Russell Nolan, Production manager
    Posi Lock Puller, Inc.,
    Cooperstown, North Dakota

Posi Lock Puller manufactures gear and bearing pullers; manual products from one to 40 tons and hydraulic versions from 5 to 100 tons. Its distributor network spans the United States and more than 30 countries.

Russ Nolan has worked for Posi Lock for eight years and started as a general maintenance worker. Today he is in charge of production and works with a team of just six employees who build and ship every order within 48 hours. Posi Lock itself employs 45 workers.

A single international order can be anywhere from 50-300 pullers. In addition, Posi Lock has a number of national accounts that often place large orders with lead times of just seven days, sometimes less.

“We have a national client that is notorious for ordering with short lead times, and they will order 1,200 at a time. He will do whatever it takes to get that order fulfilled in time,” says Teri Huso, marketing manager. “If he has to stay 20 hours straight to make sure an order goes out on time, no one has to ask — he just does it.”

When distributors need product overnight, Russell always makes it happen. On more than one occasion, this has required Russell to drive for three hours, starting at 3:00 a.m, to pick up parts needed for that day’s assembly.

Meeting every shipping deadline would be plenty for most workers, but Russell doesn’t stop there. In his “spare time,” he assembles, packages and ships pullers for the marketing team to display at trade shows. This extra duty also involves setting up and taking product photos for booth displays and catalogs.

Posi Lock shares a facility with two other companies. One of these, a machine shop, is a sister company to Posi Lock. Russell regularly helps out that staff when situations arise, too.

Russell has also stepped in to manage parts inventories when Posi Lock was between purchasing agents. When a person was hired, Russell helped train that person in their job as well.

“We are truly lucky and thankful to have Russell,” Huso says.

This article appeared in the December 2007/January 2008 issue of MRO Today magazine. Copyright 2007.

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