Jacob Gordon is the manager of enterprise planning and optimization at Walsworth. He leads the company’s long-range optimization roadmap, starting with product-to-plant strategy mapping that evaluates current production baselines and aligns products, processes and facilities for balanced workloads and sustainable growth. His day-to-day work centers on guiding the five-year optimization initiatives, coordinating with teams across manufacturing, supporting the transition of scheduling leadership and piloting new planning processes at Walsworth plants.
Thanks Jacob for taking some time out of your busy schedule to chat with us today. As a start, take us back to when you started with Walsworth and what the circumstances were.
Sure. I’ve been with Walsworth since March 2007. It really wasn’t any kind of grand plan. My wife, Jill, and I are both from the Marceline area and we’ve known each other since grade school.
In my senior year of college at Northwest Missouri State, I deployed with the Missouri National Guard, so (Jill) moved back home to Marceline and started her career in education. When I got back home, we decided to settle in the community and I applied at Walsworth.
My first job was as a seasonal laborer catching on the folders for spring yearbook delivery. That transitioned quickly into a management trainee role. That was my first real job at Walsworth – as a management trainee.
Jacob with his wife Jill, his daughters Avery and Spencer Grace and his son Jackson.
Were there any stops in your career before Walsworth?
I graduated from college in the fall of 2003, then left for my deployment that was just under a two-year deployment with the National Guard. Then I came back and was in insurance for around a year.
I interviewed for the management trainee program and took the seasonal position to get my foot in the door. I’ve been here ever since.
Let’s talk about the different roles and management positions you’ve been fortunate enough to have here at Walsworth.
From the management trainee program, the first job I had was 3rd shift bindery supervisor. From there, I moved into quality as a supervisor and some years later became Quality manager. I’ve spent a better part of my career at Walsworth in quality. I had a stop as learning/development coordinator and Cover Finishing supervisor. Most recently, I was the scheduling manager for the past three years.
Tell us about your new role.
I am now manager of enterprise planning and optimization. My first priority is ensuring there’s a smooth transition with our new scheduling supervisor, Leslee Smith, here in Marceline.
At the same time, I’m leading the rollout of our platform optimization roadmap beginning with product plant strategy mapping. That’s going to help us, at an enterprise level, align our products, processes and plants for a balanced workload, cost efficiencies and sustainable growth.
Can you discuss your day-to-day responsibilities now in your new role?
From an optimization and planning standpoint, we have the five-year initiatives plan and optimization was one of those initiatives. That team developed a five-year roadmap.
The first process in Product to Plant strategy mapping is to capture current baselines and map product mixes for each of our manufacturing facilities. This will begin with a pilot program in Ripon this month. We have been holding regular meetings to develop the process and I will be traveling to Ripon in the next few weeks. We’ll look to refine and repeat this process for all facilities over the next six months before considering future state and product mix in the latter part of 2026.
Jacob with his family
You’ve had a variety of different roles in manufacturing with Walsworth. Can you talk about the advancements you’ve seen the company make in technology and how prepared we are to deal with what’s coming in the future?
I’ve been here long enough to see us go from where we still made film on a regular basis to being completely digital. I’ve seen the Pre-press yearbook facility when it was still sizable to the number of people today processing more pages and jobs.
But I think the technology and automation we’re seeing in the future and the initiatives that we’re talking about over the next five years, including automation and robotics, are even more substantial than anything we’ve seen over the last 15 years.
You mentioned that you had the obvious family connection here at Walsworth, but beyond that, what has appealed to you the most about working in the print business?
Starting as a management trainee years ago I wasn’t sure what part of the business might interest me most. I’ve always gravitated toward operations, especially quality assurance, and the more I learned, the more it pulled me in. Even now, there’s rarely a week I don’t learn something new about printing or finishing. It’s that constant learning that has kept me in print.
If you were to pinpoint what has allowed Walsworth to be as successful as it has been for the past 85+ years, what sticks out to you?
Walsworth’s strengths have always been its leadership, from the people on the floor who keep production moving, all the way up to the Walsworth family, who invests in our communities and our future. It’s always been about leadership for me.
And that goes for my development in the company, as well. I’ve always had leadership interested in how successful I am as a person, so that’s been great.
When Jacob isn’t working, he and his family enjoy going to the lake.
Can you tell us about your family?
Sure. Jill and I have three kids. The oldest, Avery Kate, she is a freshman at Mizzou. Our second, Spencer Grace, she is a high school junior. Jackson Alexander is our baby boy, he is in 8th grade. Our dog Dax is an 8-year old German short-hair pointer.
What do you guys do for fun?
Our family enjoys time at the lake when the weather’s warm. We have a local lake here just south of Marceline. In the cooler months, I enjoy the outdoors and going to the farm. Jill and I stay busy with the kids.
Is there a favorite vacation that you guys took?
We’re not much of vacationers. Spending time with family is just sort of what we do for fun. The kids are always busy, so we’ve never really taken big vacations. Hopefully that comes around one of these days.
Do you have a favorite movie?
Casablanca – I like classic movies.
What about a favorite book?
I read about anything. I keep a little book of Zen on my desk. Sayings, parables, meditations and haiku that I look at daily. I also tend to revisit American classics and poetry. Emerson, Whitman, Twain.
What’s a fun fact about you that most people don’t know?
I think it’s the fact that I’m a third-generation Walsworth employee. We’ve had generational employees here in the Marceline facility for years and there’s fewer than there once was. I always use that as my fun fact when tours come in.
Do you have a favorite food or meal?
I’m a pretty simple guy. Biscuits and gravy anytime would be my go-to.
If you had a personalized coffee mug, what would it say?
I’m not really a customized mug type of guy. My wife’s in education as a kindergarten teacher so she gets mugs two or three times a year. Funny enough, I’ve got a broken mug on my desk I inherited in an office move that carries my pens and pencils. It says, “Oh fudge” and is brown.
Do you have a favorite memory or accomplishment from your career that you’re most proud of?
I’ve been fortunate that I’ve had a lot of firsts, new roles, new challenges and new ideas that have come to life at Walsworth. But what stands out the most is that leadership at every level has invested in my growth, and my goal each day is to carry those same values forward and help others build on that success.
I’ve had the opportunity to be the first modern management trainee and develop transitional roles from that program. Participate in initiative teams, including the initial Monarch implementation and most recently the Optimization team. Another unique experience some years ago, I was asked to stand up a data center, utilizing the Brookfield Pre-press with a third party.
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