When we hear the word ‘business,’ many of us invariably think of giant retailers like Amazon and Walmart, along with manufacturing titans like Apple, Toyota, Samsung, the Ford Motor Company, and others responsible for millions of jobs worldwide.

But conjuring up an SME would probably make more sense.

Small and medium-sized enterprises, commonly known as SMEs, play an important role in the economy; in fact, they make up the bulk of the world’s businesses. Although numbers and definitions vary, SMEs have fewer than 50 employees at the low end, and up to 250 at the upper. In the United States, an SME has a maximum of 500 staff members. While this is far less than major entities like Ford Motors and Google with about 173,000 and 174,000 workers respectively, the combined strength of SMEs is a force to be reckoned with.

Since SMEs are considerably smaller than the likes of IBM, Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, Johnson & Johnson, and other Fortune 500 companies, they are sometimes at a disadvantage compared to their massive counterparts. While big and small companies have many of the same obligations—hiring staff, payroll, budgeting, and marketing—owners of SMEs sometimes take on more than one role out of necessity. Bosses and workers putting in long hours is not uncommon.

There is also the challenge of income instability, especially at the start-up stage. Sometimes, owners have to rely on borrowing money from the bank, dipping into their personal savings, or even asking family and friends for a loan.

Of course, there are plenty of upsides to having your own small or medium-sized business. There is the pride that comes from having created something from scratch and not having to report (or justify) your every move to others. In their nimbleness, SMEs are often able to work closely with customers and address potential problems before they become an issue.

Since SMEs typically have a much simpler structure than larger businesses or manufacturers, there is much less red tape; decisions that can take weeks or months for other companies can sometimes be made in minutes. Customer service is often personalized, and often, industry partners are considered friends more than clients.

Internally, SME management is usually better connected to, and more in touch with, their staff than at companies with thousands of employees. Since everyone is working toward the same goal, there is a greater feeling of camaraderie. This often shows itself in community initiatives generated inside an SME, such as fundraisers suggested by employees to benefit favoured causes.

Worldwide, small and medium-sized manufacturers play an important role. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), SMEs comprise over 95 percent of enterprises. In the 38 OECD member countries—which include Australia, Canada, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Costa Rica—SMEs account for 60 to 70 percent of jobs. Specifically in manufacturing, SMEs play a major role.

According to the OECD paper Small Businesses, Job Creation and Growth: Facts, Obstacles and Best Practices, “First, it is not surprising that small enterprises/establishments play an important role in the job creation process since they account for between 40 and 80 percent of total manufacturing employment.”

Globally, SMEs as well as MSMEs (that’s SMEs with the addition of micro-enterprises) are important to the growth of all nations, particularly developing and least-developed countries (LDCs), as these businesses create jobs and stimulate economic development. A recent study from the World Bank—which provides low and middle-income countries with loans and grants tied to capital projects—noted that “formal SMEs contribute up to 40 percent of national income (GDP) in emerging economies.”

Along with creating employment, SMEs/MSMEs help boost trade, which helps to further generate economic activity. This can include manufacturers producing parts for the automotive sector.

In certain nations, such as China and India, SMEs are essential contributors to economic vitality. In 2017, India’s ever-expanding SME manufacturing industries, led by mobile devices and tech service companies, were responsible for 17 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).

As described by India’s The Economic Times in 2017, SME manufacturers were at an advantage because of the nation’s young demographic and widening Internet use. “The Internet can play to their advantage by incurring increased revenue, reduced costs, and higher productivity for their businesses,” stated the Times. “SMEs can reduce the cost of customer acquisition, provide better customer value propositions, and optimize their supply chains by going online.”

Fast-forward six years to August 2023 and the immense growth of SMEs in India: described as “crucial” to India’s economy, SMEs are now responsible for almost 45 percent of India’s overall industrial output, employing 62 million people and behind the creation of eight million new jobs every year.

In The Crucial Role of SMEs in India’s Economy and the Importance of SME IPOs, a report published on employment and business site LinkedIn, SMEs are a major contributor to India’s GDP, drive innovation, create new products and services, and offer “a platform for aspiring entrepreneurs to start their own businesses and become self-employed.”

From generating jobs to bolstering economic well-being, the value of SMEs continues to be recognized worldwide. There are about 33,185,550 small businesses in the United States alone, employing almost 62 million Americans.

Along with sustaining jobs and creating new ones, SMEs in the U.S. generate 32.6 percent of known export value and pay 39.4 percent of private sector payroll. And with some 38 percent of SMEs using specialized software, there is an added benefit to the suppliers of these programs and related tech services.

For investors, SMEs provide attractive opportunities because there is a significant risk-reward potential (compared to other investments). Since SMEs are less rigid and more nimble than large corporations, there is often more openness toward innovating new products, services, and solutions.

On the corporate governance side—which encompasses strategic planning, setting objectives, understanding risks and challenges and more—SMEs are often more transparent to investors. This encourages greater accountability and the development of appropriate, practical solutions to stimulate smart and sustainable growth.

Another key benefit stemming from SMEs is innovation. While large corporations have Research and Development departments, SMEs often encourage all staff members to contribute ideas for new products to manufacture or ways to improve existing ones. This ‘all for one, one for all’ mindset stimulates creative thinking and collaboration, which can result in groundbreaking solutions.

In a post-pandemic world, after supply chains were disrupted for years, SMEs have proven themselves to be reliable, resourceful suppliers of products and services domestically and internationally. Havens of innovation, SMEs are making their mark and making their presence known. In the future, small and medium-sized manufacturers will continue to benefit their local, national, and global economies, creating everything from kitchen cabinets to high-tech medical devices.

The post Small, but Not So Humble<p class="company">SMEs in Manufacturing</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

The company also serves the military, agricultural and forestry, heavy equipment, and railway industries. More recently, it made a debut delivery to its first client in the medical sector. Alongside its work in all these markets, the company notes a marked increase in the demand for commercial firearm components.

As President Chelsea Lantto points out, blacksmithing is nearly as old as civilization itself. With an iron will and an even stronger commitment to continuous modernization, the company recently revealed impressive upgrades to its 100,000-square-foot production facility in Trenton, Michigan. While its five identical hammer lines traditionally formed the backbone of the company’s offering and made low-volume work possible, its leadership believes that remaining relevant trumps tradition.

As a result, and partially fueled by potential future labor shortages, robotics is now being employed to complete repetitive tasks in work environments unfortunately considered undesirable for a modern workforce. Despite the forging environment remaining as hot and loud as ever, automation has freed the company’s growing workforce to execute the complex tasks better suited to providing a more satisfying work experience.

“There is a lot of opportunity in new equipment and new technologies,” says Vice President Dane Moxlow of the art of thriving in an age of increasing volumes and higher costs.

The company’s heftiest investment rolls in at around $7 million, comprising a fully-automated forging system based on a 2,500-ton press that needs human involvement only for loading base materials and collecting the final product. To house all the new equipment of the system, the company built another facility on site, with specialized foundations to accommodate the weight and impact of the current process machinery plus two more planned systems—all in record time.

Built in less than 12 months—during the peak of the global supply chain chaos—the building allows the team to produce much heavier components consistently while adding a second shift to its production output. This is a dream that had been, up until now, prevented by local by-laws preventing nighttime noise pollution. In this way, Trenton Forging can now answer its clients’ need for repeatable, high-volume component runs, something the company has seen a significant increase in as some manufacturers return production to the United States following the supply-chain issues of recent years.

Unlike many others in manufacturing, Trenton Forging Company also has a growing staff of nearly 100, and its leadership is full of praise for the people that make up the team. “We can’t do what we do without our team members. They are the heartbeat of the company,” says Lantto. There is indeed a lot to be said for working in an industry that can be as tough and demanding as this.

“The culture around manufacturing as a career is not what it used to be. Many of our competitors are in the thick of having ongoing manpower issues. That’s not the case for us,” she says, confirming that the company is well-prepared for labor fluctuations through thorough training, ongoing development, and maintaining a positive company culture. Indeed, Trenton Forging Company’s reputation for excellence is such that a recent, urgent call from a Tier 1 customer in a bind saw the fully approved production parts roll out of its doors only four weeks later.

