The Crafts Technology family is extremely proud to announce that our Director of Engineering, Jeffrey Roberts, has received the Young Leaders Award from the Technology and Manufacturing Association of Illinois.

Jeff received this award due to his accomplishments which he achieved through innovation and a teamwork mentality that is highly regarded by the younger generation within the manufacturing industry.

Jeff has been a member of the Crafts Technology team for 10 years with varying roles that have culminated in his becoming the Director of Engineering.

Throughout this time, Jeff has been a catalyst for continuous improvement and growth within the company.

Some of Jeff’s major accomplishments include:

• Innovations leading to 3 Pending Patents
• Lean Manufacturing Integration
• Automation Integration
• Cultural Development
• Website/Social Media Marketing Platform

In his acceptance speech, Jeff went out of his way to credit the people and teams with which he has worked.

He also highlighted three specific teams:  his family, company, and community.

We at Crafts Technology adhere to this same belief, that the teams we work with are what make us great.  This mentality is critical to the culture we have created at Crafts, a culture that revolves around teamwork.

Once again, we congratulate Jeff on receiving this award. We could not be more proud of him and what he has accomplished. We also thank him for the recognition of being members of his teams that have led him to this award.

Below is the video of Jeff’s acceptance speech, with the transcript:

Thank you Ty and Sam for that gracious introduction.

And thank you to the TMA and the Young Leaders for this honor.

I promise not to take too much of your time …. I think I can already hear the cut off music….

To provide thanks for this gracious award I thought I would talk about teamwork.

To me, teamwork is putting together individual skills & abilities into something that is far greater then any one of the individual parts.

When Teamwork is done correctly the results are significant and can change the way we view and interact with the world.

To me teamwork shows up in three areas of life,

family – work – community.

Each one of these areas builds upon the other to generate a chain of teams that can handle anything.

Teamwork begins with family.

My team is my wife Kiley, our daughter Sutton, and soon to be second daughter. 

Through this teamwork we are able to manage the ups / downs of life, and build a loving and successful family that is always there for one another.

Thank you Kiley for being an amazing wife, mother, and the everything of our team.

You are the main reason I am able to receive this award, thank you.

The next leg of teamwork within life is work, and to me that is the team we have developed at Crafts Technology.

This team includes Joe Abbate and Jeff Taylor who are here tonight, but also all the other 40+ owners of our organization.

As a 100% employee owned company teamwork is everything we do.

Through teamwork and ownership we have developed trust where we can function with a high level of autonomy.

This autonomy allows us to try new things, experiment, innovate, and learn so we can solve problems in new ways.

We are only beginning to see the substantial benefits that can be produced through this teamwork.

Thank you to the Entire Crafts team for this honor.

The final & third leg of teamwork in life is community.

Through the TMA I have had the great privilege of being a part of a unique peer group for over 5 years now.

Started by Jeff Majewski, we were able to develop a team of peers that face similar problems within manufacturing.

Our team meets on a monthly basis and shares stories, pains, and solutions to problems that we all face.

Through brainstorming and feedback we are able to better ourselves, our organization, and our community.

This team includes:

Lynn Dreisliker – Dreisliker Motors

Ryan Carr – Carr Machine & Tool

Timothy Stoll – Armin

Jeff Majewski – Krisdee

George Gatto – Gatto Industrial Coaters

Robert Lindstrom – Tri-Star Engineering

David Karbin – Lexco Cable

Thank you all for helping me receive this award.  

With that I want to once again thank the TMA and young leaders for this award, as well as each one of the teams in my life … it is only through these types of teams that anyone can achieve awards such as this.  Thank you.