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The biggest fabricators grow even bigger
This year’s Fab 40 list shows an industry in growth mode, though the amount of growth depends on the region and industries contract fabricators serve. Company leaders gave their outlook for the rest of 2013, and there’s more optimism than...
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Moving forward
Dane Manufacturing looks nothing like it did a dozen years ago. More of its revenue now comes from contract fabrication and, thanks to several strategic acquisitions, produces several lucrative product lines.
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How Genzink Steel redefined itself
Genzink Steel Supply and Welding has roots in structural fabrication. But after decades of diversifying in other sectors, the fabricator decided to leave the structural business to focus on contract fabrication--and the business is healthier...
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Lean manufacturing, made-to-order edition
Coordinating fabrication, welding, assembly, and painting within a high-mix, low-volume environment is neither new nor easy. The effort at one such fabricator demonstrates the commitment required, tools applied, lessons learned, and benefits...
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Surviving the storm
Hurricane Sandy wasn't kind to Architectural Grille, Brooklyn, N.Y., in late October 2012. Waters from a nearby canal flooded the shop and ultimately destroyed all fabricating equipment, which was paid for. The insurance companies and local...
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The comeback metal fabricator
Everyone knows that metal fabricators need to be good at quick
turnarounds. Super Steel became just that, hitting the financial skids
in 2009 and transforming itself into a quick-turn fabricator and key
manufacturing supplier to the freight rail...
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An alchemy of intentions
METAL LLC of Ann Arbor, Mich., is not your typical custom fab shop. Along with taking on architectural fabrication jobs, the company also handles restoration of antique and contemporary vehicles, performs product research and design, and...
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Tube bending, the next generation
A tube bending shop with roots that go back to the Gemini and
Apollo missions looks far different today than it did eight years ago.
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Growing in the face of uncertainty
Having survived a bankruptcy in the 1990s and the Great Recession, A&E Custom Manufcturing isn't about to embark on an aggressive growth path just to chase more business. It wants to grow intelligently, balancing investment with real opportunity....
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Fabricating with purpose
Cambridge Engineering made the transition from batch manufacturing
that threw labor at production problems to one-piece flow and
continuous improvement. A good corporate culture played a critical
role.
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Why the little things matter
The issue for Laser Access employees wasn't getting the equipment running, it was the time they spent away from the machine, hunting for the right tools and material. That's why the Michigan shop took steps to keep the necessary tools nearby and...
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From the farm to oilfields, mines, heavy equipment, and more
Radius Steel-SOO Tractor, Sioux City, Iowa, is looking beyond its agricultural roots as it reaches out to various other industries, such as heavy equipment and oil and gas.
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Putting a label on metal fabrication
Micron Metalworks is a classic precision sheet metal job shop, with short runs and numerous job changeovers. To optimize part flow and overall efficiency, it’s the little things that really matter--including a simple label on a drawer.
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Set design meets advanced manufacturing
A Broadway and TV set fabricator mixes set-building tradition with advanced manufacturing technologies, from welding and cutting to abrasive waterjet cutting. Complicating matters are the demands of modern performance media--especially...
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Shop grows by staying small
EVS Metal, Riverdale, N.J., which started as a 5,000-square-foot fabricating shop in New Jersey, is now a $30 million operation with four locations. The size of the company gives its customers confidence that they are dealing with a metal services...
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Keeping up with the Joneses
Jones Metal Products has deep roots in Mankato, Minn. It began as an
industrial fabricator, which took rough concepts and saw them
through design, fabrication, and installation. Today, the company in
one sense is following that tradition.
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The FAB 40: It's delivery time
The FABRICATOR's FAB 40 suggests that the manufacturing revival in the U.S. is alive and well.
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Being big, acting small
Minnesota fabricator rebrands itself, standardizes operations, and
remains nimble, even after years of aggressive growth. Managers
expect the firm to grow another 18 percent this year. That’s not small
potatoes for one of the country’s largest...
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Visual reality
Who says art and science can’t intersect?
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Fabricate, install, maintain
The Roberts Co. isn’t a heavy industrial metal fabricator. It’s not a erector, general contractor, maintenance services provider, or
engineering firm. It’s all of the above.
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Made to order, for emergency
No one would argue that at least some elements of lean manufacturing
apply to most operations, but Horton Emergency Vehicles is a made-to-order vehicle manufacturer. Certainly, Horton’s highly custom
approach didn’t fit a assembly-line...
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Steady flow, steady profits
ETM Manufacturing invests in continuous improvement training.
Since initiating these efforts in 2007, the company has less than
doubled its headcount, but tripled annual sales.
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How soft skills make a shop successful
When hiring, Jay Manufacturing Oshkosh managers don't look for
technical skills first. Instead, they concentrate on elements that are difficult to teach--that is, the soft skills.
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Three’s company
Many weld instructors will tell you that the ability to hear plays a critical role in developing a skilled welder. But a deaf student from Tennessee is proving that character traits like determination and a strong work ethic are more important. It...
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TPJ’s 2012 Industry Award Winner: Chicago Tube & Iron
Don McNeeley, president and CEO of ChicagoTube & Iron, describes the big turning points in a company's inflection. For many companies, a point of inflection is the plateau between the company's youthful growth phase and the decline into old age,...
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Metcam cleans house
Metcam reduces inventory and reorganizes the shop floor, placing press brakes and hardware insertion presses next to blanking centers--all during one of the company’s busiest Decembers ever.
