself made quite a statement about who we are, our attitude and where we are going."

The Manufacturer of the Year awards program is co-sponsored by the state's largest business association, Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) and the nation's thirteenth largest CPA firm, Virchow, Krause & Co.

On the national level, Prent received awards from the Society of the Plastics Industry (SPI) this year including: Thermoforming Package of the Year, Medical Package of the Year and Consumer Package of the Year.

Prent's design of a coronary imaging catheter package received first place in the "Light Gauge Medical Packaging" category and was also honored as the "Thermoformed Package of the Year" at the SPI Thermoforming Institute National Awards (TINA) ceremony held in March. This sterile barrier package suspends and immobilizes a fragile and expensive fiber-optics catheter coil and accessories. It additionally serves as a protective shipper, a prep station and a catheter channel for the product. The package is nestable, even with an RF sealed channel. It captures the accessories in the unused space and allows the prep and product to be in one tray.

According to Walker, this type of package also provides product visibility. "It enables the user to see the type of product and its condition without having to open the unit. It permits ease of use in the operating room by allowing prep and insertion prior to removing the unit from the package."

A third award that Prent received from the SPI was for its Christmas package. Each year Prent designs and thermoforms a Christmas package that is sent to customers as a way to say thank you. This year the package was a plastic origami bird with an outer package that housed it. It required a detailed plug to create the 13 coined hinges that are present at each fold in the bird. This design won the "Consumer Packaging Award."

Prent designed these packages utilizing a 3-D solid modeling surface software, then modeled and tooled them in-house via 3-D CNC technology.

"We have a program that was started by Prent about 28 years ago called the 'MiniShift Plan'," explains Walt Walker, vice president of operations at Prent Corp. "It has been copied by many manufacturing companies in and around the area but the plan that we have is still rated number one. Not just because it offers the 'Minishift' employee a better salary but it also provides the employees with profit sharing and they receive just about everything that our full-time employees receive."

The mini-shift brings in a new group of workers every four hours to step up into the manufacturing positions Prent has operating. What this does is bring in a whole fresh attitude, fresh set of eyes and keeps the quality to the level that Prent's customers have come to expect, according to Walker.

"You can imagine what happens if you do the same thing for 8-10 hours a day," explains Walker. "You can get lulled into 'la-la' land. These people are a huge reason why we are successful. Wages for this type of work are very good. If minimum wage is 5.50, it is in excess of that by another 80 percent. You don't find this type of part-time work that pays that well and offers employees an opportunity to work in the kind of environment that they work in."

Long term, according to Walker, the average retention on the first shift (from 8 am to noon) is probably around 14 years, 65 employees typically work that shift. The "B" shift runs from noon to 4 pm and has an average employment of 12 years with 60 people working this time period. The other two shifts (4 pm to 8 pm and 8 pm to midnight) are a little bit more difficult to keep filled according to Walker.

"We have a high retention rate and the turnover we deal with is usually on the lower end of the scale," says Walker. "It is a great program. It is hard to fill full-time positions when unemployment here is hovering around 3.5 percent and it is said that 2.5 percent is unemployable. Not a big portion of that 1% is looking for part-time work."

Prent also offers other benefits to its minishift employees. For one, they have the opportunity to take the summer off to be with their kids during which Prent utilizes college students. The same goes for the holiday season as well. The mini-shift plan offers employees the chance to be off 23 percent of the year if they want, Walker says.

The Mini-Shift Plan employees also have a peace of mind when it comes to job security. "The last layoff we had, and it was a minor one, was in 1984," says Walker. "We hang on to our employees and work on special projects during the slower periods. We know that typically the business will go up. When it does pick up, we work on Saturdays and Sundays to meet the demands and expectations of the customer. That is what you have to do when you're in a custom business."

New global manufacturing facilities in Malaysia and Costa Rica and a strong alliance with Nelipak Thermoforming in Ireland and the Netherlands has helped strengthen Prent's position as a worldwide manufacturer of thermoformed production.

Prent Corp. now has new manufacturing capabilities in Johor Bahru, Malaysia and San Jose, Costa Rica. With a focused attention on its core business, Prent is able to produce packaging solutions for the medical, electronics and consumer packaging markets in these regions. Each state-of-the-art production facility will utilize high-speed roll-fed pressure forming equipment designed and built by Prent Corp.

"In the medical market, a lot of our customers have resources in Puerto Rico," says O'Dierno. "A number of years back, a large number of tax-free facilities were built there. We had talked about building there at that time, but didn't. Thank goodness, because now that tax advantage is gone and there was this mass exit and, low and behold, where are they landing? Costa Rica. We figure we are now in that foundation of supply capabilities, in an area where the likelihood of success is high. In Southeast Asia, we are becoming very dominant in the medical and electronics markets which is what is driving us there."

"We have a proven textbook method of conducting business in the custom thermoforming arena in different parts of the world," says Walker. "We are there with the technical support, we are there with all the know-how too. We provide everything for those ventures. They come to Janesville for the training and we provide all the tools, from procedural to tooling to production equipment. They provide the wherewithal to conduct business in those countries that is totally different from the U.S. They provide a labor force for producing that production, which is also totally different from what we are familiar with here. Those two entities in themselves are extremely important to the speed of the success with which you want a company to grow."

"If we went in on our own to Malaysia or southeast Asia and tried to conduct business without a firm understanding of how to communicate with ethnic and religious groups, we would be innocently stepping on toes and being offensive," O'Dierno adds. "If we used a color they don't like or a number they are offended by, we would then spend months trying to patch that up. We are learning these things. The relationship we have with the people there allows us to get business much, much faster."

Prent also has an alliance with a leading thermoformer of medical and electronic parts in Europe, Nelipak Thermoforming, which has manufacturing plants in the Netherlands and Ireland and sales offices in Belgium, France and the United Kingdom. Nelipak produces and delivers parts for any Prent customer with operations in Europe, while Prent's global sites likewise offer manufacturing capabilities for Nelipak's customers.

"We have a strong alliance with them and share openly between each other," says Walker. "Even though we are independent, we realize that this is becoming a pretty small world."

According to O'Dierno, five years ago Prent would never have thought it would be manufacturing outside of the United States. "As our customers have gotten bigger, they own sub-businesses and suddenly there is six, eight, 10 of them and they are all over the world," says O'Dierno. "What these customers are doing now are cooperative initiatives whereby they focus on putting everything into one package and leveraging a qualified supplier who can handle that business, reducing cost by higher volume.

"Nelipak is a very progressive company and the largest medical thermoformer in Europe with a very strong stature. I think we got a head start on a lot of this. Now with the progressive steps we have put in place we can put ourselves in a positive position in Europe as well."

"The other thing that affords us this ability to streamline is our ISO certification," says Walker. "We were the first thermoformer in the continental USA to achieve ISO 9001 in 1993 and the 23rd company overall in the state of Wisconsin to achieve the certification. We saw the importance of the certification and what practicing ISO procedures would bring to our organization &emdash; the ability for us to repeat successfully. The key here is you're repeating high quality.

"Whatever it is that you are doing, if you practice solid ISO procedures, your repeatability should be perfect. The goal here is high quality," Walker adds.

"However, the real success of the organization starts with an ownership that is continually pumping resources into technology. The other side of that is the people who work for the organization. From the people keeping this place neat and clean to the people who are developing new business around the world. Our greatest asset is our people. They all have a focus and know what we are about and where we are going."

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