Like her grandfather who started General Magnaplate almost 70 years ago, Ashley Saunders Russo is a bit of an entrepreneur herself.
Ashley RussoThe Chief Operating Officer for the Arlington, Texas-based finisher has been overseeing consolidating Magnaplate’s operations through the merging of the New Jersey and the Texas facilities that started in 2019, but Russo has always had several irons in the business fire.
A self-proclaimed ‘born entrepreneur,’ Russo is an accomplished author and media personality, having produced content for many national publications, including Women’s Day, Prevention Magazine, and Cooks Illustrated. She has also served as a producer for the Weather Channel, NBC’s Today Show, and Bloomberg L.P. before building her own company, the Emmy-award winning ASR Media Productions, which quickly became one of the leading television companies in the greater Eastern Pennsylvania area.
These days, though, her challenges are focused on running General Magnaplate alongside her mother, Candida Aversenti, the company CEO, and Aversenti’s husband, Edmund, the company’s president.
“I am very involved in the day-to-day processes and recent enhancements being made,” says Russo, who oversee’s General Magnaplate’s product lines, customer experience, quality and safety.
Consolidating Operations to Texas
General Magnaplate's Plant1 Tufram line.The consolidation of General Magnaplate’s New Jersey and Texas facility began in mid-2019. The move combined all engineered coating processes under a single roof to maximize efficiency, improving lead times for clients and strengthening the focus on customer satisfaction through innovation, performance, product quality, and experience.
Ashley Russo, right, and mother Candida Aversenti, the company CEO, and Edmund Aversenti, the company president.
General Magnaplate Texas operates out of two facilities: they constructed 3,500 square feet of new office space at one and renovated the other, including demolishing their old sales, quality control and production offices. This opened up roughly 5,000 square feet of warehouse space, which they now use for masking, incoming/outgoing inspection and production staging.
In addition, they updated their proprietary Tufram line with new tanks and processing technology, enabling them to run more parts with greater speed and efficiency.
“General Magnaplate has grown substantially in the last five years,” says John Larsen, the company’s vice president/general manager. “By creating a more open work area and eliminating a lot of wasted space, we’re now able to streamline a lot of our operations. This will allow us to better track customer orders, improve our quality and delivery processes and increase staff as business continues to grow.
Project manager Ligon de Vogel says the move to Texas was a step General Magnaplate had to take.
“The construction cleared up a lot of congestion,” de Vogel says. “It also created a better flow throughout our shop, improving the safety and quality of our work.”
Candida Aversenti says Russo brings a lot of energy to the company.
“She is no stranger to running a successful business, with numerous accomplishments in the field of journalism and media production for over 20 years,” she says.
Russo says she has been channeling her late grandfather’s business drive and mentality since becoming COO of the company, which has 90 employees working two shifts.
“My grandfather’s entrepreneurial spirit is at the heart of General Magnaplate operations,” she says. “The difference between other coating suppliers and us is our commitment to unique, problem-solving solutions.”
Founding of Magnaplate Testing
General Magnaplate founder Dr. Charles Covino.Founder Charles Covino worked for a company that specialized in control systems for helicopters in the 1950s, and as part of the quality systems in place, metal testing was a necessity.
“My grandfather realized that service was controlled by a very small group of people,” Russo says. “They had the market cornered and charged very high prices for the testing. Always an entrepreneur, he seized on an opportunity and in 1952 founded Magnaplate Testing Laboratories, a non-destructive testing lab for the aircraft industry.”
As many small businesses did, Magnaplate Testing began in a two-car garage in Hoboken, New Jersey. Working closely with aerospace engineers and uncovering their struggles, Covino was determined to create solutions; he went on to invent a wide variety of coatings for both ferrous and non-ferrous metals.
As a result, nearly every space vehicle since NASA began has included thousands of individual parts coated by Magnaplate Testing’s proprietary finishes, including cameras, telemetry equipment, drills, fuel valves, landing struts, protective shrouds, seat tracks, frames, doors and windows, latches and hinges.
General Magnaplate's Arlington, Texas plant.In addition, other parts that Covino’s company helped finish included space suits and EVA components, toilets, the moon vehicle itself, and the drill and soil sampler used to bring moon rocks back to Earth.
Magnaplate Testing Laboratories soon evolved into General Magnaplate. After moves to Belleville and Bloomfield, New Jersey, General Magnaplate established its Linden, New Jersey facility in 1967. Expansion westward saw the Texas facility open in 1973, which is where all fabrication and most business units have consolidated.