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The melding worlds of motorsports and metal art
A community college motorsports fabrication instructor finds common ground in race car fabrication, metal art.
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Lessons learned lead to big bounce back
A&E Custom Manufacturing was on the ropes financially in the early 1990s, but the lessons learned during that struggle helped to put it in a position to rebound strongly after the downturn of 2009. In fact, they have been steadily rebuilding the...
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Metal fabrication, the Swiss way
Switzerland’s manufacturers have no trouble finding citizens with
technical skills; there just aren’t enough Swiss citizens. The country
has a comprehensive apprenticeship program that helps prepare
students for the working world.
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Need a light--now?
Phoenix Products Co.--a high-mix, low-volume lighting products manufacturer--has implemented an improvement methodology called quick-response manufacturing, and realized dramatic improvements in lead-times. One light fixture that used to take...
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Fabricator takes a team approach to job management
Anderson Dahlen is a precision sheet metal job shop. It’s an industrial contractor that designs and fabricates entire systems for the processing sector, everything from mixing systems for the chemical industry to holding tanks for dairy plants....
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Brass instrument manufacturing: How metal makes music
Getzen Co. uses 200-year-old technology to make its high-end trumpets and trombones. Walking into the company’s Elkhorn, Wis., facility is a bit like walking into a metalworking museum. Here, worker experience and skill reign supreme.
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How a shop devoted to improvement improved
At a major automotive OEM, a support operation is devoted to continuous improvement projects for the assembly line, fabricating items as needed to make life easier for line workers. Unfortunately, the improvement shop wasn’t very organized. As...
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Fabricator finds path to skilled labor
Crow Corp. had trouble finding the right person for the job, so company management took a bold step—and outsourced the hiring process. Today, the Houston-area fabricator is feeling the benefits.
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Design for manufacturability opens doors
Dawson Doors, a fabricator in a small town in western New York, has developed a global presence in the high-end enclosure and door fabrication markets. By closely collaborating with customers, the unique fabrication company has continued to grow.
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The benefits of technical certification in metal fabrication
The prototype shop at International Gaming Technologies employs serious talent. They take a sheet metal part through the entire fabrication process, from laser cutting and bending to welding and grinding. To qualify for a job here requires...
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Project engineer changes careers, chooses metal fabrication
Jacob Melton quit his desk job in Chicago, drove home to Houston, and with his father bought a metal fabrication company. Several years later, even after a severe recession, it turns out that was a smart career move.
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Don't waste a good recession
When others sat on the sidelines praying for a miracle during the Great Recession, Seconn Fabrication added 25,000 square feet, invested in new equipment, implemented a new MRP system, refocused its marketing efforts, and tackled other projects to...
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Getting in tune with tube
Custom guitar-maker Gordon Branch started making guitars from wood, the traditional material, about 25 years ago. He went in a different direction when he created a design based on an aluminum billet, relying on the metal’s acoustic...
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The personal side of metal fabricating
Southern Fabricators Inc. has put a premium on the relationships it has with its customers, and that focus has led to robust growth, particularly as the metal fabricator has invested in new equipment to keep up with customer demands.
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A method to job shop software madness
Choosing job shop software can be a daunting task. How can you be sure to choose a system that accomplishes the tasks you want and provides the best return on investment?
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Old-school fabricator takes it one step at a time
Shortly after the company was founded as a welding and repair shop in 1949, Wells-Osborn Spiral Stairs found a niche in building spiral staircases. Founder Bill Osborn bought some equipment and made some of his own. Some of Osborn’s original...
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Welding ventilation goes to school
The concern to protect welders from the dangers of inhaling welding fumes is not limited to just metal fabricating companies. The schools training the next generation of manufacturing workers need to be concerned as well. In fact, the pressure may...
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Fabricating of the third-generation kind
A commitment to a new sales strategy and a solid foundation of fabricating talent and capabilities helped Clark Metal Products, Blairsville, Pa., weather the Great Recession. It's also put the company in a position to top its record year of 2008...
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Fabricating tube, learning lessons in America's Dairyland
J & D Tube Benders Inc., founded as a partnership to produce a single part number in 1971, today generates $16 million in annual revenues and is on the cusp of the third generation of family ownership. The key to its longevity is learning valuable...
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The Army’s manufacturing muscle
The Rock Island Arsenal has been a manufacturer of military equipment and ordnance since the 1880s, but today it has established itself as the only general-purpose, vertically integrated metal manufacturer in the U.S. Department of Defense. With...
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Fabricating to the drumbeat
A central Ohio job shop uses a mix of improvement methodologies--
including the theory of constraints--to reduce lead-times from weeks to days.
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Snow mean feat
Snowshoes have been used for thousands of years, but only recently have modern manufactured materials come into the picture.
These days lengths of bent and welded tube, usually aluminum, make up the frame. Although the market is crowded, Jake...
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Using watts, again
A West Coast metal fabricator, Laser Cutting Northwest developed a product called the regenerator, which generates electricity from exhausted air. One application includes dust collectors for laser cutting systems. Installed into the shop’s own...
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Stamper cuts costs of making surgical instruments
At least one stamper is reducing the cost of
medical devices by converting machined parts
to stamped or stamped/machined parts. Not
only is the manufacturer using this
innovative approach to reduce cost without
sacrificing quality and still meet...
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