In November 2024, Hankscraft Inc. celebrated the twentieth work anniversary of Ryan Subera, senior leader at Hankscraft. Over the past two decades, Ryan has been instrumental in expanding Hankscraft’s contract manufacturing services and capabilities, including the Hankscraft facility in Suzhou, China.
With a calm and thoughtful leadership style, Ryan is the person people turn to when they need an experienced perspective from someone who knows the company and the industry. “With my experiences over the last 20 years, I’ve gained insights that have allowed me to offer advice to my team to help move projects forward,” says Ryan.
“Ryan has been a key decision maker on Hankscraft’s most influential products and projects. He is a fantastic asset to our customers and company because of his depth of knowledge in design engineering, manufacturing processes, and supply chain logistics,” says Jon Tatooles, CEO of Hankscraft Inc.
As Ryan reflects on his career, he emphasizes the importance of four themes, transparency, strong relationships, clear communication and decision making.
Transparency in Business
As a leader at Hankscraft, Ryan reinforces his belief in open and honest business practices. He illustrated this in an example with a long-standing customer. Hankscraft discovered a quality issue with a part. It was the type of issue many vendors could have fixed independently, knowing the customer wouldn’t notice. Ryan knew that wasn’t in the customer’s best interest.
“We let our customer know about the potential issue, explained the problem, and shared our action plan to address it,” said Ryan. “This built confidence in our relationship and let them know we stand behind our product. In complex assemblies we know that issues can and do arise. It is how you address them that is just as important as not introducing them in the first place.”
Ryan added, “No one feels good about working with companies who are going to hide things. We hold a high standard for ourselves and for our suppliers.”
It’s important to research the issue’s impact and build strong customer relationships before addressing delicate matters, Ryan emphasizes.
Building Relationships
Integrity and relationship building are interrelated. Each build on and strengthens the other. Relationship building isn’t a skill taught in engineering school Ryan notes, but it is a skill worth developing.
Routinely reaching out to customers proactively, even without specific questions, allows Ryan to foster trust and gain valuable feedback.
“When you face challenges, it is much easier when you have a good interpersonal relationship with the customer,” says Ryan. “We take the time to understand the customer and their strengths and weaknesses, learning how best to work with them.”
Effective Communication
Building strong relationships is closely tied to being a skillful communicator. As Ryan explains, both are essential when navigating challenges and delivering quality results, both internally and externally. He recalls learning this through experience early in his career.
After designing, prototyping, and testing a component for a client, Ryan discovered that the products were failing after a short life cycle test. He traced the cause to a fundamental element of the design. The failure was because of his lack of familiarity with the part.
After digging deeply into the product definition with the customer, Ryan recognized the need to bring in an outside expert, specific to this part assembly. This resulted in a part that met life-testing requirements and a relationship with an expert consultant that has carried over into other projects.
“It is crucial to clearly communicate what’s going on in the project from the beginning,” says Ryan. “We have a kick-off process to discuss all the questions and needs up front, with all departments involved, helping everyone.”
Ryan applies the principle of cross-functional awareness and communication with Hankscraft’s Suzhou facility, making sure to explain not only what needs to be accomplished but why it is important. Providing his team with that kind of information has been highly effective in preventing unwanted outcomes. Communicating with a distributed, worldwide team is a skill in itself. Effective communication between facilities is a significant benefit for Hankscraft’s customers, as Ryan’s team has learned how to navigate distance, language barriers, and time differences with ease.
“Communication is such an important skill,” says Ryan. “It takes years to understand how to achieve effective communication with global teams—being concise but leaving no room for interpretation of meaning.”
Making Decisions
Ryan joined Hankscraft one year after the company started the Suzhou, China facility, a Wholly Owned Foreign Entity (WOFE). Building the WOFE taught Ryan the importance of being a logical and quick decision maker.
Ryan recalls his first few trips to China requiring on-the-spot decision-making. He often fielded tough quality questions from his global team such as, “Is this variance acceptable? Do we need to stop production?”
“I gather the data, make a decision, and go—it’s one of my strengths,” says Ryan. “While it may not always lead to the perfect answer—hopefully we are right more often than we are wrong—but it is important to be able to make that final decision.”
Being a decisive leader is crucial for moving projects forward in a timely manner and for building trust within his team. Ryan’s colleagues know him for his composure, intelligence, and reliability.
Ryan credits his sports background with honing his ability to think on his feet and staying composed under pressure. As the frequent team leader, captain, quarterback, or pitcher, Ryan was someone his teammates could count on—just as he is at Hankscraft.
Through honesty, relationship-building, effective communication, and decisive leadership, Ryan has been an important part of Hankscraft’s success story. Congratulations to Ryan on his accomplishments, and 20 years at Hankscraft.