Harvard Club of Sarasota

Sun Hydraulics Factory "Tour + Taste + Talk" with CEO Allen Carlson

RESERVE TICKETS NOW for Tuesday Jan 15 from 4pm - 8 pm. Tour Sun Hydraulics Bradenton Factory next to SRQ Airport. Then travel to USF Sarasota-Manatee for Hors d'oeuvres Buffet, followed by Presentation by Sun CEO + Executive Team.

PRODUCTS: Sun is a leading designer and manufacturer of high-performance screw-in hydraulic cartridge valves and manifolds. These devices become an integrated fluid power system in another manufacturer’s product to control force, speed and motion by pushing, pulling, lifting, lowering or holding. 

Visit Sun Hydraulics Website

 

 CAPTION:  Clockwise from Upper left: Hydraulic cartridges valves, SUN Headquarters in Sarasota, integrated manifold+cartridges+remote control, animatronic violin, Sun-created portable robotic factory.

MARKETS: Approximately two-thirds of product sales are used in the mobile market: off-road construction, agriculture, fire and rescue, utilities, oil fields, and mining equipment. This equipment is not fixed in place, the operating environment is often unpredictable and duty cycles are generally moderate to low.  The remaining one-third of sales are used by industrial markets: power units, automation machinery, metal cutting machine tools and plastics machinery where equipment is fixed in place in a controlled environment, and which operates at higher pressures and duty cycles. Other growing markets are wind, solar, animatronics and stage shows installations.

                            

CUSTOMERS: The Company sells $200 million of its products globally via independent distributors. Approximately 60% of sales are outside the US.  Sun is a public company, profitable since it was started in 1970 with six plants around the world employing roughly a thousand people.

CULTURE: Sun Hydraulics has a unique application of manufacturing excellence. There are no job titles or job descriptions. There are no organization charts. No performance criteria. No bonuses and no perks. No regularly scheduled meetings. No approval levels for capital or expense spending. No goals. No offices or high-walled cubicles. If peers accept an idea, then "management" is presumed to accept it - hence the need for very little management. Every employee is simply expected to figure out where they fit.

LEADERSHIP: Allen Carlson, CEO joined the Company in March 1996 and was named President in May 2000. He is a graduate of the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School in 1999 and the Milwaukee School of Engineering. With over 38 years experience in the fluid power industry and 16 years with the Company, Mr. Carlson has deep institutional knowledge and perspective regarding the Company’s strengths, challenges and opportunities. Tricia Fulton, Chief Financial Officer is a graduate of the HBS General Management Program in 2006.  She joined the Company in March 1997 and was named Chief Financial Officer in 2006. Tim Twitty, Officer of the company since 2007 graduated from the HBS Advanced Management Program in 2012. He is responsible for manufacturing operations leadership, factory automation and process development. 

 Fluid Power is Green Energy =  Wind, Ocean and Solar Power Applications