Episode 52: An Interview With John Clark, E & J Parts Cleaning

Parts cleaning is a critical factor in achieving quality results in any surface finishing operation. In this installment of On the Line, Products Finishing catches up with John Clark, president of E & J Parts Cleaning Inc. (Waterbury, Connecticut) in a follow-up to a March 2024 profile story about the company’s technical cleanliness expertise. PF executive editor Lori Beckman interviews Clark to learn about the company’s latest efforts toward its goal of continuous improvement including the addition of new automated vacuum degreaser capabilities and the implementation of a paperless ERP system.

Products Finishing (PF): The last time we spoke with E & J you were doing so many exciting things including adding a roll automated vacuum degreaser to your shop floor. How has this advanced technology impacted your business?

John Clark (JC): It’s been fantastic. It’s a unique piece of equipment — especially for somebody like me, going from open-top vapor degreasers, which consist of pipes and pumps. Open-top degreasers are easy to troubleshoot and repair. So going from that level of technology to a fully automated, computerized piece of equipment can be daunting.

When you and I last talked sometime at the end of 2023 we were waiting for the machine, which ended up arriving stateside at the end of March [2024]. It took us three to four weeks to get it set up, fully charged and dialed in. So, we’ve been running the machine since April. Throughout the summer, we actually ran it for two shifts.

To give you a little bit of background, we have two locations here in Connecticut — one in Waterbury, where we have the open-top vapor degreasers and vibratory bowls; and a facility in Terryville, Connecticut, where we have the precision cleaning operation with the automated Roll machine and our ISO 5 clean room, where we do particle analysis to ISO 16232. Adding the automated vacuum unit was important to achieve a high level of precision cleanliness because you have repeatable processes.

This machine is fully programmed. So, I can develop a process for the machine and map specific programs to specific parts. The process is done the exact same way every time.

In Waterbury, we rely a lot on operator training. There’s a skill, and in my opinion, an art to metal finishing and cleaning in general. You know that the automated machines are more, I guess you can say, developed from a programming standpoint. For example, they have advanced filtration, segregated tanks and a multistep process.

With this machine, we can actually submerge the parts, which is unique to us because with open-top vapor degreasers it’s vapor-only, which has a lot of benefits. Especially with blind-hole parts or unique part features or parts that are very fragile that maybe can’t move around much, vapor is a fantastic medium to achieve a high level of cleanliness. This machine is also a vapor degreaser, so typically we’ll start with the vapor in the beginning of the process, and then we’ll flood the chamber from tank one, which is sort of our rinse tank, and we can then circulate the solvent around. Then we’ll drain it. We’ll flood it from a secondary tank, which is a clean tank where we add ultrasonics, and then we’ll add more vapor or more ultrasonics, depending on the cleanliness number required for that particular part or customer.

PF: Tell me about the commitment involved in implementing this kind of change.

JC: As a business owner it’s really important to know that when you get into a machine like this, not only is there a financial commitment, but there is a personal level of commitment you have to make. That’s a responsibility that I take on personally — diving into this technology and learning it soup to nuts.

I think that’s so important. I sell our service and our business by developing and implementing the processes myself and by understanding the methodology behind the machine — why it’s doing what it’s doing, how it works. I have a very intimate knowledge of this type of technology and this piece of equipment in particular and that helps me articulate the benefits of the machine to my customers.

PF: You also recently added a paperless ERP system. How has that benefited your company?

JC: That has been a game changer for us. We’ve been working on an aggressive growth plan to double our business within the next three to five years and part of that involves precision cleaning and automated particulate testing. But, when you look at that space and the level of customer that you’re dealing with, you’re usually dealing with high-end automotive, medical and aerospace customers. We wouldn’t be able to accomplish the necessary precision cleaning specs for those customers without precise traceability.

To take the next step in this business, you need to level up and ERP has been instrumental. We were able to take all of our processes and all of our controls and build them all into our ERP system. We’ve integrated the ERP into our quality management system and everything is connected now. It has helped us streamline the quality management system and has helped us with our ISO 9001:2015 audits.

Now, for every order that comes through, we have a unique order number that we generate internally that is linked to the part number, the customer and the purchase order. Our whole process now is barcoded. When a job is performed in-line, we know what operator cleaned it, what process they used, how long it took them, and the date and time. We have end-to-end traceability from when the parts come in, where they are in the process and when they leave the door. It has added a new level of traceability and professionalism.