Serving Wide Variety of Industries
Russo says General Magnaplate’s customers come from a wide variety of industries, including manufacturing, food processing, oil and gas, medical diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, and semiconductors. Primary contractors and subcontractors from companies both large and small are among our diversified customer base and include NASA, Gertrude Hawk, Black & Decker, Marcal, and the U.S. Army.
General Magnaplate Corporation is both a pioneer and a leader in the science of surface enhancement for metals and other substrates and has several proprietary coatings that it has developed. Tufram, Nedox, Plasmadize and Lectrofluor are among their most frequently requested coatings.
General Magnaplate's incoming inspection area.“The consolidation of Magnaplate manufacturing to Texas has brought all of our processes under one roof,” Russo says. “Processing lines have been expanded, and larger tanks can now handle larger part sizes on the Nedox and PF-F lines.”
New tanks were installed to increase capacity and processing speed on their Tufram lines and robotics in the Plasmadize department offers more precise and efficient processing.
“We’ve added several coatings to our long list of capabilities in the past few years — Nedox PF-F, Magnaplate 10K, and Tufram, Nedox and Plasmadize Basic,” Russo says. “We’ve made major upgrades to the plant’s infrastructure and production equipment, including a new water treatment system, spray booth and ovens, replacement and updates to electrical systems throughout the facility, and a new ventilation system.”
Unique Approach to Customer Service
Along with their many proprietary surface enhancements, Russo says General Magnaplate’s unique approach to customer service definitely sets them apart, and having a diversified customer base in a broad range of industries has also been a major advantage.
“As a global organization, worldwide licensees allow us to offer our exclusive processes to other nations,” she says. “U.S.-based companies with a global footprint easily access our coatings in other areas of the world.”
As COO, Russo constantly has to keep customer service in mind for General Magnaplate’s success. They have ISO 9001:2015 and AS9100:D certifications in place for their aerospace and industrial customers to show they provide the highest level of quality possible from a coating supplier.
Russo recently oversaw General Magnaplate’s implementation of a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system created specifically for the surface finishing industry. She says the system will both improve lead times and allow them to track orders more efficiently throughout the production process.
Combining Quality Management, Integrated Manufacturing Execution System
“The new ERP system combines a quality management system and integrated manufacturing execution system,” Russo says. “As it tracks orders, the ERP can capture any kind of production data as well as qualify personnel, equipment and outside vendors in real-time.”
The system allows General Magnaplate associates to have easier access to more detailed and nuanced information for complex processes, and the real-time information gleaned by the ERP will allow us to give customers precise updates on the status of their orders.
“A customer-first mindset has always been integral to our culture,” Russo says. “Our mission-critical goal is to better anticipate client expectations, needs and intent in order to deliver appropriate solutions and experiences.”
Utilizing her marketing and public relations skills built outside of the finishing industry, Russo knows full well that customer retention is a key focus for the company, and they are proud to have numerous, active, long-term clients. Part of that is the pro-active customer service approach.
“We are dedicated to collecting, analyzing and acting on customer feedback,” Russo says. “Our sales team prioritizes service and providing product knowledge to ensure customers are confident in their surface enhancement choices.”
Pro-Active Marketing and Public Relations
Ashley Russo and her mother, Candida Aversenti, the company CEO.Russo's also made sure that General Magnaplate routinely updates their website, create white papers, case studies and industry blogs, are active on social media and regularly share company news and updates both internally and externally.
The COVID-19 pandemic required many companies to ramp up production for critical equipment essential for saving lives. That includes a General Magnaplate client that manufactures valves for ventilators; four specific Tufram coated parts are integral to the valve that is used inside the ventilator system.
“The valve is a low pressure, high flow proportional valve that enables precision flow control enabling fast, accurate commands between the valve and microprocessor,” Russo says. “Consistency of the coating is very important and ensures the valve operates with efficient airflow control.”
Giving back has been a major focus of General Magnaplate over the years, and will remain top-of-mind with Russo, who has been honored with a number of awards, including the Betsy Torrence Philanthropist of the Year from Women United, and the Excellence in Business - Women in Business award from Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Channeling Grandfather’s Spirit
General Magnaplate COO Ashley Russo and late grandfather, Dr. Charles Covino, the company founder.Deeply dedicated to her community, Russo serves on numerous charity boards, including the United Way, and supports many charitable communities, including the American Heart Association and the NCC Foundation.
Russo pledges that General Magnaplate will continue to look for additional technologies and automated equipment implementation to streamline their processes. That includes empowering and supporting the 90 team members.
“Channeling my grandfather’s spirit, the team routinely challenges themselves to create new solutions to meet customer demands,” she says. “The future is bright. Always the heart of our success, General Magnaplate will continue to invest in our employees, providing professional development and education opportunities.”
