Company re-creates itself as supply-chain expert

PACK, STACK AND GO: Banneker Industries employee Nick Vierira doing what the company does best at its North Smithfield warehouse: handling logistics, including packing and shipping, for third parties. / PBN PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS
PACK, STACK AND GO: Banneker Industries employee Nick Vierira doing what the company does best at its North Smithfield warehouse: handling logistics, including packing and shipping, for third parties. / PBN PHOTO/TRACY JENKINS

Cheryl W. Snead, owner, president and CEO of Banneker Industries Inc. in North Smithfield, realized in the early 1990s that manufacturing was the company’s historic foundation, but no longer its greatest strength.
The field in which her company really excelled was battling the clock and calendar. Over time, Banneker had become expert at supply-chain management. Because of that moment of self-recognition, Banneker stopped producing precision machined components, as it had when it was Peerless Precision, and began providing other businesses with supply-chain services.
Today the company manages about $750 million in assets for companies around the country. It has 90 employees (half of them in Rhode Island), a warehouse in North Smithfield covering a half-million square feet, and 10 more facilities in six other states. The client list includes Raytheon, Harris Corp., Johnson Controls, BAE Systems, Honeywell, CVS Caremark Corp., and Alex and Ani. What’s more, the Banneker team is now making plans to expand into countries around the world.
“We realized our core competency wasn’t making the product, but managing the product,” Snead said. “We provide logistics services – purchasing, inspection, inventory management, warehousing, packaging, distribution and every other step in the supply chain.”
“We’re a big promoter of manufacturing, because we let those companies focus on what they do best,” said Junior Jabbie, sales and marketing director.
The company owes much of its success to Snead’s management style. She’s one of those executives who can take the floor and invigorate the team with a rousing can-do pep talk. In the early 1980s she became the first African-American woman to graduate from the University of Massachusetts with a degree in mechanical engineering. Later she earned an MBA from Purdue University.
One of her first jobs after college was at General Electric, where then-CEO Jack Welch was leading a much-discussed company resurgence. At the time, Welch was one of the top promoters of six sigma, a management system that helps businesses run more efficiently. The techniques were first developed by Japanese companies, then adopted and refined by American businesses in the 1990s. Besides General Electric, other early proponents included Motorola and Honeywell.
Snead still sticks with the lessons she learned at GE. She often points out that the management team at Banneker is fully trained in the six sigma method, and she offers training to clients and partner businesses as well. Her next job after GE was at Peerless Precision, a North Smithfield machine shop that produced components for defense contractors and aerospace companies. When the company went out of business, Snead bought the operation. She renamed the company Banneker after Benjamin Banneker, an African-American engineer, inventor and surveyor who lived and worked in the late 1700s.
Within a short time, she made the decision that the company’s business should be providing services. “As an engineer, I’ve always had a passion for seeing how things come together,” she said. “That’s how I came to see it could be the process that’s critical, not making the product.”
Snead made the move to a new direction at precisely the right moment. By the mid-1990s, supply-chain management was becoming the next big thing in the business world. “Companies like Apple and Amazon were emerging,” said Jabbie, “and they were competing on the efficiency of the supply chain.”
Among the services Banneker provides are:
• Warehousing. The company has 500,000-square-foot facility in Rhode Island that offers precise storage environments with temperature and humidity controls, and can handle everything from consumer electronics to U.S. Navy Destroyer parts. Banneker can help a company rapidly establish warehouse facilities across the country.
• Product tracking. Banneker uses tagging technology that provides clients with instant data on product availability. Its trucks are equipped with global positioning systems, so clients can know exactly where items are at all times.
• Product safety and security. Banneker facilities are equipped with high-tech motion detectors, video surveillance and other theft-deterrent systems.
• Procurement. Banneker can handle purchasing negotiations for materials, and reduce costs by using long-term agreements.
• Inspection. Banneker can ensure that all materials and parts meet quality standards.
• Packaging and distribution. Banneker employees can handle the packaging chores, and the company also has its own fleet of trucks and trained drivers. The company has a facility in Quonset that provides access to all rail lines east of the Mississippi.
According to Snead, there are countless opportunities to expand the business. “Every industry has a supply chain, not just manufacturers,” she said. “We were born and raised in the defense and aerospace industries, but we’ve grown from that. Today our clients include businesses like CVS, and Alex and Ani. Lifespan is one of our clients. If you go to a hospital for an operation, you want to be sure they have the equipment, the anesthesia, the latex gloves. Banks are our clients – they have to have deposit slips and ATMs and other items. Supply chain is about managing goods and services, and having them available at the right place and the right time.”
Banneker is also considered a great place to work. It’s a profit-sharing company, and it offers top benefits to employees. The package includes health care that is almost entirely paid for by the company, tuition reimbursements and leadership training.
The company also works to help build Rhode Island’s business environment. For the past seven years it has teamed up with Bryant University to offer a summit on supply-chain management. Past summit participants have included Raytheon, General Dynamics, Dunkin Donuts, Hasbro and Ocean State Job Lot. Last year more than 250 businesspeople attended.
“Supply chain is not only part of manufacturing’s success, it’s part of Rhode Island’s success as well,” Snead said. •

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