Archives > 2008 > April 2008 > Zico: A Company Where Quality – And Seconds – Count
April 2008
Zico: A Company Where Quality – And Seconds – Count
By Ed Ballam
There are a few brand names in the fire service that are immediately recognizable, and Zico – short for the Ziamatic Corporation – ranks near the top.
Known for its variety of brackets for self-contained breathing apparatus and brackets and mounts for numerous other firefighting tools, Zico is a 50-year-old, family-owned business headquartered in Yardley, Pa.
Just about every fire apparatus sold today has something made by Zico on it, be it something as simple as a wheel chock or as sophisticated as a hydraulic ladder rack. Everything Zico makes is grounded in the desire to make firefighting easier by making tools and equipment secure, yet accessible when everyone is in a hurry.
“We coined the phrase ‘quic when seconds count,’” said Mike Ziaylek, president of the three-generation business. “Everything we made for the first 25 years or so was quic something. The first name we registered was Quic-Pac.”
The Quic-Pac is a breathing air apparatus holder that put Ziamatic on the map. It continues to be a popular seller, although the company has made huge improvements and spun off varieties, including its latest, the Quic-Lock. The newest SCBA holder meets the latest NFPA standards, including the 9-g impact requirement.
“We called it Quic because the SCBA was there and ready for you so you didn’t have to pull it out of the suitcase it was stored in,” Ziaylek said.
The company grew out of a machine shop that was started in the 1940s by his father, Ted Ziaylek Jr., who had served as a paratrooper during World War II. After returning home to Bucks County in eastern Pennsylvania from the war, he got a degree in mechanical engineering and bought some machinery along with his brother John. They called their shop Yardley Products.
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John Vogelman, an assembler for the company, makes some final adjustments to an O2 tank lift to be installed on an ambulance.
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Dennis Lautenbacher, a research and development machinist and field engineer for Zico, machines a part on a lathe in the company’s machine shop for a product prototype. (Fire Apparatus Photo by Ed Ballam)
The business was well known for its work in screw machine inserts. Ziaylek said his father Ted, who is now 86-years-old, revolutionized the screw machine business and holds close to 100 patents, 60 through Ziamatic alone.
In 1953 his father invented an automatic speed drill press that not only advanced the drill bit, but the stock being drilled as well. The invention was called Ziamatic, and it spawned a new company, the Ziamatic Company, which later became the Ziamatic Corporation in the 1970s.
When they weren’t tending to their businesses, the Ziaylek brothers were leaders in the local Yardley Makefield Fire Company. Ted was the president of the fire company, and John was the chief.
“There were areas where the [fire] department needed a little something manufactured and they would do it,” said Mike Ziaylek, who is also a member of the department. “The first thing they needed was an air pack bracket. Other fire companies would see what Yardley was doing and they wanted it too.”
The original brackets were produced in the late 1960s by Ziamatic were modified extinguisher holders with spring clips to retain the SCBA bottles.
As the fire business grew, all of the fire related products were placed under the Ziamatic Corporation umbrella and the original machine shop and screw machine business was sold. Zico was created in the 1970s as a logo, but the business remains incorporated under the Ziamatic name.
“Ted Ziaylek is an incredibly brilliant man,” said Mike Adams, vice president of Ziamatic and 35-year veteran of the company. “He would go out to a show like FDIC, walk around, look at things and get ideas. By the time I would make it back from the same show there would be drawings on his desks for new products – complete drawings. It was unbelievable.”
The business the Ziaylek brothers started in the basement of a gristmill on a canal off the Delaware River is still in town. Its current facility is a modern two-story 40,000 square foot building just off the main street in Yardley, abuzz with 43 employees. A second 10,000 square foot building, 10 miles way in Falls Township, is used for storage and inventory.
The business grosses $14 million annually in sales. A separate marine division, serving the boating industry, grosses just over $1 million.
