“Overall, our approach is that we say yes to the customer first and then get after solving the problems at hand” – Alex Rodero, Sr. Director of Operations. For over 30 years, OR has been leveraging our deep expertise across product development, design, engineering, and manufacturing, to build strong partnerships with the U.S. government and NATO allies—earning a reputation as a trusted and premier manufacturing partner. Today, we’re speaking with Feng He, Director of Manufacturing, who oversees both U.S. factories, and Alex Rodero, Senior Director of Operations. With more than 25 years at OR each, they are key leaders and long-standing pillars of the brand. OR: Tell us about your roles here at Outdoor Research and how you found your way into this industry. Feng: As the Director of Manufacturing, I am responsible for running both of our factories in Seattle and California effectively and efficiently. This includes budgeting, hiring personnel, providing delivery timelines, product costing, and new product developments. Coming from a family with some manufacturing background definitely paved my way into the industry. Alex: As the Senior Director of Supply Chain and Operations for our Tactical business, I am responsible for the oversight of the product, financial planning, and upstream relationships with material suppliers that support our manufacturing operations. As you can imagine, that is quite a range of responsibilities, but it is built on having worked in all those areas over the course of my 20+ year career here at Outdoor Research. While I started out chasing the allure of working in the outdoor industry, it’s been the connection to the manufacturing that has shaped my career and enriched my experience. Having been intimately involved in the product design and production cycles was incredibly beneficial towards understanding, influencing, and directing the strategy side of the business in my current role. OR: What value and role does OR play from the perspective of the U.S. government/military—both as a manufacturer and as a strategic advisor on gear and capability needs? Alex: Outdoor Research has a strong legacy built on creating products that solve real-world problems outdoors. That mentality was a core tenant of our founder’s ethos for outdoor pursuits, but it also led to elite military end users seeking out our products when their issued gear was not up to task. We have a long history of being experts in extremely cold weather - particularly in handwear. From those first engagements with the special forces communities, to developing and supplying large scale gloves systems for the Army, Marine Corps, and now the Air Force, we are looked at as trusted partners that provide products and expertise in support of the men and women who serve in extreme conditions. We have a long history of being experts in extreme cold weather operations - particularly in handwear - but beyond our environmental insight, we are unique in that we wholly own our manufacturing operations- most brands don’t and must subcontract to other partners. By controlling our own manufacturing ops, we can develop, test, prototype, and scale to manufacturing faster than any of our competition. This is what truly differentiates us. OR: Can you walk me through your current production workflow from raw material intake to testing and final inspection? Feng: We make mostly 100% Berry Compliant products in both factories. Our production flows from materials ordered from USA vendors, getting that processed into our factories, and then released to cutting, sewing, and final packaging. Throughout the sewing process, we have various quality control gates to ensure that products meet our customers’ quality standards and perform AQL tests for each final production batch as one last check before packaging and shipping to our customers. OR: With strict sourcing rules for Berry compliance, how do you navigate supply chain disruptions while ensuring the military gets what it needs, when it needs it? How do you manage and track corrective actions when a quality issue is found—either internally or reported from the field? Alex: The Berry Amendment requires that materials and products be made wholly in the US, so it can be a narrow supply chain which at times can be difficult to manage if disruptions occur. This is exacerbated by the fact that the government is not the best partner when it comes to planning- they are very reactive in how they manage procurement of OCIE (military gear and clothing products). Occasionally, there are larger scale programs that allow us to better plan and deliver on a regular cadence, but more often, the customer base – due to the nature of their job - wants product asap. With that, we do our best to plan stocks of material and finished goods to allow for some fluctuations in that asap business, which in turn keeps the factory production flowing and efficient. It’s a balancing act. With respect to quality concerns, there are stringent standards in place in our manufacturing operations to ensure all products are compliant and meet both our standards and the specs imposed by the government. For example, when making waterproof products, we test every item multiple times throughout the process to ensure there is no leakage. The end user simply cannot afford to have a garment or pair of gloves they are relying on in extreme cold or wet weather to fail. Failure could result in real consequences, so we take the quality control and assurance protocols very seriously. If any faults do pop up while in the field, wholly owning our own manufacturing process allows us to correct and adapt quicker than anybody in the industry. OR: How do you manage production scaling when a contract ramps up unexpectedly? Feng: Managing production scaling – up and down - is always a challenge. We rely heavily on running overtime because hiring new employees and getting them up to speed is very difficult. We also have the second factory in California which gives us more flexibility and opportunity to ramp up production as needed. OR: Tell us about a time you had to pivot or adapt under an extreme timeline or contract pressure. Feng: We got a contract order to deliver 150,000 sets of gloves within 12 months in 2018. At that point, we only had our Seattle factory running and it would have been impossible to meet that delivery timeline with just overtime and quick hiring. We quickly came to the decision to open a new factory in California - where the workforce and sewing skills were much more readily available. We went through the arduous process of finding a place to set up machinery, hiring and training employees in a matter of a few months. It taught our whole team a lot about how to communicate between factories better and how to handle the challenges of growth. Alex: As Feng said, that was truly a great feat for our team to accomplish- establishing a new manufacturing facility is a legit undertaking- and to do it for products requiring waterproof quality standards added to the stress of the situation. Overall, our approach is that we say yes to the customer first and then get after solving the problems at hand. It results in a very dynamic, high-paced work environment, which means there’s never a dull moment around here. There’re always new challenges, new problems posed by end users, new materials and innovative ideas to grind on. These are the things that make it interesting! OR: We’re quite proud of our factory workforce. They are skilled operators doing intricate work that requires years of experience to master. How do you train and retain skilled operators & technicians in a high-stakes, compliance-driven environment? Feng: We are very proud of our workforce and value their contributions to our success in serving our government customers. We are thankful that we have been able to retain our skilled operators partly because we respect them and have been able to provide a great working environment for them. They have been a fixture throughout all the growth and changes OR has been through in the last couple of decades. We have a very diverse workforce with different cultural backgrounds and our willingness to learn to understand and respect those differences makes a difference to our employees. OR: If you could improve one aspect of tactical gear manufacturing for the U.S. government, what would it be and why? Alex: I think the most difficult challenge with manufacturing gear for the US military is that they are not the best planners and do not give us forecasts. They are the first to tell us this, but it does make it difficult to sustain efficient manufacturing operations. I push on this all the time, but with the challenges around federal budgeting, funding allocations in the defense budget specifically, and regular changeover in government leadership & procurement offices, it’s quite difficult to get a rhythm established. That said, we’ve had some good years recently, and we continue to develop new products with new innovative materials and feel we are well positioned to continue to be a strong partner for our military for years to come. >> Explore Tactical
