E45 | Processes Don’t Fix Companies, People Do: Craig Shafer on Scaling Stellar Industries | Made In Iowa

one of my other favorite now that I've got that quote, I've got another one that I use a lot.

And luck is where opportunity and preparedness meet.

COVID brought a huge opportunity to stellar in that they had very coveted truck bodies in their possession.

Yes, that led to an operational tweak and operational change that allowed you to capture excessive market share quickly.

Sure.

So full credit to Dave and Steve Schneiders and Tim Davidson and the team at the time.

Dave made the call that said, we're not going to shutter production.

We're going to continue to work through it.

But obviously the sales weren't there to drive the same thing.

Money shut off and facilities shut down.

So what they decided to do was work what they called a base unit, right? We called it a work ready now.

And they said, we're going to make a truck that's going to be ready to be sold.

So if somebody wants to do an upfit, somebody wants to add something to it, we're going to have inventory on the ground that we can quickly deliver.

And what happened was as people came out, they said, well, we have this truck.

If you want it, it's ready today.

If you want us to upfit it, it's going to be weeks or months.

I said, well, I'll take it now.

because people still drove during COVID.

Let's talk about your product mix and the evolution of the product.

So when Stellar started in 1990, you were creating

Hook lifts.

Hook lifts was the first product that Stellar Industries first came out with.

And a hook lift does what?

It lifts stuff on a truck.

It's the best way to look at it.

one of my other favorite now that I've got that quote, I've got another one that I use a lot.

And luck is where opportunity and preparedness meet.

COVID brought a huge opportunity to stellar in that they had very coveted truck bodies in their possession.

Yes, that led to an operational tweak and operational change that allowed you to capture excessive market share quickly.

Sure.

So full credit to Dave and Steve Schneiders and Tim Davidson and the team at the time.

Dave made the call that said, we're not going to shutter production.

We're going to continue to work through it.

But obviously the sales weren't there to drive the same thing.

Money shut off and facilities shut down.

So what they decided to do was work what they called a base unit, right? We called it a work ready now.

And they said, we're going to make a truck that's going to be ready to be sold.

So if somebody wants to do an upfit, somebody wants to add something to it, we're going to have inventory on the ground that we can quickly deliver.

And what happened was as people came out, they said, well, we have this truck.

If you want it, it's ready today.

If you want us to upfit it, it's going to be weeks or months.

I said, well, I'll take it now.

because people still drove during COVID.

Let's talk about your product mix and the evolution of the product.

So when Stellar started in 1990, you were creating

Hook lifts.

Hook lifts was the first product that Stellar Industries first came out with.

And a hook lift does what?

It lifts stuff on a truck.

It's the best way to look at it.