DANIEL DWIGHT, CEO and president of Pawtucket-based Cooley Group, was recently named Manufacturing Leadership Council’s 2024 Manufacturing Leader of the Year and Cooley Group was named Small/Medium Enterprise Manufacturer of the Year at MLC’s Annual Rethink Conference and Awards Gala in Fort Meyers, Fla. The competition recognizes outstanding manufacturing companies for groundbreaking use of new technology, processes and collaboration. Dwight, a former General Electric Co. executive and high-tech CEO, has worked for private-equity-owned specialty materials manufacturer Cooley for more than 13 years.
What does being named Manufacturing Leader of the Year mean to you and Cooley Group? A decade ago, Cooley was a 90-year-old polymer-coated textile company on the verge of bankruptcy. The team threw rocks at our storage silos to measure inventory levels and some of our legacy equipment dated back to 1965. We began a much-needed cultural and digital transformation. I am tremendously proud of what we have accomplished since. Our team learned to accept that change is the only constant, and that a long-term digital growth strategy creates greater and lasting shareholder value. I am humbled by Cooley’s and my recognition by industry experts and manufacturing peers.
Explain how the company has integrated artificial intelligence into its operations. Cooley began investing in Manufacturing 4.0 digitization a decade ago. We invested throughout [the] COVID-19 [pandemic], we invest today despite the inflationary environment, and we will continue to invest going forward. We learned that implementing new technologies needed to be a priority to maintain a highly collaborative, data-driven enterprise well into the future. The team transitioned from manual data collection on paper to in-line systems that automatically capture data collection for optimal efficiency and empowered decision-making.
How has Cooley built resilient manufacturing to transform business culture? Cooley’s digital transformation began with a cultural transformation built around becoming more agile and adaptable. Every decision we make places long-term resiliency and cross-functional collaboration as our operational North Star. As a consequence of prioritizing collaboration, Cooley decentralized our decision-making structures, eliminating hierarchical instruction, empowering team members to communicate transparently and more frequently, and making decisions based on data analytics.
Where do you see the local manufacturing industry heading over the next five years? Local manufacturing over the next five years would benefit from a pro-growth investment strategy in recruiting and retaining small and medium-sized manufacturers. For over a decade, I’ve been leading a Rhode Island-based manufacturing company that is nearing its 100th anniversary. Our longevity is built on using our size to our advantage. We are more resilient than our competitors, who are often a multiple of our size, because we constantly invest in a pro-growth strategy regardless of the economic environment.