To ensure quality standards are maintained across all its markets, the company is compliant with the International Standards Organization’s 9001:2015 quality management certification. To this end, Trenton delivers in-depth quality checks on even the lowest-volume component runs, ensuring that longstanding customers repeatedly return for continuity on everything from simple to complex jobs.

In addition, strict data collection measures are in place, allowing detailed insight into every process. The company also has an integrated strategic energy management system to ensure power resources are used wisely.

“We lead an extremely successful company as a unit. Given the statistic that people love to throw at us about third- and fourth-generation failure rates, it happens, luckily, to light our fire,” she says of the tremendous privilege of teaming with a sibling to lead the legacy company.

Founded by George Moxlow in 1967 on land that had been a cornfield until he took up a shovel and dug the foundations of the original building himself, Trenton Forging Company is proud to still call 5523 Hoover Street in Trenton, Michigan home. Today, the historical footprint is contrasted by an ultra-modern forging outfit prepared to serve the United States and beyond with expert knowledge and technology to facilitate reverse engineering, forge tooling, forging, welding, machining, and more.

Forgers hot-work steel and other metals into components under high pressure, lending significant additional strength to such parts while keeping the grain structure intact. Thanks to Trenton’s intelligent and nimble set-up that includes an on-site tooling facility, the company is especially in demand for delivering custom work that is tough to come by these days.

By continuously expanding its capabilities and capacity, the company meets customers’ needs for low- and high-volume work at a price and value level that positively distinguishes it from other suppliers—despite heavy ongoing Asian competition. This work ranges from specialized, job shop volumes to high-volume, repeatable work. To further support its automation process, the company aims to hire another 40 staff members or so over the next five years.

“We are taking the onshoring opportunities extremely seriously—not just for Trenton Forging but for the forging industry in North America as a whole. Because it is incumbent upon all of us within the industry and supply chain to make sure that we avoid what happened in microchips with forgings,” Lantto says, pointing out that if it floats, flies, or rolls, it contains forgings.

“The world runs on forgings; they fuel the global economy. So we have to make sure that we do everything we can to keep that forging capacity, knowledge, and know-how stateside,” she continues. One factor that will continue benefitting Trenton Forging Company well into the future is its competency in planning—a characteristic its customers and staff have come to know and trust implicitly.

Leading with resilience, sustainability, and the ability to adapt rapidly, as was evident with establishing its new facility, the two young leaders are well equipped to take their family legacy to the next level with an ever-growing range of quality critical components, building on the five acres of land their grandfather dug with his own two hands.

The post Consistent, Competitive, Fast<p class="company">Trenton Forging Company</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

But don’t think these racers started out on those charged-up 500cc motocross machines. Almost all begin young on 50cc mini motocross bikes—small and fierce like their riders. And for many a present-day champion, the first ride was a yellow Cobra Motocross minibike. Little but mighty, these bikes were first built in 1993 in a tool and die shop in Ohio.

Cobra MOTO was first with race-worthy automatic motorcycles and had a monopoly on the market until global competitors got in on the game.

Putting the power into powersports
‘Powersports’ is the umbrella term for activities involving off-road vehicles like ATVs, snowmobiles, personal watercraft, and motorcycles. It’s also a market that was worth as much as $37 billion in 2022.

About 20 years ago, eyeing the powersport industry, an engineer named Sean Hilbert and business partner Phil McDowell put together a business plan that proposed transforming it with lighter, stronger, and faster engineering. The two partners bought Cobra in 2003 from the original owner and started work on higher-performance propulsion systems, building and expanding Cobra (now celebrating 30 years of building minibikes!).

Although for the first five or so years the new ownership focused on motocross, over time their transformation of the company has been sensational. They have evolved the business out of the original tool and die shop into a family of companies that manufactures roughly 2,000 propulsion systems used in everything from racing and firefighting to underwater vehicles and aerospace.

As part of their larger plan, Hilbert and McDowell also brought the Cobra Family of companies to Hillsdale, Michigan, where Cobra now runs all its operations. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation helped fund a move that would bring good manufacturing jobs to the state.

Making it in Michigan
“Michigan is a great place for manufacturing. I had a relationship with Michigan State University and the University of Michigan. I also knew, from a technology and a skill set standpoint, that this was a great place to manufacture,” says Hilbert, President of Cobra Aero.

“The skill sets around manufacturing and technology are second to none. There are more engineers per capita in Michigan than any place on the planet,” Hilbert says, and he should know, graduating from a joint MIT program with a degree in engineering as well as an MBA.

After Cobra’s move to Michigan, the company experienced the dizzy ups and downs that many businesses go through. “We grew like crazy for a couple of years and things were going well. Then the global economic meltdown happened,” says Hilbert.

Like many other industries during 2008 and over the next four years, Cobra’s powersport market shrunk by 80 percent. Three years later, the primary group of competitors in the market dropped from nine companies to two.

“We survived by very aggressively exporting and we were way ahead of the onshoring trend,” Hilbert says, modestly attributing the visionary strategy that put Cobra ahead of the curve to necessity. Looking at all the hard and soft costs of outsourcing, Hilbert and McDowell concluded that if the company was going to outsource to Asia, it had to cost 10 times less than what the product could be made for at home in the U.S.

As Hilbert saw it, “The easier calculation was that we could keep the men and women of Cobra working in Michigan, which not only was great for morale but also allowed us to very accurately fit what the market demand was.” This meant—for one thing—that Cobra did not have excess amounts of inventory lying around. “Our competitors were filing for bankruptcy because all their cash was used up in inventory while we were meeting the market demand as it came about,” says Hilbert.

The truth was that at the time, Cobra was still mainly committed to the production of mini dirt bikes which fell squarely into discretionary spending for most households, and that’s always the first spending to be cut when times get tough. And as with many manufacturers, the need to diversify suddenly became vital to the continued growth of Cobra.

Enter the military
With ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, the demand for propulsion of small, specialized military vehicles was growing. Hilbert spoke to a U.S. Army general about this.

“He said, ‘So you’re an engine person? You have automotive experience and you know how to make performance engines?’ I said, ‘That’s what we do. Our background is automotive, but powersports is what we do now.’”

The army was using airplanes called ISRs, or ‘intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance’. Usually, when we think of reconnaissance, we think of something like fabulously fast, high-flying U2s. But small remote-control aircraft other than drones are also used as ISR airplanes. And these small planes are equipped with $250,000 camera systems to gather intelligence. The problem was that the engines in these planes were not much more sophisticated than a $300 hobby shop engine.

As the general told Hilbert, “I’m losing a million dollars of cameras every week because the engines aren’t performing.” So Cobra developed a solution, which resulted in contracts with the U.S. Navy and other militaries around the world.

Now, with aerospace customers on board, Cobra has also pursued new ventures made possible through electrification. “On the motorcycle side, we launched our first electric product this year. On the aerospace side, we have hybrid electric systems that are both electric and engine-powered. Those are two big transitions that the company’s going through and it’s happening as a result of digitizing our manufacturing processes.”

Powering into digital
Digital transition and Industry 4.0 are now very much at the core of Cobra’s manufacturing technology, with a particular emphasis on additive manufacturing and 3D printing. The business is rapidly transitioning from analog processes like injection molding and casting to creating products through additive manufacturing for both metals and plastics. Everything is printed versus being cast or molded, enhancing speed and creativity.

“In the aerospace business, we take additive manufacturing to the full end of the spectrum from product design to manufacturing,” Hilbert says. The many advantages include making prototypes a lot faster and providing the flexibility to completely rethink how a product is designed. The team is always thinking in terms of extreme lightweighting and consolidating the parts, and the efficiency gains have been game changers.

When the approach is applied to aerospace materials, costs are greatly reduced and as a result, Cobra does not feel the same cost pressure as in the consumer market.

Digitization has put Cobra in a position to stretch what it does for motorcycle manufacturing as well, says Hilbert. “Consolidation and extreme lightweighting features and forms allow function that you could never have with any other manufacturing technology.”