The current plant is located diagonally across from the Yardley Makefield Fire Company station, where three generations of the Ziaylek family have been firefighters. Ted P. Ziaylek Jr., the company’s marketing manager and grandson of the founder, represents the most recent generation to join the department. His father, Ted P. Ziaylek Sr., who is an electrical engineer for Zico and second generation in the business, is a member of the department as well.
There has always been a special relationship between the Ziamatic management and the local fire department, said Gene Cadwallader treasurer of the fire company and long-time chairman of its truck committee.
“They’re all members of the department and have been for a long time,” said Cadwallader, who himself is a 49-year member. “We put all their products on our trucks, and we have two trucks with their ladder lowering devices.”
Cadwallader, who has known the family for decades, appreciates the Ziayleks’ commitment to quality.
“We’ve never had a problem with anything that Zico has provided us,” Cadwallader said. “The owner of the company was very diligent in not putting out anything that wasn’t tested and verified as quality, and that character has been instilled throughout the generations.”
The relationship between the fire department and Ziamatic goes both ways, and Cadwallader said Zico uses the department’s apparatus for testing.
“They might have something new and they want to try it out, or they’ve got some adaptation coming out,” Cadwallader said. “They put it on our trucks, and we’re honest with them and let them know what we think.”
Hundreds Of Products
Mike Ziaylek said he appreciates the interaction. “They’re happy to try stuff and we’re happy to have the feedback,” he said. “We like to do a lot of testing, and that’s where it starts, right down the road.”
The Zico Ziamatic quarter-inch-thick catalog is filled with hundreds of products – from the famous Quic Pac brackets to Zico brand shovels and pike poles, to hose bridges to gasoline can and water appliance mounts. The company also has low-level strainers, apparatus dump valves and portable tank racks and brackets. Products are sold internationally, and Zico supplies products to the military and the NASA space program.
The company has two full-time employees dedicated to research and development and testing of new products.
In a machine shop area that resembles something seen on the Discovery Channel’s “MythBusters” television show, research and development machinists Dennis Lautenbacher and Jaime Pujol carry on a labor of love, using and abusing everything Zico’s engineers can throw at them.
“It’s the kind of work I enjoy,” Pujol said. “We really do have to take things and see how far we can push them. We have a lot of people relying on the things we make.”
Working Two Years Out
Lautenbacher, who also serves as the company’s field engineer, said his department is responsible for making the work of the engineering department a reality.
“We build prototypes and make sure everything works,” said Lautenbacher who has been with the company 18 years. “A lot of times we go out and install products in the local fire trucks. That gives us a way to see how the products are weathering and taking abuse from the end users.”
Once all the bugs are worked out, production blueprints are finalized and production runs are made for saleable products, Lautenbacher said.
“We may go through four or six versions before everything is running smoothly,” he said.
Pujol said the company is typically working two years out on new products. “The company is allowing me to go out and learn about firefighting and investigate ideas for new products,” he said. “I’m figuring out what they need to do their jobs, to make their jobs more efficient… to help save lives. It’s very rewarding.”
Next to research and development is the engineering department headed up by Cielito “Lito” Agoncillo.
He was hired in 1991 as the first professional engineer outside of the Ziaylek family to be employed by Zico.
The company’s horizontal ladder rack access system is one project that Agoncillo has controlled from design to production. The ladder rack uses a hydraulic cylinder to lift fire ground ladders vertically over the top of the apparatus hose bed to make it easier to deploy and stow them.
Agoncillo said he was also involved in the development of a two hydraulic cylinder version that’s suited for heavier, 35-foot ladders.
Not Too Formalized
“We have to try to progress with the industry and where it’s going,” he said. “It’s a rough business. Safety is a big consideration in our product development.”
Agoncillo appreciates the type of relationships he has with all company departments and the owners. “Things are not too formalized like in a big company,” he said. “Things get acted on right away, which makes for a successful business.”
