Customer Success

According to Bob Faxon, president and co-owner of Faxon Machining Inc., there’s a lot more involved than just making parts when working in the defense industry. Along with serving various other customers and industries, Faxon Machining and sister company American Flow Form and Machining are prime contractors for the government/Department of Defense (DOD) and must maintain a whole host of requirements much more stringent than typical general machining customer requirements.

Manufacturers typically utilize automation technology to reduce lead times for long runs of identical parts. On the other hand, custom, complex, short-run jobs like those in prototyping environments are not usually candidates for traditional automation concepts. However, a Maple Plain, Minn., company has overcome this production challenge with a unique strategy.

When Jasper Engines and Transmissions in Jasper, Indiana, remanufactures a family of engines or transmissions, they ensure their products are of the highest quality, meeting or exceeding OEM specifications. It starts with their New Product Development Division researching popular powertrain products, resolving inherent design issues and figuring out how to improve a product's longevity.

Launched in the early days of World War II, Graetz Manufacturing Inc. began as a family-run sawmill and blacksmith shop that made equipment and repair parts for the local farming community. Located in Pound, Wisconsin, the company has continued to recognize and adapt to the needs of customers and implement necessary machining technology as demand warrants. Graetz Manufacturing gradually expanded its machining capabilities to make parts, such as gears, sprockets and shafts, and the company produces components and entire machines for the agricultural, marine, logging and packaging industries.

When Michael McKee and his two partners opened TRIAX Precision Manufacturing in Sarasota in 2015, they couldn't have known they'd soon be revolutionizing the production of marine engine manifolds for the U.S. Navy. McKee, a mechanical engineer and MBA with a background in everything from steel and mining to injection molding and motorsports, wanted to branch out beyond the industrial turnarounds he'd been doing for a private equity group. His likeminded partners were retired industrialists who wanted to unretire. They began TRIAX with the assets of a small machine shop, a 14,000-sq.-ft. building and an engineering-centric approach that sets them apart.

Coldwater, Mich.-based Sport Truck USA (Sport Truck), a division of Fox Factory Holding Corp., knows a thing or two about automotive suspensions. Since 1991, the shop’s been designing, manufacturing, marketing and distributing high-quality aftermarket off-road suspension components, such as lift kits, for pickup trucks and 4x4s through its family of brands that includes BDS Suspension, Zone Offroad Products, JKS Manufacturing and 4×4 Posi-Lok. But as consumer demand grows for suspension lift kits for today’s newer, more sophisticated models, so too does the need for more complicated parts necessary for those kits.

According to Manager Scott Vyhlidal, Tri-V Tool and Manufacturing Co. in Omaha, Nebraska, never turns down work or shies away from a challenging part and will give any reasonable venture a try even as those jobs become increasingly more complex. It is for these complex jobs as well as to efficiently meet customer demands in terms of turnaround times that Tri-V has shifted from simple machining technology to more sophisticated and advanced horizontal machining centers, an automated pallet system and multi-tasking part processing.

In 2008 when Courtney Silver decided to help her husband Robert “Bobby” Ketchie manage his manufacturing business with her background in finance and supply chain management, she never thought for a moment that she’d end up running the Concord, North Carolina-based machine shop. Together, the couple operated and grew Ketchie Inc. until Bobby passed away in March of 2014. And to ensure the continuation of her husband’s legacy, Ketchie-Silver became the president and sole shareholder; just a year later, the shop had already received national recognition as a Certified Woman Owned and Operated Business Enterprise and today continues to grow with capital investments in new equipment and technology.

Whirlwind Propellers in El Cajon, California, wanted to grow and expand its product offerings, but farming out the machining of its propeller hub assembly components had severely hindered the shop’s progress. Not only was the shop unable to fully control its processes and production lead times, but outsourcing work led to poor cost-effectiveness, which, in turn, stifled new product design.

As an innovative and forward-thinking supplier to the sport and recreational watercraft industry, Roswell Marine must design, produce and get new products to market as quickly as possible to maintain its competitiveness. To accomplish that, the Rockledge, Florida, shop relies on in-house manufacturing and most importantly on extremely flexible and highly productive machine tool systems.

Usinage R.A. Inc.’s (URA) customers are loyal. Upwards of 90 percent of the shop’s work is repeat business, and some customers have been with URA since its founding, according to co-owner Daniel Vachon. In fact the majority of the Drummondville, Quebec-based shop’s customers have been with URA for at least 10 years, including several who have worked with the shop for over 30 years, a remarkable loyalty that the team at URA attributes to its fast turnaround and high quality.

In Hamilton, Ontario, just south of Toronto in the province’s industrial heart, North Star Technical Inc. has earned a sterling reputation for customer service since its founding in 1986 based on the solid foundation of its family-owned business. In a city filled with CNC machining and repair shops, this job shop has differentiated itself from the crowd with specialized areas of expertise and close customer relationships, all backed by advanced machine tool technology.