MDE International conducts real-world vehicle testing.

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Fifty-three-year-old MDE International learned an important lesson when it lost one of its biggest customers about six years ago, the Burton, Mich.-based vehicle-testing company says. It realized that, due to the market’s constant flux, it must embrace other forms of business. This lesson strengthened the company, and today it continuously develops testing solutions that keep pace with the industry’s changing demands.

These include MDE’s new staffing services division, which Director of New Business Development Richard Benoit says is becoming very successful since its inception almost two years ago. Benoit shared other secrets to his firm’s success in a recent interview with U.S. Business Review, such as how it maintains integrity in its operations and why real-world testing continues to be used along with computer simulation.

U.S. Business Review: What are some recent developments?

Richard Benoit: We brought on staffing services, a newly formed business unit at the beginning of 2007. We transitioned MDE the staffing (component) which was previously provided by others at our sites. We also are providing staffing services to our clients within the auto industry.
We have trained personnel that meet engineering, technical, office, administration and clerical consulting requirements. It’s going very well. We see a lot of changes in the industry today, with early retirements and buyouts at the positions that need to be supported on an ongoing basis back at the parent companies, and we’re able to fill many of these requirements with our staffing services.

USBR: Describe your key strengths in the industry.

RB: Our key strengths are the quality of the work we do, the knowledge of the work we’re doing and the integrity we provide. By integrity, I mean that starting from our president we maintain a very constant watch on the work we do so it complies with the customer requirements. We make sure all locations across the country have one common process that guarantees that integrity and quality. We are ISO 9001-2000 certified and within that quality system we have developed processes and procedures, which are used throughout our organization – regardless of which location we are in, which provides consistent quality and integrity across all our sites.

USBR: What changes are you seeing in the marketplace?

RB: The overall economic climate of today does affect our business. The thing we’ve seen over the past few years is a reduction in mileage-accumulation vehicles. In the past there could have been 30 vehicles in a test program, today we see 10. A lot of this is because of the development of computer-based programs, which allow our customers to simulate testing. Another reason is that different departments within a customer’s organization are combining their test efforts using a common vehicle. One constant that remains is, we do real-world vehicle testing, where we take a vehicle out in the environment in a specific location and generate mileage accumulation using local personnel as drivers.  People in cold weather drive vehicles a certain way, vs. drivers in a hot and dry environment. The usage of the vehicle, the conditions of the environment and the driving population all have effects on vehicles.    

USBR: How so?

RB: We ran a test program in North Dakota and one of the things we noticed after a heavy snowstorm was the people there would open the hood and find the engine area infested with snow. They automatically brushed it out. That’s not something we see here in Michigan. That was important to us because as a vehicle cools down the snow can create icing and water conditions in the engine compartment, which in turn, can affect components. That was good information for our customers whom we were providing the service for.

We definitely think the customer understands and appreciates this type of detailed information.
We go to Denver for altitude; Las Vegas for hot, dry conditions; Corpus Christi, Texas, for hot, humid conditions; and to Bemidji, Minn., for cold weather conditions. The customers specifically request those environments for the evaluation of their vehicles. Those environmental differences are one of the key elements of our mileage accumulation in those areas.

USBR: What are you most proud of at your operations?

RB: The integrity of our vehicle information. The reason I say that is our delivered product is quality vehicle information, and we support that information with our quality systems, processes and procedures. Additionally, the location of our environment test sites, our chosen alliance partnerships and a database developed specifically to support vehicle test information – that integrity is key to what we do for our customers.

USBR: What is a recent challenge your company has overcome?

RB: About six years ago, we lost a large contract with an OEM customer that was providing a large business opportunity for us. We had to change and find other customers. We actually gained strength in having to do that because it took us into providing services for additional customers we didn’t have before. It helped us to anticipate change in the industry today. You can’t wait for it to happen; you have to develop new relationships and new business opportunities and not rely so heavily on one customer.

USBR: What distinguishes MDE from the competition?

RB: One of the keystones of our testing operations is a product called Program Operational Guidelines. This falls under our quality system, but with every program we conduct, regardless of size, we develop operational guidelines. With this document we have a detailed work statement of exactly every item which has to be addressed on the program. This is a universal document we provide back to our customer to make sure we understand the requirements of their program. It also assures that any of our locations involved in these tests have the continuity required to conduct a successful test program.

We have also developed, over the years, a universal information systems database which supports all test requirements. This database can include all of the information and facts on a test program. It can be made available daily to any one of our customers and it’s a universal tool we found which satisfies the customer interface with any testing data or information about their programs. Our UIS database is copyright protected and is accessible to our customers 24/7, worldwide.

In addition to our own test sites, we also support three different proving grounds. In all of those areas we’re providing management services and staffing to support their needs. We’re also able to use those facilities for our own testing purposes. It’s expanded our services into the proving ground environments. Our typical test sites use public roads – these proving ground and research center areas provide us with specific vehicle events which can be conducted inside the proving grounds on specific road surfaces and constructed surfaces particular to a given test requirement.

USBR: Where would you like to see MDE in the future?

RB: Still in business. What we’re looking at down the road is, where can we apply our skill sets in the industry? What new business opportunities might be available? We have business planning skills, business management skills, operational skills and mechanical skills. We’re looking at how we can provide these skills and experience to the benefit of other industries.