A royal reinvention: RB Royal positions itself as a manufacturer of custom fluid transfer components and systems

Just as in nature, businesses evolve or they perish. Some companies are unable to recognize or adapt to new market conditions and suffer a slow, withering demise. Others recognize the need to change, accommodate new business realities quickly, develop strategies to meet those new challenges and ultimately thrive and grow.

It's clear that the latter has been the case for RB Royal Industries.

For at least half of its 62 years in business, the Fond du Lac, Wis., company was essentially a job shop manufacturer of fluid handling components such as fluid lines, hoses, fittings and assemblies. The typical process involved the company producing exactly what the customer designed and drew without the opportunity of seeing the application.

"In that kind of business, it quickly boils down to price," said Jim Neumann, president of RB Royal. "Today, it's very difficult to compete on price alone because of global sourcing options. If we were to survive, we had to reinvent ourselves and how we did business. We had to add value or demonstrate the additional value we already provided."
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Today, RB Royal is positioning itself as specialists in fluid transfer applications. Its primary customers are OEMs that recognize the value of a supplier/ partner offering engineering-based custom solutions to their fluid handling challenges.

"We do not approach a potential customer and ask for prints to quote," Neumann said. "We ask for the opportunity to learn about their application and work side by side with their people to improve what they have. We are experts with a lot to offer in fluid handling applications. In that way, we can usually accomplish at least one of two things. Either we help enhance an end product for our customer, thus creating additional value in that product or we help them drive down their total cost of producing and getting their product to market.

"Reinventing ourselves included the development of a tool to quantify the positive results our customers can expect. We call it our value proposition. It's an important tool we use in the 'consultative' or 'value added' approach we take to winning and keeping customers."

Of course, reinvention is not a new concept to RB Royal. In fact, it played a key role in the early development of the company. Back in 1942, the company was founded in Chicago by John Neumann Sr.--Jim's father--after losing his job as a brass fitting salesman. The manufacturer he worked for could no longer use brass for producing much else but ordinance for the war effort so they had no need for a brass salesman.

The elder Neumann realized that he still had customers depending on him to provide fittings to keep the cars, trucks and small shops running on the home front. As a solution, he sorted brass fittings held by scrap dealers, selecting those that with minor refurbishing could still have some service life. He then offered the scrap dealers a few cents more than the scrap value, thus producing a win-win situation for him and his new source of supply. In that fashion, John Neumann St. was able to provide for himself, his young family and his customers throughout the war years.

Following the war, the business grew through more typical channels of supply and was moved to Fond du Lac in the late 1940s, where it operated primarily as a distributor and light manufacturer from John's home until 1952 when the first corporate building was built. The late 1950s saw the company invest in automatic manufacturing machinery and begin to service larger customers. Around this time, it also expanded its expertise from brass fittings and brake lines to custom work in hose assemblies and tubing assemblies.

By the end of the century, the company had expanded as far as it could at the original facility. RB Royal built a 90,000 sq.ft. facility that became its home in early 2002. The facility--designed by the same company that did the new Lambeau Field stadium in Green Bay, was designed as a model for establishing a lean enterprise environment, Neumann said. Employees were also invited to contribute their thoughts and ideas in the facility's design.

All facets of the facility, including the office, are designed with flexibility in mind. In RB Royal's lean environment, classic cam-style turning equipment is combined with some of the latest in CNC technology for metal cutting and bending. But Neumann noted that for RB Royal, lean is not so much about utilizing the most modern equipment as it is about the elimination of waste, including using equipment wisely.

"We've been very involved in lean enterprise for a number of years now," Neumann said. "In fact, in association with Wisconsin Manufacturers Extension Partnership, we have provided demonstrations or clinics at our facility for the benefit of other companies looking to learn more about lean."