This commitment to 3D printing has led to impressive innovations. Cobra is making an engine cylinder for the U.S. Navy with improved cooling performance, for example.

“We want to be able to efficiently cool the engine under all kinds of circumstances, like in the hottest desert conditions. We have created these very small water passages that allow high coolant velocities inside the engine, and this cools an engine much quicker than any other way of doing it. But you could never cast that feature; you can’t machine that feature in because it’s internal to the engine itself.”

After taking a tool and die shop that specialized in minibikes and turning it into a multifaceted manufacturing company, the big question, of course, is what’s next?

“3D printing opened our eyes to a whole new range of ways to keep product lifecycle data. Suddenly it wasn’t just a material that you got from your supplier, but you can actually keep the entire manufacturing data as you’re creating this new part. You can look at temperatures, you can look at where they’re being built in the building chamber, oxygen content, and laser power.”

New vistas
Running the business today is also about managing more information for a fully traceable manufacturing system, all the way back to the very origins of a given part in Cobra’s catalog. Once again, Cobra is at the forefront of manufacturing. It’s creating databases that track the early origins of the part through additive manufacturing, subtractive manufacturing, assembly, and checkout. The team can even tailor efforts based on customer information. Big data has possibilities.

“Just imagine where that could go in the future,” says Hilbert. “We could mine those data sets using machine learning and get a full understanding of how our products are used in the marketplace and how we can make them better.”

The post From Kids’ Motocross to Military Intelligence – The Digital Transformation of a Motorbike Company<p class="company">Cobra Family of Companies</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Known for the best in enclosed multi-disc wet and dry brakes, mechanical and hydraulic calipers, and more, the company, based in Benton Harbor, Michigan, is also known for its high level of customer engagement. As a result, Ausco’s domestic and international clientele knows that as a private equity-owned family firm, the company does not entertain ideas of merging with any big conglomerates any time soon. That also means nobody is in danger of ever becoming just another number.

The company also takes good care of all its team members, who share in its profits annually, and handpicks its suppliers based on capabilities, quality, and service.

Thanks to its precision engineering and penchant for developing unexpected concepts that turn first-time customers into lifelong partners, there is nothing ordinary about this team or its work, as Kyle Harbison, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, points out. After more than three decades focusing on designing and fabricating some of the most specialized off-highway brake assemblies around the globe, Ausco’s range is expanding at the same rate as its innovation—fast.

As the team develops custom solutions for most clients, even its standard products can be adapted. With around 90 percent of its work based in customization, this is a team that courts challenges, figuring out solutions as a matter of course.

The off-highway vehicle industry moves comparatively slower than other vehicle industries. As full electrification of abnormally sized off-highway vehicles used in areas like mining and construction is still some way off, Ausco’s custom brake and clutch engineering continues to be popular amongst companies in possession of such heavy-duty fleets. This is why Ausco’s customers often return for more than unique brake assemblies; once the team has installed what customers originally purchased, it is not uncommon for them to continue onto other issues customers may be experiencing on their vehicles, investigating possibilities to optimize them.

Naturally, ensuring that its installations work optimally is also part of the service. “We test to some of the worst conditions these vehicles might see,” says Harbison, “and we do a lot of that testing in-house. We have a testing laboratory with three full-time engineers and a research and development technician,” he says. One product currently being tested is run for 1 million cycles to ensure absolute safety. In addition, as customers enhance the size of their vehicles, Ausco has even tested competitors’ brakes on their behalf to support the development process of new components as vehicles evolve.

This type of work can include modifying brakes to include other hydraulic components within the assembly, such as actuation components or oil tanks, with one such case becoming a years-long collaboration on a brand-new, unique product that is soon to be introduced to the market. “The more we learn about the customer’s application, the more we try to help them solve their problem. In the off-highway industry, there’s very little standardization, [contrary to] the automotive industry,” says Harbison. “In our world, nobody makes the same mounts, the same setup. There is some repetition in some of the more commoditized product lines, but mostly our industry is custom.”

One of the company’s new star products is spring-applied hydraulic caliper brakes. These fail-safe brakes release when a vehicle operator starts the engine or hydraulic system and apply when it stops—keeping tremendously heavy vehicles perfectly stationary no matter how rough the terrain or what degree of slope they are parked on. “We have extensive experience doing this with multi-disc brakes, but we are now including fail-safe calipers in our focus. We are releasing several new series of caliper brakes with the focus on them being fail-safe, alongside a few other products,” Harbison shares. “I always like to say that our volumes are between 10 and 10,000 [for complex components]. But that is not a limitation for us. On our mechanical calipers, we make 350,000 a year for a select group of customers,” he adds.

With innovation being a core value, the company has come up with a novel way of keeping its entire staff of 150 meaningfully employed. For the past year, it has been testing what it calls its 3-1-3-7 shift rotation, which has proven to be a tremendous success, allowing for more continuity and removing the frustration of machinists having to adjust equipment to suit their preferences every few hours. That allows for machines to remain in the same setup for seven days at a time, making for improved comfort and efficiency. Shifts are typically arranged to have one group working 12-hour shifts over two rounds of three days broken by a single-day weekend. This 3-1-3 loop then runs into a seven-day break. While Group 1 is hard at work, Group 2 is enjoying their seven-day break.

“Across all departments, we have great people who go above and beyond to support our customers. As we have introduced many new processes, equipment, people, products, and more over the last few years, the constant around Ausco has truly been ‘change,’” says Harbison, praising staff for their commitment to the company’s healthy future. To show its appreciation, the company goes all out to ensure that people have the training and certification opportunities they need to excel.

Opening its doors in California circa 1908 as Automotive Specialties Company, Ausco has been serving south Michigan for over 115 years, focusing on brakes since 1938. With its heavy focus on using North American-manufactured materials and components, the team is proud to do all its design, engineering, and fabrication on-site. Officially owned by The Cypress Companies, a group of industrial and manufacturing firms, Ausco is proud to have several sister companies, some of which it collaborates with at times. These include UP&R, a polymer and rubber expert; Tredit, a tire and wheel assembly fabricator; Riker, a custom tube fabricator; and Paragon, a tempered glass fabricator. Harbison is proud to be a part of the group. “It is really refreshing [how] our management company handles all of their companies, not just Ausco,” he says.

Comfortably set up in its 450,000-square-foot facility, ideal for optimal engineering and manufacturing efficiency, Ausco is ready to consider customer challenges beyond braking assemblies. While it has already actively catered to such situations in recent times, the company is upping the amps on its capabilities to improve this side of its operation even further.

“Nothing’s off the table here. If a customer has an issue and it’s not a brake, let’s talk about it anyway. We may not be able to offer something, but it may be something we are interested in getting into,” Harbison says of the boundary-shifting approach that has led to some exciting new offerings.

The $10 million in investments Ausco has made in facility and equipment upgrades over the past few years of course go a long way to supporting its capabilities. Its expanding portfolio includes exploring friction markets, with an interesting focus on NAO (non-asbestos organic) dry friction products like brake pads and paper-based wet friction products like clutches plates. It has also invested generously in 3D printing and scanning capabilities to improve and speed up prototyping and quality control. For the most recent CONEXPO, Ausco 3D printed its entire selection of display models, showcasing construction, dimension, and function. The approach proved very popular amongst visitors.

As I was recently reminded (yet again), the deciding difference between simplicity and simpleness is studied, accomplished sophistication. Ausco Products Inc. is a company that has harnessed that high level of sophistication, providing clients with outcomes so advanced it appears like pure simplicity in the end. The only way to achieve this is by giving free rein to the pioneering spirit and industry expertise its team is so well-known for. If there is one thing this team knows for sure, it is that there is always a solution. It just needs finding.

The post If You Have Braking Needs, Ausco Has the Answer<p class="company">Ausco Products, Inc.</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

“It’s the fact that we’re kind of a one-stop shop. We do injection molding, chrome plating, and assembly in one building. I think that’s pretty unique for manufacturers; usually, it’s just one or the other. Raw material comes into our building, and finished parts come out,” he states.

