Stoner, Inc.

Stoner, Inc. is a small, family-owned business located in

Lancaster County, the heart of Pennsylvania Amish country.

The company was founded more than 60 years ago by Paul

Stoner, an orphan, chemist, and entrepreneur who started the

business by making printing inks. In 1986, the company was

purchased by Paul Stoner’s grandson, Rob Ecklin, who

repositioned the company for growth and evolved the

product line to more than 300 specialized cleaners,

lubricants, coatings and car care products. Today, Stoner is

the largest supplier in the United States of aerosol and bulk

release agents for plastics and other molded materials. In

other markets, which include automotive car care and

electronics cleaning, Stoner is a niche player but is still highly

competitive with much larger companies.

Small Company, Big Results

With 43 full- and five part-time employees, Stoner is the

smallest business ever to receive the Malcolm Baldrige

National Quality Award. But you would not know that by

looking at its results, highly effective business structure and

corporate vision—to enjoy exceptional business results and

personal fulfillment with a highly effective team that provides

high-value solutions to lifetime customers. Since the early

1990s, Stoner has increased sales 400 percent and has won

three times as many customers as it has lost. 

Stoner, Inc. President Rob Ecklin personally managed the

company throughout the 1980s. While Ecklin is still the sole

owner, in 1990 he empowered a six-member senior

leadership team to manage the business. These hands-on

leaders facilitate strategic planning, develop team processes,

and mentor team members to implement the company’s

strategy. The company’s core values—exceed customer

expectations, foster and develop a motivated team, be

safety/health/environment responsible, innovate new and better

solutions, and continuously improve—guide all aspects of

Stoner’s business culture.

A Simple Approach—Leadership,

Strategy, Process

At the heart of Stoner’s success is the Stoner Excellence

System, visualized as a pyramid with leadership at the top,

supported by strategy and process. Stakeholder Value has a

prominent place in the center of the system and is

surrounded by Assess, Improve, Implement—the company’s

simple, but effective, three-step process for continuous

improvement. All Stoner employees, known as team

members, understand that continuous improvement is the

key to sustaining competitive success and are focused on

finding and implementing ways to add value for customers. 

Stoner’s Advisory Board, which includes people outside of

the company, is another resource to help provide direction

and focus to the strategic planning process and advice on

priority improvements. The board helps evaluate risk, assess

leadership effectiveness, and oversee financial and ethical

governance.

The leadership team uses a scorecard called “Stoner 60” to

set goals and measure business initiatives. The scorecard

identifies 60 key operational measurements, linked goals, and

strategic milestones for each of the next five years. Senior

2003

Award Winner

National Institute of Standards and Technology ● Technology Administration ● Department of Commerce

Baldrige National Quality Program

Highlights

• Stoner’s sales have increased 400 percent since 1990.

• Manufacturing productivity has increased 150 percent

since 1991.

• Stoner has had steady increases in employee satisfaction

and has exceeded best-in-class benchmarks.

• Since 2000, Stoner has reduced the amount of 

hazardous chemicals used by 31 percent.

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leaders regularly monitor and discuss business results;

compare them to the Stoner 60 goals; and develop

improvement action items at weekly, monthly, and quarterly

meetings. Stoner also uses an integrated key indicator

database, known as “Key 1,” to collect, analyze, and deploy

data to help in daily decision-making. The database helps to

spot emerging trends that require corrective action or

reallocation of resources. 

To manage data and increase customer satisfaction, Stoner

implemented an enterprise resource planning system that has

helped ensure that 100 percent of orders are shipped on the

same day they are received and has reduced shipping errors

to less than 0.05 percent of all orders shipped.

