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2ndRick
07-12-2011, 09:51 PM
In this profile, I was able to reach out to a company who has not yet participated in the ManufacturerZone at IntegrationPros.

A few weeks ago as this idea was taking shape, I was able to speak briefly with Richard Stoerger, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Audio Design Associates. (ADA). Richard seems to have embraced the idea, and has written some of the longest and most detailed replies yet to the profile questions.

When Gary and I decided to move forward with this idea as the special series topic for the Month of July, I went to work creating a short list of questions for the selected manufacturers for the inaugural series.

So here goes:

https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-pyakfwpBmfw/Th0GYs7mXHI/AAAAAAAAEyY/Zd1Rwbp1Bc8/s400/ada_logo.jpg

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Rick Murphy, IntegrationPros:
First question: How long has the company been in business?

Richard Stoerger, Audio Design Associates:
Audio Design Associates, Inc. or simply ada, was founded in May of 1977, coinciding with Albert G. Langella’s receiving his bachelors degree in electrical engineering from Pratt Institute of Technology.

In the late 1960’s, ADA’s co-founder Peter McKean purchased a two-store electronics retailer, Hartsdale Radio & TV. Langella began working for McKean as the electronics repair technician in the early 1970’s while still in high school and continued with McKean through college. By the mid-1970’s Peter turned to Albert to engineer one-off multi-room solutions for several customers. By the time Albert neared graduation, he and Peter knew they were on to something (custom installation was coined by McKean).

Albert, tired of reinventing the wheel every time a new customer came along, developed several multi-room system designs that were scalable depending on system size and complexity and together with Peter launched Audio Design Associates – a custom installation company that manufactured its own systems because there was nothing else out there. As McKean was quick to note, “necessity is the mother of invention.”

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Rick:
2): Where are the locations of your production facilities?

Richard:
ADA is headquartered in White Plains, NY and uses the same facility it first occupied in 1984.

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Rick:
3) How many people are employed in total?

Richard:
ADA employs on average 25 to 35 persons.

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Rick:
4) What percentage of the SKUs in your product offering are produced in North America at some level?

Richard:
ADA manufacturers over 100 SKUs for home cinema and whole-house audio and video distribution.

Each and every component is designed, engineered and manufactured in the USA.

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Rick:
5) In the spirit of the American Automobile Labeling Act, requiring automakers to report what percent of the parts by value in any given model hail from both the United States and Canada. What is the rough percentage of N. American content of the components and materials of your products?

Richard:
Other than small parts that are only manufactured outside of the US, every other aspect of the our components are made in the USA including PCBs, most transformers, all chassis, brass and copper straps, etc.

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Rick:
6) What would you say is the difference in the value proposition that you offer to the dealers and end users compared to your peers who utilize off-shore production? (materials quality, labor force, logistics, JIT capabilities, etc.)

Richard:
ADA’s value proposition is all about excellence. To begin with this focus on excellence is rooted in each and every component we manufacturer. Here performance, durability, ease-of-use, longevity, and sound quality (where applicable) are fundamental design considerations.

This extends to our engineering that ensures only top-caliber parts are selected for manufacturer. Manufacturing is done in house and is coupled with several levels of testing from PCB tests, to open chassis tests, to burn-in to final testing for each and every ADA component going out our doors.

Dealers know they are getting a product that has a near zero percent failure rate out of the box. For custom installation where the profitability equation is less about SKUs per square foot and inventory turns and more about attainable margin and cost of man-hours, failure free installation as well as using products that can take the occasional “oops” hit that can occur during an installation, makes ADA a key element in partnering with their success.

And while less to do with product and more to do with philosophy, ADA’s dealer sales department works hand in hand with its dealer base to ensure accurate system design, timely delivery (as close to JIT as we can get), accurate and swift answers to questions, and no-nonsense support (if a dealer has a product that isn’t working right and advance replacement is available, we ship first and ask questions later).

An excellent reflection of these values is ADA’s back to back win of Inside Track’s Annual Dealer Loyalty Survey for the Custom Installation segment.

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Rick: (optional question for vendors who cross into commercial systems)
7): I believe this is primarily impacting the commercial space, but what (if any) effect to your dealers and specifiers see from the Recovery and Reinvestment Act or any other incentives to include US made products into taxpayer-funded Municipal, Education, and Government projects?

Richard:
ADA sells some product to the US government as well as contractors doing work for the United States. In these instances there is always an effort to use products manufactured in the US.

Aside from these experiences, we are not in a position to comment farther.

That said, Made in the USA does have traction and perhaps more so overseas than here at home. Our export business is strong and Made in the USA carries a moniker of quality unlike that of say Made in China.