The company’s made-in-America ethos also helps it stand out. “Over the last 10 to 12 years, a lot of injection mold and chrome parts have gone offshore. They’ve gone to Asia. As a result, there are a number of chrome platers that are not around anymore. Lapeer is not only still around and making parts, we’re growing our business. I think that shows a lot about the commitment of our organization,” notes LP+P Commercial Director Mike Hitch.

Founded in 2010 after a firm called DOT Industries restructured, LP+P maintains a 135,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Lapeer, Michigan. Space inside the company plant is divided by thirds. “A third of that square footage is for injection molding; another third is the plating line; and then the other third is assembly and paint,” Hitch explains.

For molding purposes, the company uses more than 30 presses ranging from under 140 tons to over 1,400 tons as well as robots and injection molding machines capable of handling an array of resins. Electroplating is done via a high-end plating line that can apply matte, chrome, and other finishes. The assembly division boasts multiple work centers and performs activities such as ultrasonic welding and heat staking—using heat to join parts, one or more of which is made from plastic. The LP+P facility also features overhead cranes, a wastewater treatment system, and wide aisles to make it easier to move and handle equipment.

Additional services include computer-aided design to develop products as well as engineering, painting and post-plating, and acrylic production, a process involving specialized presses. Hot stamping, mask-painting, and vacuum metalizing can be performed post-plating.

Most work is self-performed; the company is “fairly vertically integrated, and just about everything we do is done at our production facility. We have outsourced a little bit of injection molding because some of the parts require heavier machines than we have,” says Hitch.

Products are grouped into the categories of moldings and grilles, decorative trims, and emblems and ornamentation. Examples of wares in the first category are body side moldings, which are installed in car doors to add a level of protection from damage, or ornamental vehicle grilles that boost visual appeal. Decorative trims include chrome-plated interior trims, exterior decorative trims, and headlamp and tail light trims to enhance the look of a vehicle. Emblems (also called badges) are decorative components used by auto manufacturers to brand their vehicles and are usually assembled within a grille.

Other products in this category include such items as decorative nameplates stating the vehicle’s brand and name. These are often chrome-plated and placed on the back or side of the car. Other ornamentation includes pieces such as decorative accessories for the hood, rear, and side panel, to augment the nameplate and emblem.

LP+P primarily serves the automotive sector and counts huge OEMs such as General Motors as customers. The company recently decided to expand its market reach in the transportation sector.

“Our core business is still automotive, but two of the 10 new customers that we brought on [in the past few years] are commercial truck companies… We are selling exterior chrome mirror shells to Paccar, Daimler, Navistar, and Volvo, as a Tier Two supplier in that market,” says Hitch of the commercial truck sector. “We wanted to diversify our customer portfolio and add more customers. It made sense, given our capabilities and the parts we can chrome plate and decorate.”

While the client base has grown, almost all of LP+P’s customers are based is North America—which makes sense, given that it is located in Michigan, the historic epicenter of the U.S. automotive industry. Some automakers and part manufacturers have moved offshore, but the company retains a lucrative business with domestic clients.

Hitch says he does not typically attend trade shows to drum up new business; instead, the company’s recent growth has largely been accomplished via “market knowledge and aggressively going after new business that would be conducive to LP+P’s capabilities,” he says. New customers, such as the commercial truck companies now working with the company, were lured through strategic sales outreach efforts, not a flashy marketing campaign, he shares.

Indeed, all clients appreciate LP+P’s reputation for quality work. Lapeer has International Automotive Task Force (IATF) 16949:2016 certification for the production and decorative plating of plastic products, and the company maintains a series of quality objectives including on-time delivery, maximizing machine efficiency and productivity, and reducing waste and plant scrap. Continuous improvement is another goal.

“We want to be the supplier and employer of choice. We want to be the one that people choose when they need a decorative emblem or a trim piece, so we try to deliver the highest quality,” states DuBreuil.

As for being an employer of choice, LP+P is both an equal opportunity company and a place where internal promotion is the norm. “We try to promote from within when we can. We take entry-level team members and we train them in-house and move them up. Almost everyone here—our supervisors, our auditors, our technicians—all started at entry-level. So it’s definitely a place where someone can start with a limited skill set, learn on the job, and grow,” he says.

For all its success, Lapeer Plating & Plastics has also had to deal with challenges along the way. Like other Michigan firms, it was forced to close for a time due to a mandatory shutdown order when COVID hit in 2020. There were some proverbial silver linings amid the gloom, however.

“On a positive note, COVID did teach us to diversify our workforce quite a bit,” DuBreuil recalls.

After finding it difficult to attract new hires through traditional means, LP+P turned to “other avenues of recruiting.” The company partnered with organizations such as Goodwill, Job Corps—a nationwide career training program run by the U.S. Department of Labor—Michigan Rehabilitation Services (MRS), and the Lapeer County Community Mental Health agency to bolster its ranks. In a progressive move, the company accepted workers with mental disabilities or other challenges. Lapeer Plating & Plastics offered in-house training and arranged part-time or limited-hour schedules to fit the needs of workers it drew from community organizations.

For these efforts, it was recently honored at a ceremony in Lansing, the state capital of Michigan. LP+P was given an award from state legislators for its work helping clients from the Lapeer Community Mental Health agency and similar organizations.

In total, the firm has “just over 200 employees,” at present, up slightly from the tail-end of the pandemic, says DuBreuil. As for new hires, “I look for a positive attitude and positive energy and a willingness to learn. Most of the entry-level jobs here aren’t too difficult; experience helps but it’s not necessarily paramount… we’ve actually had quite a bit of luck being people’s first-time employer—kids fresh out of high school, recently graduated from college, attending college. We’ve had a lot of luck training them in-house, having them grow,” he continues.

Into the future, LP+P is “looking at upgrading our paint facility,” but is otherwise content to focus on its existing markets, says Hitch. The company’s focus on the automotive and, to a lesser extent, the transportation markets is based on a simple economic reality about mass production. “Our business is really suited to high-volume applications… So we’ll stay in automotive and look to complement our business with the commercial truck sector.”

The post Made-in-America Automotive Components<p class="company">Lapeer Plating & Plastics</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

So, too, is DYNA Products, headquartered in the village of Millington, Michigan. In business since 1998, DYNA has primarily focused on equipment serving the firewood processing industry. The company manufactures and sells a full line of wood processors, up to and including its newest model for 2024, the SC-16 Rapid Split.

According to Chris Wilcox, Industrial Sales Team Lead with DYNA Products, the features on these new machines show how DYNA acts on cues from the market. “We listen to our customers,” says Wilcox. “We brainstorm with the engineers and figure out the most valuable thing that our customers want. The SC-16’s auto cycle was one of those innovations.”

DYNA’s current product line spans almost the entire cycle of wood processing. “Not only do we do firewood processors, we do auxiliary units as well. We build everything from standalone conveyors to tumblers, splitters, bundlers, and grapple units, and we’re now getting into chippers as well. We encompass the whole wood processing market, from end to end.”

DYNA’s machines make difficult work faster, easier, and more profitable for end users. “I wish I’d had these machines when I was younger,” Wilcox laughs. “I wouldn’t have been out there with an ax and a chainsaw.”

In-house expertise
An expansion of the company’s facilities in 2022 paved the way for growth, adding a new fabrication area and a paint and blast area to DYNA’s 51,000-square-foot facility. That expansion helped DYNA secure additional manufacturing capabilities, including its most recent acquisition of Vortex woodchippers. According to the company, DYNA Products now has exclusive rights to manufacture and market the line of products using the patented Vortex design.

However, the growth of its wood processing product line is but one example of DYNA’s diversification. Wilcox was initially brought into the company to grow the industrial sales business. His role has expanded since then, translating into a broader range of both work and customers.

“We’ve got a tube laser, a sheet laser, and we have multiple CNC mills,” he says. “We have several lathes. We do custom electrical wire harnesses in-house. Fabrication, paint, blast, and of course, all of our own assembly in-house as well. We were outsourcing some of that work, but we’ve brought it back in-house.”