Outpacing Its Competitors

Creating stakeholder value at Stoner begins with the

customer. Product managers meet with more than 100

customers per year and sales team members speak by phone

with more than 1,000 customers each week to help define the

company’s direction based on what their customers want or

need. Since 2000, Stoner has won three times as many

customers as it has lost and over the past five years has

retained more than 98 percent of its top customers—those

accounting for over 60 percent of the business. Results from

a national industry survey show that Stoner’s attention to its

customers pays off. The company ranks first in satisfaction on

four of the five factors most important to its customers:

quality, delivery, service, and value. It is in the top quartile for

the fifth factor, price. Other stakeholders include Stoner’s

owner, Rob Ecklin; team members; suppliers; and the

community.

Through clearly articulated goals, the company’s vision

and mission, its strategic objectives, its values and beliefs, and

the established Stoner Excellence System process, Team

Stoner has achieved remarkable results. Stoner, Inc. has

sustained consistent profitability that has grown along with

its sales, fueling the company’s improvement initiatives and

growth. Manufacturing productivity has increased 150

percent since 1991, and weekly average output of aerosol can

products has increased 33 percent from 1998 to 2003.

Stoner’s 39 percent return on assets exceeds the industry

average by 29 percent and its best competitor by 14 percent.

The company’s detailed approach to continuous

improvement also has led to a significant increase in Stoner’s

automotive market share for its glass cleaner, “Invisible

Glass,” from 5 percent in June 2002 to 29 percent in October

2003, gaining more than 15,000 retail outlets. 

As a chemical specialty company, Stoner is well aware of

the impact its products could have on the environment. One

of the more attractive aspects of Stoner to consumers is its

commitment to developing environmentally friendly

products. Stoner has reduced the amount of hazardous

chemicals used since 2000 by 31 percent, and its use of more

environmentally friendly water-based formulations has

increased by 74 percent.

Motivated Employees, 

Team Culture

According to its team members, Stoner, Inc. is a great

place to work and they take pride in the company’s ethical

business culture. A team member survey conducted by the

Hogan Center for Performance Excellence shows that

Stoner scored in the top 10 percent of companies surveyed.

Stoner team members are more satisfied with the content and

quality of training they receive (83 percent vs. 72 percent for

the survey average); believe that their company provides

high-quality products and services (98 percent vs. 91

percent); believe that management views quality as being at

least as important as getting the work out (94 percent vs. 71

percent); and believe that their customers would rate their

company as one of the best to do business with (96 percent

vs. 90 percent). Stoner’s overall favorable percentage of

satisfied team members has increased from 72.8 percent in

January 2002 to 79.5 percent in July 2003—exceeding the

benchmark of 64.8 percent. Overall morale of Stoner team

members has increased from 64.6 percent of team members

who are enthusiastic about their jobs in January 2002 to 74.5

percent in July 2003, exceeding the benchmark of 60.5

percent.

Such high ratings are attributable not only to the priority

Stoner, Inc. gives to its value-based corporate culture but also

to the investment the company makes in its people. New

team members receive a two-week orientation before starting

their jobs. In addition to ethics and safety training, new team

members spend one day shadowing every job in the company

and have a personal meeting with the company president. 

Reaching Out to the Community

As a successful business located in a small, rural area,

Stoner, Inc. is a vital and responsible member of the 

local community. Stoner contributes more than $30,000

annually—a fourfold increase in the past five years—to

various organizations, including $5,000 to fully fund the

Junior Achievement program in the local elementary school

and $5,000 to sponsor the local art museum. Stoner team

members also volunteer more than 1,000 hours to local

organizations, especially those supporting children’s causes,

community development, and promotion of business

excellence. The Spina Bifida Association, the Lancaster Boys

Club, and the Occupational Development Council that

supports handicapped workers are all beneficiaries of Stoner,

Inc.’s involvement in the community.

For more information, contact:

Stoner, Inc.

Attn: Baldrige Inquiry

1070 Robert Fulton Hwy.

Quarryville, PA 17566 

Telephone: (717) 786-7355 ext. 3104

Fax: (717) 786-8819

E-mail: baldrigewinner@stonersolutions.com

Website: www.stonersolutions.com

235 25 50 97 98 75 PMS

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Job No: 2003-4434

Date: 2-26-04

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Version: Stoner

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