Steve Maguire Receives SPE Business Management Award

The Society of Plastics Engineers (SPE) has presented its Business Management Award to Steve Maguire, the president of Maguire Products, Inc. and a pioneer in the field of plastics auxiliary equipment systems.

SPE presents the award to one industry leader annually. Maguire received this year’s award during the Sunday night NPE2012 Opening Gala.

“Steve built Maguire Products into a leading worldwide plastics auxiliary equipment company by supplying machinery of his own design that has transformed the way manufacturers manage raw materials and meter them into processing machines,” said B. Patrick (Pat) Smith, vice president of marketing and Sales. “He has succeeded because of his determination to make auxiliary equipment simpler, more reliable, and easier to operate, and he has achieved these goals by completely re-thinking the design of this equipment, developing his own unique operating concepts, mechanical systems, controls, and software.”  

In Steve Maguire’s business philosophy, product design is the most important consideration in that better products are the key to growth. “Slow, reasonable, and sustainable growth is what we work toward,” Maguire has noted in discussing his company. “We invest in more manufacturing space to make operations simple and efficient, because more space means less wasted motion, less movement of goods. We carry sufficient inventory so that production is smooth and uninterrupted, goods are always in stock, and customer orders are filled quickly. Purchasing and production are not driven by computer reports or projections. Instead we have a ‘visual’ inventory system that is simple to understand and implement, making it easy to decide when to order parts and when to build stock.”

The human factor is critical, according to Maguire. “There has to be genuine respect for all those involved in our business — our employees, our suppliers, and, of course, our customers. All have mutually shared interests. It is easy to see that with everyone pulling in the same direction, it is hard to fail.”       

Working out of the attic of his home, Maguire formed Maguire Products in 1977 to produce and market the first pump to accurately meter liquid color into the processing machine. Today the company is the leading producer of such pumps. In 1989, Maguire introduced the Maguire weigh scale blender, a gravimetric system that is now the predominant type of blender by far. Today Maguire Products alone has installed more than 42,000 gravimetric blenders worldwide. Among other types of auxiliary systems developed by Maguire are three that have no counterparts in the industry: the LPD vacuum resin dryer; the Sweeper, a device for emptying bulk resin containers without operator intervention; and the Purging Recovery System, which transforms purgings into regrind.

Today Maguire Products operates six manufacturing facilities in Aston, PA, maintains a network of distributors in the Americas and around the world, and has sales and service subsidiaries in Canada, Europe, and Asia that stock, sell, and service auxiliary equipment systems from Maguire and its affiliate, Novatec Inc.

Steve Maguire entered the plastics industry in the early 1970s, serving first as a maintenance engineer for an injection molding company, then taking charge of an extrusion company. In a biographical note to customers, he attributed his design and manufacturing philosophy to this early experience as a plastics processor: “I worked on the floor, not in the office. It was my job to keep everything running, not just while I was there, but through the second and third shifts as well. Simplicity, reliability, serviceability, and ease of operation became the qualities most important to me.”

For more information, visit www.maguire.com.