Growing with flexibility in a modern metal fabrication job shop

For many small and midsized metal fabrication job shops, the key to growth is the willingness to be flexible. In his latest blog, Nick Martin of North Carolina shop Barnes MetalCrafters writes that if opportunity knocks, shops better be ready to answer. Getty Images

Growing seems like such a simple word. But when it comes to business, growing becomes a little more complicated. So many factors are involved in growing a business, especially a metal fabrication shop. Not everything is meant to happen all at once, though. The way I see it, growth should happen at the right times and for the right reasons. It should happen at a comfortable and manageable pace – not too quick.

Maintaining a steady cash flow while investing back into the business helps solidify the foundation for growth. But it obviously costs money to invest in a business, so you just have to make sure the profits from those investments outweigh the spending into other investments.

Over the years of working with my dad, Tim, I have watched him put money back into our job shop business, Barnes MetalCrafters, with new machines and other equipment - anything that will help make a job or project run faster, easier, or better for our employees on the floor.

In other words, when opportunity knocks, answer it.

Take the skills you’ve learned, apply them to any job, and then keep an eye out for a better solution to help you down the road. That is an easy way to approach growth. Oftentimes you are stacking successful methods without even knowing it.

We’ve had such a weird roller coaster of work flow during the pandemic that we tried to take advantage of any opportunity for growth that came along. There have been some job requests come in the door over the last few months that have made us rethink our approach.

A job that we might normally outsource or find a one-off solution for in-house has made us think about gearing up with some different types of machines. The small one-off jobs have always been there, but I think we are ready for some change, like perhaps adding some secondary laser cutting operations.

We’ve seen some of these jobs repeat, and there is indication these projects will keep coming for some time. So, it makes sense to use these new opportunities to grow and expand our capabilities. Although nothing is set in stone, we are always open to diversifying our customer base.

That approach of working with several different industries has worked out for us so far, so we’ll continue to not put all our eggs in one basket. I like it that way.

I get bored pretty quickly with monotonous tasks. So, having a spark with potentially new jobs and seeing different kinds of parts floating through the shop gets my wheels turning. What else can we do? What other customers can we help?

Laser cutting 1-inch plates to later be machined for precision holes. You could cook dinner for a village on this plate when it was done being cut. Image: Nick Martin

There will be quite a learning curve for us, but we have some sharp minds at the shop. It will be hard at first to pull people away from their daily tasks, but I see other ways of solving that issue. If we do get into making small to large quantities of machined parts, there is always a way to automate. That can help us maintain our current staff while still supporting these production runs.

And what job shop doesn't like automation? We have the welding robot that knocks out tasks and the two lasers with shuttling tables, allowing us to cut parts while the operators load and unload parts. I can see us adding some automated material handling in the future to support another shift. I also envision a robot in front of one of our press brakes and possibly a robot in front of a machining center.

The shop we are in now was built for growth, and when any opportunity comes along, we are ready. We are always looking ahead. Even if we don’t land any new long-term jobs soon, I still think it may be a time to look at offering some different capabilities at the shop.

Either way, I am excited for the possibility of a change.

Completed 1-inch part after laser cutting and machining. Image: Nick Martin