About Webb - Jervis B. Webb Company

As Farmington Hills-based Jervis B. Webb Co. expands and changes its strategy, new senior vice president and COO Brian Stewart will oversee the process.

Stewart, who is in charge of engineering, sales and marketing, purchasing, manufacturing, information services and project management for the Webb group of companies, wants to tap Webb’s international joint ventures in India and China. With those business units, Stewart said Webb can grow business in the United States, decrease costs and increase quality.

Q.: What are your expansion plans?

A.: We will expand globally, particularly in the Chinese and Asian markets. In the future, perhaps even South America will make a comeback. Webb also has two new, very exciting projects: Smart Loader and Smart Cart. Our Smart Loader product can pull product from a production line (or) storage –just about anywhere-and automatically loads trucks. It can even run in the dark. This product will be introduced at the NA 06 materials handling and logistics show and conference (in Cleveland) in March.

Q.: What are some of the challenges you anticipate with this expansion? How will you overcome them?

A.: I believe our biggest challenge is to keep our employees excited. Our employees are the ones who continue to develop new products, create new ideas and new ways of moving materials that increase reliability and decrease costs for our customers.

In 2005, we launched a lean manufacturing and lean office program. The goal is to make jobs easier and increase communication throughout the company. Everyone knows the company’s goals, and there are frequent team meetings where we map out where we are now and then map out a goal of where we want to be in the next few weeks. This works well and the employee involvement keeps up the excitement and challenges us all to constantly improve.

A.: Fifteen years ago, I was involved in the development of Webb of India. At that time, it was a three-man operation. Now it is a premier handling supplier and 100 engineers work at that location. Because of the successes of our India operations, Webb has become more competitive in the U.S. Today, Webb is utilizing the seeds planted in India and China in the past to grow its operations.

Q.: How has the economy affected your business locally, nationally and globally?

A.: We saw the downward trend in the economy about three years ago and addressed the issue then. We, like most everyone else, had to downsize and lay off workers. However, we asked ourselves “How can we use this as an opportunity? How do we change our company for the better?” I believe that Webb is now ahead of the game and is hiring and growing its business on all fronts –locally, nationally, and globally.