This in-house capability has allowed DYNA to take on work from companies in diverse industries, ranging from an infrared and gas heat-equipment business to large trailer manufacturers, to a high-volume pump manufacturer, to companies that make pool lifts and dock lifts.

Deep roots
The company’s foundations are rooted in the forest. DYNA was founded in 1998 by Nathan and Norman Miller. The brothers manufactured specialty log furniture processing equipment in their father’s fence post business. Their love for woodcraft evolved into an entrepreneurial drive to serve the wood processing industry.

Norman Miller later sold his share, and Nathan now serves as CEO of DYNA Products, owning the company with three other people who joined later.

The company is Amish-owned and operated, and unabashedly wears its beliefs on its sleeve. It begins with the company’s mission statement and continues with a set of 12 core values: teamwork, respect, personal development, integrity, humility, honesty, good communication, servant leadership, family, excellence, accountability, and solution orientation.

Wilcox stresses that these values aren’t just words on a page; they’re manifested in the way people work with each other, both within the company and with others. “Our mission statement is to be a blessing, to be the hands and feet of Jesus. That is who we are,” he says.

It starts when a new employee joins. Wilcox joined DYNA Products about two years ago from the corporate world, and he remembers the interview well. “This was the longest interview I’ve ever had; it took just over two hours. They were very thorough and asked some excellent questions. Not just about my skills and experience—about me as a person.”

Growing its presence
The business has grown far beyond its modest beginnings, with three dealers in the United States, located in Kentucky, Wisconsin, and California, as well as a dealership in Japan.

In addition to these sales dealerships, the company also has rental centers located across the United States. Some are DYNA-authorized, and there are also private rental centers as well; DYNA is a member of the ARA (American Rental Association).

“We’re always looking for new rental centers across the U.S. That’s something unique that we do; no other manufacturer rents this kind of equipment. We say it’s like buying a car—you can try before you buy,” Wilcox explains. Indeed, some long-term renters will ultimately purchase a machine of their own and rent it to others when they’re not using it, an additional source of revenue.

Most of the rented machines ultimately make their way back. “The majority of machines come back to DYNA. We take those machines and we go as deep as we need to for refabrication purposes. Then we put them back out on the market for sale, with a one-year warranty.”

Naturally, quality is paramount for DYNA Products. “DYNA is the only manufacturer that has a three-year warranty on a new firewood processor,” Wilcox says proudly. The industry standard, in contrast, is only one year. Some companies, he notes, have tried to offer warranties similar in length to DYNA’s, but have backed away.

The company’s values underpin every decision it makes, particularly when it comes to keeping its customers happy. Wilcox remembers an incident where a DYNA machine was sold with a defective motor (not made by DYNA but by a supplier). Most companies would have swapped out the motor; instead, Wilcox remembers, DYNA stepped up and gave the customer an entirely new machine.

Coming through
Even companies who always do the right thing, without fail, face headwinds, and DYNA is no exception.

Currently, the biggest single challenge facing the business is inflation. When the products you sell range from $30,000 at the low end into the six-figure range, interest rates have a significant impact on your customers. DYNA posted record sales for the first quarter of 2023, but the second and third quarters were challenging. Happily, Wilcox reports, the business is starting to see an uptick.

However, he says, everyone in the company remained positive, optimistic, and focused on the future through the challenging months. Good business decisions mitigated some of the effects: the used market and the rental market sustained DYNA’s business in a way that wasn’t the case for some companies.

Wilcox says that DYNA Products is a “blessing” to the community in which it operates, and vice versa. DYNA provides about 60 people with good jobs in Millington—a small village of just over 1,000 people—and in the surrounding communities. The local restaurant, at which many employees enjoy meals throughout the week, is also supported by DYNA’s presence.

DYNA means more to the community than just its direct economic impact, though. The company supports the local school through advertising and yearbook sponsorships, and participates in benefits in support of community members. Just last fall, remembers Wilcox, there was a benefit for a family whose daughter required major surgery, and DYNA stepped up to help.

“We want to do the right things,” Wilcox says. “That’s where integrity comes in. If you can give back to the community, it shows what kind of company you are.”

The post Deeply Rooted and Branching Out Worldwide<p class="company">DYNA Products</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

Growing since it was founded in 1970, Temperform is now a member of the Lawton Standard Co. Temperform is Based in the Detroit suburb of Novi, the company today has 58 workers in a single shift and around 75 when running two shifts. Serving sectors ranging from cement manufacturing to aerospace, mining, iron ore manufacturing, paper mills, pump and valve, and heat treating and forging, Temperform has a 70,000 square foot main facility, skilled staff, quality machinery, and more than 700 years of combined foundry experience to meet all project requirements.

Winning awards and ongoing praise from customers, Temperform is known in the industry for exceeding client expectations and for its customization, innovation, and vertical integration. Certified ISO 9001:2015 for Quality Management and ISO 14001:2015 for Environmental Management Systems (EMS), Temperform is firmly committed to getting all jobs done right, on time and on budget.

Even with new innovations, producing sand castings is firmly rooted in history and dates all the way back to 1300 BC, according to company Industrial Engineer Nick Knotts. “Though the basic concepts remain largely the same as they were thousands of years ago, technology has allowed us to advance our understandings of the materials and processes associated with the casting process,” he says. “Our advanced understanding of those materials and processes has allowed us to make drastic improvements in terms of casting performance, quality, and production.”

As a result of Temperform’s ongoing advancements and casting capabilities, customers are demanding more integrity and functionality from their castings, according to Knotts. To meet client requirements, the company is leaning on technology more and more. This includes advanced simulation capabilities, data collection and analytics, and system integration.

While there are other casting manufacturers out there, Temperform continues to distinguish itself for many reasons, including reliability, quality, safety, and sustainability.

“Not everything is price-driven,” says Site Manager Gloria Webber, a 26-year veteran of the company. Another key factor is “the fact that you’re going to supply a high-quality product through your reputation and engineering know-how, and going to be that reliable supplier for them.”

At Temperform, ‘sustainability’ isn’t a word thrown around lightly; in fact, many people don’t realize foundries are huge recyclers. “We recycle everything,” says Webber, without hesitation. “We recycle our metal, our water, our air; I mean, everything gets recycled through our facility,” she says of the company, which even has a thermal reclamation system for molding sand, which is reclaimed and reused.

“There is a reuse for all of our waste streams so that they are not waste streams, but recycled streams,” she says. These and other waste reduction measures allow Temperform to remain a good environmental steward while remaining competitive. The company maximizes the amount of reuse materials put back into furnaces to make new product, and takes part in a scrap banking program with customers that sees the company buy back scrap to make new product, saving customers money and cutting out the middleman’s markup.

With Temperform’s five induction furnaces, each requiring cooling water and a closed-loop system, “we make sure we recycle every drop of water and are not discharging it,” states Webber, adding that the company also has a scrubber system for water and air.

To best serve all its customers, Temperform makes ongoing investments in its people, its equipment, and its technology. This includes manufacturing optimization through data analytics. As an industrial engineer, Knotts believes the key to optimizing a process is having an extremely detailed understanding of that process and the variables that affect it.

“Data is the key with which we can unlock that detailed understanding of the process, but just having the data is only part of the equation; where Temperform has set ourselves apart in terms of manufacturing optimization is how we utilize the data,” he says. “Temperform’s data is set up in a way that allows us to firmly understand how all the given input variables in terms of our product mix (we are a job shop) affects the number of molds/castings that we are able to produce. By using that data, we can pinpoint improvements to the process such that they are minimally disruptive but also maximally effective.”

Today, the world of Industry 4.0 is changing how companies like Temperform are using technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT) to improve, manufacture, and distribute all kinds of products. Through MAGMA software specifically designed to predict outcomes of new casting projects, and a plant simulation system engineers use to predict throughput of systems and plants, everything from plant layout to optimizing flow can be addressed.

“We are part of the Steel Founders’ Society of America, and we joined that group because they make big investments in Industry 4.0,” says Webber. Funded by the Department of Defense, there is help available for foundries who wish to remain on the front line of cutting-edge technology and innovation or who are facing a metallurgical conundrum with specific technical leads.