Rich Ossman is the operations manager with responsibilities for production and for finding outside vendors for parts and supplies.
Ziamatic’s plant in Yardley is essentially an assembly plant with many different companies supplying parts, built to the company’s specifications.
“We take time to choose the right vendors and suppliers,” Ossman said. “We rarely go with cheapest available. When we buy casting and hardware, we look for the guys who know what they are doing and make good products.”
Many of the aluminum castings and steel forgings are provided by companies in Pennsylvania, he said. “We try to keep everything as local as possible,” he said, “because it gives us a little better control over the quality.”
Having worked for the company for 14 years, Ossman has learned how tough firefighting equipment has to be. “You can’t go to the local Sears hardware store and buy firefighting tools because they’re going to break,” he said. “When you see what the stuff looks like when it comes back, it really looks like it has been through a war.”
Zico has products that have been in service for 30 years or more, far in excess of the 90-day warranty the company has on parts.
Keith Creely, who started with the company in 1995 sweeping floors, is now in charge of sales and technical support. “Ziamatic stands by its products no matter what,” he said. “If there’s a malfunction of a casting, or a mechanical part and it’s a manufacturer’s defect, we’ll replace it. All we ask is for the broken part back so we can take a look at it.”
The company invoices the customer for the cost of the returned part, he said, but if the company determines it was its fault, the invoice is zeroed and the customer is not charged.
A Special Talent
Having worked his way up through the company like many others at Zico, Creely has a special talent when it comes to talking with customers and installers about technical issues.
“I know just about every nut and bolt on every product we make because I’ve been there,” Creely said. “I can help the [truck builders] and the customers reassemble and install things, or talk them through problems they might be having.”
He keeps a Quic-Lock SCBA bracket beside his desk in the open-concept front office to help walk customers through adjustments and installation projects.
“There are times when things get a little hairy, and we send out our R&D field engineer to take care of it,” he said. “But, most of the time, we can help them right on the phone.”
The sales part of Creely’s department is comprised of fire equipment distributors across the country who are vetted by Ziamatic to make sure they are reputable. “Our distributors have sales territories and they hit the departments in their areas,” he said. “There are no outside sales people for Ziamatic.”
Cosmetics Are Important
Mike Adams, the vice president, handles direct sales to truck builders and original equipment manufacturers. He and Creely often attend industry trade shows. “An important part of my job is keeping my eyes and ears open for things going on,” said Creely. “At shows, I see if we can adapt anything and look for new product ideas.”
Darren Kelly, Ziamatic’s production and warehouse manager, has been with the company just over a year and is impressed with the commitment to quality. Employees are taught to alert management to any issues of quality, he said.
“Cosmetics are very important,” he said. “Some departments are paying $500,000 or more for their trucks, and you don’t want to give them something that’s all scratched up. If it’s not good, it doesn’t go out the door.”
Kelly also has supervisory responsibilities for the shipping department. On a light day, the company ships about 90 individual packages. On a busy day, more than 150 packages head out the door, along with six or more larger items that require freight trucks for deliveries. He said about 50 percent of the orders are sent directly to fire departments, while the other half go to truck builders and related suppliers.
There’s a significant number of trucks making deliveries to the plant as well.
John Cornman is Ziamatic’s quality control manager, a position he’s held for 11 years. He tests for a variety of specifications to make sure what gets sent to the floor for assembly and finishing is of the highest quality.
“When products come in here, they have to go through me,” he said. “If something is not right, they need to know right away.”
Recently he rejected 150 bases for the company’s gas cylinder loading management system, often found on ambulances. The aluminum castings did not meet specifications, he said.
Mike Ziaylek is proud that his employees care so deeply about the quality of the company and its products.
“This is our whole life, everything we’ve worked for,” he said. “These are our friends, our family. The fire service is a great industry to be in. Everyone is altruistic and wants to help people when lives are on the line.”
For information about Zico call 800-711-FIRE or go to www.ziamatic.com.