Riverside Products - Future Focused

"Going forward for our future business, we know what we’re very good at now," says General Manager Kevin Toft. "We are focusing on using our strengths to grow."

The company’s strength lies largely in its commitment to researching and developing the latest in rotors and wear parts to provide shredders with innovative solutions. The company prides itself on its mission to go beyond standard accepted practice not only to solve problems now, but to pioneer the way the industry will approach shredding in the future.

John Stelk, engineering manager, says the first question Riverside Products representatives hear from customers at industry events is "What’s new?" The company’s focus on creating new solutions is a direct response to what its customers want, he says. "Our customers are always looking for something new and innovative," Stelk says. "We hold that in high regard and we try to make that happen."

That kind of long-term vision sets the company apart from its competition, according to Toft. "We know there will always be competitors that will be able to produce things at a lower price," he says. "Someone is always going to be out there to reverse engineer the new ideas. But we’re spending our time focusing on the new ideas that will meet our customers’ requirements and exceed their expectations."

Innovation in the rotor side of the business is extremely important because of Riverside Products’ rich history as a leading supplier in the shredding industry. The company has been in business for 48 years and has spent 30 of those years supplying rotors. Twelve of the 15 patents Riverside Products owns are rotor related—and the company has its sights set on increasing that number.

"There are numerous suppliers out there in the market that are producing the same old thing," says Riverside Products General Manager Kevin Toft. "They’re doing the same things that have been done for 20 years."

Engineering Manager and 30-year company veteran John Stelk says treading the same ground is no way to provide the best rotors to the industry. "It’s easy to stagnate and just do the same old thing," he says.

Innovation means continuing to challenge the norm, adds Toft. "We’re pushing hard—making these new designs and changes and pushing the designs forward trying to increase the performance of the shredders for our customers and reduce their cost per ton."

When it comes to wear parts, Toft says there are more suppliers in that industry than ever. Furthermore, there are different philosophies to compete with. "Some suppliers are low cost, high volume," he says. Instead of just being a parts supplier though, Riverside Products wants its customers to think of it as a problem solver. "We want to be the supplier of choice when a customer has a problem that can’t be fixed and we are working hard to be in that position" he says.

The company has continued to develop one of its signature products—the Riverside Revolution Rotor, which combines the attributes of both disc and spider style rotors by offering high weight while still feeding aggressively.

There are currently five Revolution Rotors in service across the country, Kevin Toft, general manager, says. However, even with the Revolution Rotor building a strong name in the shredding industry, Riverside Products continues to try to improve on an already successful formula. "We are continuing to make changes and advancements on those designs and try to learn more about what’s going on inside the shredder during the shredding process to see what changes we can make for future rotors."

The research is paying off. The company has also developed, produced and shipped four other brand new spider rotor styles this year alone, says Toft.

The innovation on the company’s rotor offerings is matched by efforts to find new and improved solutions in the wear parts industry. Riverside Products is working on two new materials. Both are alloy steels that are currently in sample production, and initial trial results have been extremely positive, Toft says.

One thing Toft and his team have discovered is that one innovation tends to lead to another. In the development of its new steel alloys, Riverside Products also started developing three new manganese materials that will be entering trials beginning in the first quarter of 2008. "Every time we develop one thing, it kind of snowballs," Toft says. "You look at one material, make a few small changes and then all of the sudden you’ve got one, two or three separate projects going. It’s tough to keep track of, but we’re constantly trying to make improvements and continue looking for our next big idea."

Formed in the fourth quarter of 2006, the think tank of sorts is an assembly of metallurgists and engineers from Riverside Products and several of its supplier partners, including Sivyer Steel and other foundries. Including cast alloy experts in the creative process helps the engineers at Riverside look at their shredding solutions from a fresh perspective, says John Stelk, engineering manager.

Blending these talents together, the goal of the Super Hammer Team is to develop new solutions to problems that might not even exist yet.

"In the past, we’ve reacted to problems," Toft says. "Problems were relayed back to us from the sales team, then engineering would try to come up with the solution, and after we’d designed that, we’d include the foundries." Now, the experts are gathered from the start, anticipating problems and trying to develop possible solutions before they happen.

"We’re spending time trying to look at even the simplest things, like how does a customer change out his hammers," Toft says. "They’ve got a standard way of doing everything right now. What if someone spent some time looking at those standard practices and seeing if there’s a better way?"

For Riverside Products, just because it’s always been done one way doesn’t mean that’s the best way to do it. "We choose to go after the unseen—that’s what we’re trying to do, think of a better way," says Stelk.