Through its role in the Lawton Standard Co., Temperform has become part of something greater than a single plant; rather, it is part of a broader platform. According to Knotts, this brings a host of advantages, particularly access to technical staff associated with other foundries on the platform. “The platform exists to support the sites, so the resources are meant to be leveraged by those sites, like Temperform,” he says. “The more technical people that are available, the more variety of valuable experiences, educations, and viewpoints there are available to leverage.”

Another platform benefit is the availability of increased financial resources from a larger corporation—especially advanced software tools for the designing and rigging of castings—which Temperform has readily available. “Advanced solidification software allows us to better predict where areas of porosity or inclusions may arise in our castings before we produce them, which allows us to add risers, gating, and chills to the part in an effort to remove the porosity or move it into a non-critical area,” Knotts explains.

At Temperform, creating high-quality castings and machined components comes from the experience, hard work, and skill of the company’s laborers and welders. On the foundry side, the company’s long-time site manager has 37 years of industry experience.

Like other sectors, manufacturing continues facing hiring challenges, and to address this, the company seeks new workers at the high school and college levels as well as people with factory manufacturing experience who understand the importance of adhering to processes. “We bring in unskilled labor and train them, because you’re not going to find somebody who’s a skilled molder; you might be able to find some furnace operators out there, but typically, specific to our industry, you don’t have a lot of folks out there that would have this specific skill set, so we bring them in and train them,” says Webber.

On the safety side, all new staff members are immersed in a full week of training where they learn safety protocols firsthand, and why they are required. Every Temperform building has signage stating what personal protective equipment (PPE) is necessary, such as hardhats and safety boots with metatarsal covers in the foundry. And since silica sand is used in the foundry, workers are required to wear the right type of respiratory equipment, depending on the job.

“We invest in our employees on a daily basis,” adds Webber. “We make sure they are suited up head to toe, depending on the processes they are undertaking with safety equipment.” Protecting workers and the environment alike, Temperform has made about $1 million in relevant investments, including a new air scrubber system and bag houses, making the company more compliant and efficient than ever. Although based in a suburban area, many locals are pleasantly surprised by the company’s presence. “When you show up at our door, you will not smell a foundry,” states Webber.

This year, Temperform expects to see some significant mining projects in the works. Buoyed by its robust investments in technology, machinery, and safety, Temperform’s number one reason for success comes down to its talented team, from leadership to the molders, melters, and grinders on the floor.

“We are committed to making the highest quality steel castings on the market,” says Knotts. “Temperform also makes a name for itself on honesty and reliability. We deliver castings on time and in the condition that was requested; if we cannot, we will be honest and upfront about the obstacles we are facing and do whatever we can to make it right,” he says.

“Perhaps most importantly, the team at Temperform consists of experts in producing steel castings, and at that, experts who also have access to some of the most advanced tools in the industry.”

The post Where History and Technology Meet<p class="company">Temperform</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

The center is funded with federal and state dollars through the U.S. Department of Commerce. Center President Ingrid Tighe says that, “The MEP network is so important to manufacturing in the U.S. and [the MMTC is] more vital now than ever.”

Today, as Vice President of Business Development and Strategy, Jim Gorman says, the center’s role is to lend its expertise to Michigan companies that may not be familiar with manufacturing and all that it entails and find affordable ways to introduce them to the wider world of that market.

The center has seen a great many success stories in its time, which began with its work in costing measures. MMTC helped businesses draw a line between business performance and cost performance using a ‘transformation planner,’ which gave way to modules on core team training, small business training, and helping small-to-medium-sized businesses enact a financial plan.

Currently, Manager of Operational Excellence, Chuck Werner, says that three of the center’s main pillars in helping Michigan-area businesses are technology adoption, workforce, and supply chain. The first has to do with addressing the ongoing workforce shortages in businesses, by helping companies in need adopt machining and technology solutions, including those within Industry 4.0, and teaching them how to implement these solutions.

Second, the center helps these companies with gaining and retaining their workforce. Finally, it educates businesses on how to build and pivot into different supply chains—for example, automotive manufacturers moving from internal combustion engine-powered vehicles to electric vehicles.

Werner says that businesses, business owners, and business leaders in Michigan do not always have time to enact strategic or continuous improvement in their businesses, which is where MMTC comes in. Center employees like Manufacturing Services Manager Bob Scipione help small-to-middle-sized manufacturers select and apply technologies based on the needs of the business. This has helped many machine/computer numerical control (CNC) shops and community colleges in Michigan push further toward initiatives like automation.

The center is also concerned with supply chain matchmaking and curates an extensive database where companies can inquire about help for producing a certain device or service. The center can identify a match and connect companies in industries like defense, aerospace, automotive, and more to do business together.

Tighe says that there is a national push on supply chains regarding matchmaking and identifying gaps nationally and locally. MMTC also facilitates grant opportunities for state businesses, such as the GoingPRO Talent Fund, which allows businesses two annual opportunities to gain up to $2000 per employee for use toward training or services; or the GEM (Global Epicenter of Mobility) grant, which helps companies pivot and find new opportunities in diverse areas.

The center continues to be aided in these efforts through its many partnerships. For example, MMTC allied recently with MEDC (Michigan Economic Development Corporation), Lawrence Technological University, and the non-profit Automation Alley to establish a grant that would help data gathering on technologies needed in the state. Research determined that local businesses lacked funding and planning, so the partnership determined a five-year plan along with a grant to conduct fund-matching for companies.

These partner organizations also act as trusted advisors to clients, helping them find the right technology and supplier. Tighe says that MMTC is very strategic about its partnerships and views its partners as multipliers. “We cannot be everywhere at all times, so these organizations can be an extension of our services… they will refer us to customers in need and vice versa.”

The center is concerned about working with its partners as well as with the state of Michigan to strengthen supply chains. This work is currently in the inquiry stage, as MMTC completes research to identify the current landscape and bring back data at all levels to strengthen supply chains. Examples of this work include helping a Michigan company that specialized in computer modeling and simulation convert a carriage house into a machine shop and a new plant. Another example is a prominent keyboard company, for which MMTC has completed a technology assessment and connected it to Industry 4.0, securing it an implementation grant as well as a pick-and-place machine. Gorman says that it is exciting to play even a supporting role in work like this.

Members of MMTC say that Michigan is amid an industrial revolution of sorts, with Industry 4.0 at the forefront. Many of the technologies associated with the movement have been around for decades but were previously cost-prohibitive and needed a great deal of technological knowledge to implement correctly; today, these technologies are easier to use than ever and are more accessible.

To make this happen, the center performed an assessment in the mid-2010s to measure business opportunities and needs, as well as using its laboratories and factory area to help business owners get their hands on this new technology. It also physically transports the technology around Michigan to allow these opportunities to continue through roadshows. It further developed an education curriculum to teach small-to-medium manufacturers about this technology, how to leverage it, and how to develop it over time.

Scipione says that part of the center’s funding comes through MEDC, which funds its Industry 4.0 team to perform a variety of activities, such as technology assessments. “Industry 4.0 shines with cost, is easy to implement, and [is accessible],” he says. A lot of manufacturers still think that the technology is only for big business and may not realize how approachable and affordable it is now, and with automation now at a fraction of its original cost, if a business does not adopt it, a competitor will.

Werner says that now is the time for businesses to start looking at affordable technology within Industry 4.0, including emerging tools like artificial intelligence that are developing quickly and presenting new opportunities. However, workforce issues in the state will not go away so easily, so some companies may need to figure out how to run a business with the availability of staffing being what it is—which is where automation can come in.

Werner says that cloud-based platforms and big data information systems are also key trends currently, allowing smaller manufacturers to pay a nominal subscription fee for access to a robust operating system for their plant. Digital work instructions also represent a big opportunity and are beginning to overtake traditional, paper-based methods in favor of videos and tablets. These ways are being heavily adopted by newer generations, so digital solutions will be needed to properly prepare people for the job.

The future will see MMTC work on further technology adoption and offer classes on topics including change management. Werner says that everything the center does involves change, whether it’s embracing new equipment or hiring new people; however, successful change must be managed and guided.

