A succession strategy at CB Fabricating

Shop Supervisor Justin Groover (left) joined CB Fabricating in November 2020. Within the next few years Chris Barkdull (right) plans to pass on management to Groover and do what he recently thought was unthinkable. He’ll retire. CB Fabricating

One Friday in late January, a frantic customer called Chris Barkdull, founder and president of CB Fabricating in Anderson, Ind. It was 10:30 a.m. The customer’s production line, which went down unexpectedly, needed 460 parts, pronto. CB’s lasers had just started cutting their long weekend run, but that didn’t matter.

Justin Groover, Barkdull’s shop supervisor, interrupted the job and then placed six sheets of 7-ga. carbon steel into the loader at around 11 a.m. By 1:45 p.m., shop personnel had the blanks denested (cut clean, with no need for deburring), packaged, and ready to ship.

“Then we went back to our weekend run,” Barkdull said. “I like to think that kind of flexibility is what gives us a good reputation in this business.”

Barkdull hired Groover in November 2020. In a few years Barkdull plans to pass on the management of the business to Groover and do something that until recently would have been unthinkable. He’ll retire.

The transition at CB Fabricating isn’t unique as the boomer generation ages. How the business transitions to the next generation matters, and Barkdull wants it to occur in a specific way, one that considers the livelihoods of his 18 employees.

Barkdull, Groover, and other core personnel—including Dave Leny, lead fabricator, and Margie Norton, office manager—are working to ensure all the pieces are in place for an eventual, smooth transition. “None of my children are involved in the business,” Barkdull said, “and I didn’t want to sell the place to a larger company. My biggest fear was that they’d come in, buy the equipment, sell the property, and not keep our people.”

As Barkdull sees it, business deals that end in selling assets and laying off people make the industry’s image problem even worse and the labor shortage more acute. Over the years he’s made sure this never comes to fruition at CB Fabricating. His strategy boils down to three core elements: an aggressive pursuit of technology, recognizing talent, and unceasing tenacity.

In Pursuit of Technology

Barkdull launched the shop with used turret punch presses and press brakes. Over the years he replaced used equipment with new, including a 2013 purchase of an Amada CO₂ laser with load/unload automation. Even back in the days of CO2 laser cutting, automation made a huge difference. “As soon as we got the machine up and running, we got work immediately,” Barkdull recalled. “We went 90 days without turning off the machine.”

By 2013 fiber lasers were already starting to proliferate widely. Barkdull had considered a fiber then, but just couldn’t justify the price. Four years of sales growth changed that. In 2017 he purchased his first fiber, a 3-kW machine. Three years later, he replaced his last CO2 machine with an Amada 9-kW fiber laser. “And we haven’t looked back. We’re just amazed at the speed the 9-kW system has. It’s amazing to watch it cut. Without that machine, our production would have been a third of what we’re putting out now. It’s just that much faster.”

Part of that speed comes from the beam power and quality, but the assist gas plays a contributing role. The shop not only uses nitrogen, but also a mix of nitrogen and oxygen. The nitrogen flushes the molten metal out of the kerf while the oxygen assists the cutting process.

In 2020 CB Fabricating replaced its last CO2 laser with a 9-kW Amada fiber laser, and the shop hasn’t looked back. The dramatic increase in cutting capacity has been critical to the company’s reputation for quick response. Tim Heston

As Barkdull explained, “Because it uses a combination of nitrogen and oxygen, the mixer allows us to cut quicker than we do with straight nitrogen on certain materials. We’re using the mixer on thicker material, like 3/16 and ¼ in. We’re cutting faster. We’re consuming less nitrogen. And it gives us a clean cut, so we don’t have to worry about the carbon buildup like we would when cutting with oxygen alone.”

In 2007, after decades working for larger companies, Barkdull—then 48 years old—decided to go out on his own. “Everybody told me what a bad move I was making, including the bank.”

They had good reasons to be skeptical. Metal fabrication remains a business dominated by small companies. Like CB Fabricating, most have fewer than 20 employees. A decade ago small shops collectively held the greatest buying power. That’s according to the “Capital Spending Forecast” published annually by the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association Intl. Collectively, spending decreased among the smallest shops by 15% between 2010 and 2022. For companies with between 50 and 250 employees, collective spending more than tripled.

Such trends might be driven partially by how sheet metal machine technology has evolved. Per-machine productivity has increased far more than machine price tags, but machine prices have of course risen significantly. That raises the barrier to entry, especially for the smallest operations.

CB Fabricating has bucked the trend. Without that 9-kW laser, Barkdull wouldn’t have been able to respond to that frantic Friday morning call from his customer with a line down, at least not as quickly. Such response has helped build and sustain the fabricator’s reputation, which in turn attracts more business and, in CB’s case, talent.

