Rod Cooper - El Jefe

New Mexico Business Journal, Oct, 1990 by Jack Hartsfield

Rod Cooper

Rod Cooper is bringing a breath of fresh air to Albuquerque's limping economy at a time it needs it the most. Cooper, with 35 years in the defense and space industry, eased back at his desk off Bluewater Road in Albuquerque, and talked about the future.

He's part of a vanguard bringing at least 600 job openings for the unemployed and underemployed for the Duke City over the next few years.

Economic forecasters see about 2,000 jobs on the way to Albuquerque in the next three years, helping to prop up the weak manufacturing sector.

Cooper, production operations manager for Martin Marietta's newest assembly facility off Bluewater Road in Albuquerque, sees the opportunity as a plus for Albuquerque and a plus for Martin Marietta's Information Sytems Group.

The 180,000-square-foot facility will be a beehive of activity to assemble two types of automated mail sorting machines for the U.S. Postal Service under nearly $190 million in contracts.

Martin Marietta expects to assemble more than 880 sorting machines in Albuquerque over the next three years using high-tech computer technology with contracts calling for options for hundreds of additional machines.

"We're not here temporarily," says Cooper. "When Martin Marietta makes a move, it moves in to stay."

With the U.S. Postal Service contracts, Cooper and Martin Marietta plan to build on the company presence in Albuquerque to expand operations in the future to include defense contracts.

The sparkling clean facility now housing the Martin Marietta operations was formerly an indoor junk yard for used restaurant equipment.

Cooper says Martin Marietta's selection of Albuquerque for the assembly facility supporting the U.S. Postal Service contracts wasn't a happenstance.

"We did an analysis of 10 or 12 potential locations across the nation," he says. "It turned out there was a $5 million advantage in the cost of operation if we came to Albuquerque...

"Then our studies showed the work force, the people, would be more productive, a higher work ethic," he notes. "That's why we're here."

In the Grant-Thornton Manufacturing Climate Study of 1989, Albuquerque ranked No. 1 in worker productivity.

Perhaps the most refreshing concept of the arrival of Martin Marietta is its insistence on hiring only the unemployed and underemployed.

In a unique marriage, Albuquerque's Technical-Vocational Institute has a contractual agreement with the Department of Labor to screen, train and certify the assembly workers for the Martin Marietta plant.

"T-VI incidentally sent some of its own people to our Denver plant to learn our assembly procedures," says Cooper.

Cooper, who grew up in the tiny farming community of Pine Village, Ind., population 300, said running the Martin Marietta plant in Albuquerque is all to his liking.

Out of the 600-member work force which will peak in 1992 under the postal service contract, only seven in the entire management structure will be career employees of Martin Marietta. The rest will be local hires, a majority likely to be women.

Of the 50 subcontractors and vendors involved in the postal assembly contracts, almost half are New Mexico firms, according to Cooper.

He'd like to have a lot more subcontractors right next door, he says, noting that perhaps as Martin Marietta continues to build and expand its Albuquerque operations, more subscontrators will be in-state.

"We do hope to bring more business here," he insists.

The first of the high-speed sorting machines is set to be delivered to postal facilities in San Diego next January. All told, the postal service is looking at almost 5,000 of the sorting machines for nationwide use.

Cooper said the initial work force at the plant is proving the statistical analysis of the unusual high motivational level. "Workers are making significant suggestions, working closely with each other," he says. "It's surprising and refreshing."

Once the plant hits high gear, Cooper says the work force will produce at least four of the complex sorting machines each day.

When the plant had its formal opening in August, the significance of the event was hardly ignored.

Secretary of the Interior Manuel Lujan Jr., of Albuquerque, assistant Postmaster General John Devon, U.S. Rep. Jeff Bingaman, Gov. Garrey Carruthers, Albuquerque Mayor Louis Saavedra and Martin Marietta's chairman and chief executive officer Norman R. Augustine were among those at the opening.

Cooper meanwhile says he's becoming more impressed by the day with the quality of the local work force.

If anyone might consider Martin Marietta made a mistake in coming to Albuquerque, Cooper said the aerospace giant should make more decisions like it.

Cooper and Martin Marietta are setting an example of a commitment to apply high tech and expertise gained in defense and aerospace work to other areas of national importance.

They've giving more than lip service to the company's future - and Albuquerque's future.

PHOTO : Martin Marietta technicians put a prototype mail sorter through its spaces. The computer system is the latest initiative by the U.S. Postal Service to speed mail processing.