To this end, the center will be partnering with educational institutions and local economic development organizations to shake up its roadshows, as well as to bring those looking for employment into the same venue as those looking to adopt technology. This will, in turn, help younger, more technology-literate people match up with available jobs that need greater technological expertise.

“We are here for manufacturers; we are their trusted advisor and we make sure [they] have what they need,” Tighe says, noting that manufacturing is a dynamic industry in which technology is growing and changing exponentially. It is more vital than ever, she says, for MMTC and its organizations to work with companies to help them become more aware and educated so they can keep up with this evolution, as well as continually grow and expand.

Gorman says that Michigan, as a state, has more to offer than people realize and is constantly revitalizing itself beyond the industrial landscape of its reputation. Surrounded by abundant natural resources, associations like MMTC are soliciting electrical and computer science professionals to come and work in Michigan alongside the resilient people who call it home.

The work it does is not just about returning shareholder value for a profit, but to take the experience of all those who work within it and help other businesses to learn and grow. As Gorman says, “What else would I rather do than this kind of work?”

The post At the Forefront of Industrial Revolution<p class="company">Michigan Manufacturing Technology Center</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

As a global manufacturer and supplier of engineered components to Fortune 500 and 1000 companies, OEMs, and Tier 1 companies, Aerostar Manufacturing, from its base in Romulus, Michigan, services a mind-bending array of global industry leaders. These include internationally recognized and admired brands in the automotive, heavy truck, furniture, air handling, elevators, telecommunications, agricultural, electronics, hydraulics, and medical industries, to name a few, along with the hydrogen and electric-vehicle sectors.

Supporting more than 30 manufacturing-partner facilities throughout India via its operations at manufacturing plants in Romulus and Fort Wayne, Indiana, as well as sourcing and supply chain offices in Pune, Bengaluru, and Chennai, India, Aerostar offers extensive capabilities including but not limited to machined castings including gravity die, investment, permanent molds, high-pressure die castings, shell molds, fabrications, gear manufacturing, forgings, stampings, extrusions, and more.

Committed to embracing and developing the latest technology within the industry, Aerostar has seen huge advances since its inception.

“As a machining company operating for 50 years, you’re always exposed to a lot of machining technologies that improve over the years,” says Senior Vice President, Robert Johnson. “We have state-of-the-art machines, and we’re constantly bringing on new equipment year-over-year.”

Some of these innovations include lean principles, Oracle NetSuite ERP/MRP integrated across its manufacturing network, full gate review/APQP product launches, integrated inventory, and supply chain management software that provides real-time risk mitigation. There is also internal “dual-sourcing” with LLC and domestic manufacturing options, customizing supply chain strategies to adapt to customer needs, optical measuring systems/laser systems, high-tolerance CMMs, and project management software integrated online for project timeline and action tracking.

“We’ve always been a full-service company with fully staffed engineering, program management, and quality system departments,” says Johnson. “On the engineering side, we’ve put in technologies like 3D printing machines so we can work with advanced development and speed of launches.”

Aerostar also boasts a plethora of software that it continues to test while implementing the latest CAD and CAM simulation software for machining and assemblies and is installing a new Oracle-based ERP system corporate-wide.

The company has also been leading the development and assembly of commercial EV battery trays for one of the largest diesel engine manufacturers in the world, Johnson adds, applying its combined 100-plus years of manufacturing expertise in the latest light-weighting, commercial applications to support global clients.

“We’ve also built a tech-savvy team domestically and internationally to support our customers in North America and abroad, while transitioning daily projects and all program management tools, from basic Excel to Monday.com, which enables us to build intuitive and customizable dashboards. These make it easy to delegate tasks and track live progress,” he says. “They allow us to handle customers and projects with transparency and efficiency.”

The company has purchased new scanner technology that sustains its levels of world-class quality and is purchasing new wireless gauging technology, as well as additional CNC machines, to support the changes that come with improving technology for cutting metals.

This ongoing commitment to advancing technology has greatly aided the company’s flexibility in serving a wide variety of industries through a highly capable in-house engineering team.

“The bulk of the domestic activities of Aerostar are machining, sub-assembly, and testing work and it goes back many years,” Johnson explains. “We continue to grow domestically in the U.S., and we’ve partnered with one of our large strategic customers to develop sourcing strategies to supplement some products we were once manufacturing domestically.”

Aerostar has also partnered with several suppliers in India to provide engineered components used in assemblies and has continued to develop that business unit to supply sourced product, both internally for its needs and externally to direct customers.

“We have large growth in the engineered components, so all customer contact is through Aerostar engineering-program management, supplier development teams, and quality engineers located in the U.S. here at Aerostar.”

The company’s breadth of core competencies in machining parts in various metals, and their assembly, has led to the acquisition of different clients year-over-year, and to the ability to attract different markets.

“Our engineering team has a vast knowledge of machined and assembled components and can provide instant feedback to customers with design or build needs,” Johnson says. “We have positioned our engineering teams to be in front of the customer, but also in front of our suppliers globally to address all needs. We use the latest software to provide simulations or 3D models of critical components to achieve desired results.”

Additionally, Aerostar’s in-house team of manufacturing, process, and quality engineers combined with its overseas team members in those fields, work hand-in-hand with the supply base to bring the best ideas forward to the ever-growing markets Aerostar serves. “When you can mitigate customer risk while still offering a world-class quality product at a cost-competitive rate, you quickly become your customer’s go-to source for engineered components,” says Johnson.

While, at a glance, the company may be seen from the outside as a CNC machining operation for the automotive sector, Aerostar makes a significant number of component parts for other industries and businesses, including Google, making a fluid connection for servers that feed the global search engine.

In the last two years, Aerostar has seen its prospects transition from those of a $60 million company to a potential $260 million-plus company in the next few years through its active sales funnel, thanks to the acquisition of new leaders and team members, domestically and internationally, to the engineering, quality, and sourcing teams. “Our manufacturing base in India has grown rapidly over the last few years. Our customers are leaving China and asking our network in India to deliver,” Johnson shares.

“Due to our marketing efforts and customer support, our sales funnel has grown year-on-year to provide opportunities we never had before,” he says. “The latest accomplishments have been an award for the commercial EV tray assembly and Toyota Material Handling components for their new electric-powered hi-lo.”

In terms of analyzing a customer’s expectations, the Aerostar team does a great job of helping customers search out the price, quality, delivery details, and everything else they require, while also understanding and taking into account their tolerance for risk, and putting together custom solutions that satisfies their requirements.

“That may be a domestically sourced product or a dual-source product,” says Johnson. “We do a lot of internal dual-sourcing where we’ll manage low-cost country options, put an internal manufacturing supply chain strategy on top of that, and cover a lot of risk.”

Regarding expansion of the company’s facilities, Aerostar has recently opened its doors to a state-of-the-art, 54,000-square-foot light manufacturing and warehousing facility housing multiple assembly lines for critical fuel delivery systems, with plans to support newly-awarded programs launching this year and for the next five-plus years. The warehousing infrastructure includes a floor wire guidance system that enables the company to have automated self-guided lift-and-carry-and-deliver equipment.

“We’ve also implemented one of the top warehouse management systems in Oracle—NetSuite—to help manage the flow and tracking of inventory,” Johnson says. “In our existing manufacturing facility, we’ve reviewed all production equipment and processes to ensure we have the best running equipment and we continue to eliminate older equipment to make space for new, efficient, and more automated systems.”

Aerostar has also recently expanded into a third office in India with high-quality engineering and sourcing capabilities to manage its growing manufacturing activity.

Along with these advances, the company has faced some challenges that, fortunately, it has handled admirably. Producing world-class products while emphasizing globally competitive pricing is for experts, and requires the continual focused development of a worldwide, world-class team.

“The manufacturing industry is one of the oldest industries in the world,” says Johnson. “People come and go every day in search of their own personal goals and accomplishments. COVID may have stretched many companies and people’s will to work face-to-face with others or even in an office environment, but we know we can’t get product designed or manufactured, improve processes, and enforce them without good people working together side by side.”

Company milestones include an impressive history with its present owners and 15 years of a successful internship program with more than 100 interns leading to 25 percent direct hires from various schools.

“We work with a lot of the local colleges and universities: Henry Ford Community College, Wayne State, Eastern Michigan, as well as the University of Michigan, and we currently have somewhere between 20 and 25 percent on staff that have been hired direct,” Johnson shares.

Looking forward, the company has dedicated its resources to achieving sales goals by continuing to expand its customer portfolio and establishing KPIs and a solid marketing plan to drive sales higher, which will require Aerostar to muscle up its sales team.

“Our focus is to become a name that is synonymous with manufacturing engineered components,” says Johnson. “To become a global leader in the manufacture of engineered components and be our customers’ select supplier and ‘go-to’ choice for supply chain management.”

Aerostar also has an advantage over similar companies with its ability to provide full customer service from sales staff to product development team, and truly considers its staff to be a part of the family. “We have people who care,” says Johnson. “They care about the company, the customers, and above all, the quality of workmanship when it comes to their jobs.”

With a leadership team that enthusiastically embraces meeting customers’ requirements and expectations, as well as its lodestar of the highest quality at a competitive price, Aerostar has a rich and fulfilling future to look forward to.

“We were a smaller company, and we’ve continued to grow, and now we’re becoming a larger company but we’ve not lost that small company feel,” Johnson says. “We’re very customer-focused. Everyone who works here is part of the family and we know everyone’s story, and we know everyone’s family. It’s a good journey we’re on.”

The post Engineering Components, Technology, and Teamwork: Servicing Customer Needs Using a Global Manufacturing Network<p class="company">Aerostar Manufacturing</p> appeared first on Manufacturing In Focus.

The business was founded as a small tool shop 50 years ago by John Basso, Sr. “It was a 5,000 square foot shop, and he and two people worked in that facility for two years,” says John J. Basso, Jr. “I graduated from the University of Detroit with an architecture degree in 1975, and I came on board.”

From those humble beginnings, a thriving business grew, with much of that growth coming from strategic acquisitions made over the next several decades. “My father received a large Ford Motor Company program in 1975, and we added another 13,000 square feet. At that point, we were up to 45 people. In 1978, we moved to our current location—into a 26,000 square foot building—and went up to 110 people,” John J. Basso explains.

In the late 1980s, the business purchased Bespro Pattern and in 1992, acquired American Tooling Center, a tool and die shop with 52,000 square feet and 50 employees. In 2000, the company purchased Midland Design Service and, in 2007, acquired a larger facility—125,000 square feet—in Jackson. Finally, in 2018, the company acquired an operation in Lansing from Demmer, Inc., incorporating it into the American Tooling Center operations.

The owners of Demmer, Inc. knew how the Basso family ran their business and had confidence that their employees would be well taken care of. For Diversified Tooling Group, which had become an International Traffic in Arms Regulations-registered (ITAR) supplier in 2005, the move represented the opportunity to increase the amount of work it did for the defense sector.

Today, a third-generation owner of the Basso family is involved, with John M. Basso serving as Vice President of Operations for the company, and that company has come a long way from its initial 5,000 square feet and three employees.

“The total footprint of the company today is 775,000 square feet of heavily craned industrial buildings that we own and operate,” says John J. Basso. “Across that space, we have 350 highly skilled employees.”

Having led and grown the business to that degree in the 50 years since 1973, one might think that he would be ready to retire. One would be mistaken.

“My father passed away when he was 86. He worked until three weeks before he passed. I’ve been working here for 48 years. I’m 70 years old; I’m still working every day, and I have no intention of retiring.”

Whenever the day for retirement comes, the company is in good hands. John M. Basso outlines how his grandfather’s and father’s acquisition decisions have led to a uniquely broad range of solutions for their automotive and defense customers.

“This company has evolved from my dad buying different companies, and the goal was to provide a fully integrated solution to our automotive customers. We can help them with engineering, prototype, or full service tool and die, where we’re responsible for everything. You give us the CAD product data; we’ll provide a tool that makes a perfect sheet metal part, whether you’re talking about prototype or production dies.”

It is the end-to-end solution—vertical integration—that differentiates Diversified Tooling Group from other companies in the space.

“First, it’s engineering, which is [performed by] Midland Design,” John J. Basso says. “Then it’s patterns, which is Bespro Patterns. Then prototyping at Superior Cam and then tool and die, which is at American Tooling Center. We have a full-service tool and die operation. We’ll take product design from our customer base; provide the upfront engineering; build the patterns; supply a prototype for the entire vehicle—hoods, doors, roofs, whatever it may be—then we’ll design and manufacture the production dies.”

That diversification—notably part of the business name itself—is not only a differentiator, it is one of the reasons Diversified Tooling Group has thrived for over a half-century.

“If we were just a stamper, we would have gone out of business,” says John J. Basso. “Because sometimes stampers don’t have any work. We put more legs under the table with eleven different product lines.”

And while this makes the business more complex, it also makes it more resilient to market shifts.

“It’s a lot more difficult to control, to quote, to estimate, to engineer, to build, to deliver. But we have a variety of product lines for automotive and a variety of product lines for defense. It’s why we’re still here. 30 years ago, there were 50 major die shops in the state of Michigan. Today there are only about 15 left in the whole state to produce stamping dies.”

As Diversified Tooling Group has acquired companies, growing the range of services it offers its customers, it has also invested in the capital equipment to deliver those services.

“We’re a growing company,” John J. Basso says. “Every year, we add additional buildings; every year, we add additional equipment. Seven years ago, we bought a state-of-the-art hot stamping press from AP&T in Sweden. We were the first ones in North America to install that type of technology. We have 39 CNC mills—some of the largest CNC mills in the state of Michigan—and we are in the process of buying three brand new CNC mills right now. We just purchased two new CMM machines and three new scanners in the last six months,” he shares.

Over the decades, the technology used to operate that equipment has of course changed dramatically, requiring further investment. “We have over 500 computer devices that operate in our company. We spend over $400,000 a year in software maintenance for our CAD software.”

These investments have allowed the company to adapt nimbly to changes in the market and to opportunities such as those in the defense sector.

“Welding is the most important part of defense work in our industry,” John M. Basso notes.
“There are a lot of quality requirements, and we have certifications in welding—NAVSEA in particular—that separate us from the competition. We also have certified weld inspectors that allow us to inspect our own welds. We’ve invested in the qualifications and certifications and the training of both our weld inspectors and our welder’s equipment.”

Basso’s comments underscore the most important investment of all for Diversified Tooling Group: its people. That investment is embedded in the history of the company.

“When my dad bought American Tooling Center in 1992,” recalls John Michael Basso, “he instituted a federally approved journeyman apprenticeship program, and we still have that in place. Right now, we have 14 journeyman apprenticeships in that program. We pay 100 percent for an engineering associate’s degree, and we push our people to do it. I’m paying for two people right now to receive a bachelor’s degree in engineering. We’re trying to educate our workforce.”

This focus on training and developing employees is not just a ‘feel good’ commitment. It is borne, at least in part, out of necessity. “There hasn’t been a lot of push for secondary education outside of going to college. That’s the lifeblood of what we need. We need skilled trades. We train our own people; we invest in our people. We are training people for America.”

The owners of Diversified Tooling Group started spreading the word very early on. They welcome classes of students for shop tours throughout the school year, give presentations at local high schools, and sponsor a high school robotics team. The company is connected to all three community colleges in its area, and staff members participate in job fairs and Manufacturing Day.

This commitment to developing tomorrow’s manufacturing workforce is rooted in a fierce pride for this sector in America, and the family pride lives on in the younger generation.

“We have a passion for keeping manufacturing in the United States and a passion for our people,” says John M. Basso. “A big part of the reason we do this is to support our 350 employees and their families. Somebody has to take the torch and keep pushing for manufacturing in the United States. That’s what we’re doing.”

John J. Basso, along with his son, continues to build on the proud legacy begun 50 years ago, always with an eye to the future. “You have to keep adjusting and adapting to the world. The world is not static; you’ve got to be dynamic. You’ve got to read the future and keep moving in that direction.”

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