Recognizing Talent

Without Barkdull’s aggressive pursuit of fabrication technology, he probably never would have met Groover, who previously worked at a much larger operation near Indianapolis. Groover first stepped foot onto CB’s shop floor in 2017, when he visited to see the shop’s new 3-kW fiber laser in action (his then employer was thinking about purchasing one). During the tour, Groover paused by the punch tool sharpening station.

“Chris and I got to chatting,” Groover said. “And he asked us, ‘Do you guys have a turret?’ Well, yes, we did. He then said immediately, ‘If you need to sharpen tools, just give me a shout.’ So, a few weeks go by, and we needed to sharpen tools. I gave Chris a call, thinking there’s no way this guy is going to let me come in here and sharpen tools. He answered the phone and said, ‘Hey! Sure, I remember you! Come on by.’”

As the months went by, Groover kept driving to CB to sharpen tools, chatting with Barkdull every visit. As Groover recalled, “One time I came to visit and he said, ‘Why don’t you come work for me?’ I thought he was joking and laughed it off. Well, every time I’d come here he’d say that to me, and I found out he was dead serious.

“Eventually he gave me a call to offer me a job. I had been working with my current company for 21 years, and it was hard to walk away from it. So when Chris called me to offer me a job, I was honest. I told him, ‘If I come work for you, I’d really like a chance of buying the place.’ He said OK. We talked numbers, got everything figured out, and here I am.”

Like Barkdull, Groover had grown up on the shop floor. “I started working at 18 while I was still in school. And I had done just about everything possible. I ran shears, press brakes, lasers, plasma cutters, turrets. And when I was 20 years old, I started in the engineering department, and I began to see the progressive change in manufacturing technology. Owning my own shop has been a dream of mine for years now.”

One of CB Fabricating’s expert welders wields a gas tungsten arc welding torch. The company employs three expert welders, but shop leaders have taught nearly everyone on the shop floor to weld. CB Fabricating

Groover’s experience mirrored Barkdull’s in many ways, though Barkdull’s career extends back a few more decades. Like Groover, Barkdull has worked in the sheet metal business since he was a teenager. His earliest memories in the business are of his parents’ fab shop, working next to expansive layout tables, scribing lines, and cutting sheet metal with a shear and jigsaw. Then came the burn tables and, in the 1980s, the turret punch.

Eventually his mother sold the company and Barkdull went to work for another metal fabricator for a number of years. “But there’s nothing like owning your own company,” he said.

A self-proclaimed workaholic, Barkdull is used to long days. For most of CB’s history he has had his hand in virtually every aspect of production. This, however, is finally changing. “For the first 13 years I was here all the time,” he said. “I’ll be honest, it’s been very difficult for me to let go of any kind of responsibility.”

He’s able to do this now in part because of Groover, of course; at long last, Barkdull has someone to manage the day-to-day operations. But another factor has been his hiring practices. “Just a few months ago, Justin and I interviewed a gentleman who came into my office and said, ‘Dude, you’ve got a nice shop.’ I’m thinking, ‘Dude, I’m not hiring you. Don’t address me as dude.’”

When hiring, Barkdull doesn’t just listen to what the job candidate says. He listens to how they walk. “My dad gave me a good tip years ago. When you give a shop tour to a candidate, walk in front of the person you’re interviewing, and listen. If you hear them drag their feet, don’t hire them. If they’re too lazy to pick up their feet, they’re never going to be a good employee.”

Above experience, Barkdull hires for character. The candidate need not have lived a perfect life, either. Barkdull has close family members who’ve made bad decisions and even served prison time, and for that reason he doesn’t hesitate to work closely with work-release programs. “Over the years I’ve developed a sixth sense for what I’m looking for. When we find people who’ve had a challenging life, when they come in, we can usually pick up when they’re remorseful. They’re not just thinking, ‘I need a job to stay out of jail.’”

The company’s turret punch operator is a prime example. Before arriving at CB he washed dishes at a local restaurant—his first job after being released from prison. Barkdull hired him and trained him on the turret punch, a station he’s rarely left for seven years.

“He’s really become our turret punch expert,” Barkdull said. “He listens to the machine, pays attention to the sound, and he knows when something isn’t right.”

The shop employs three experts who spend most of their day welding, but nearly everyone in the organization learns to weld, and for several reasons. First, flexible capacity downstream increases throughput. Having all the cutting and bending capacity in the world doesn’t do much good if it’s just feeding a welding bottleneck. Second, welding is where bending and blanking come together, literally. If components aren’t cut and bent properly, welding them becomes arduous if not outright impossible. With at least a basic proficiency in welding, everyone knows the importance of producing quality parts upstream.

The same holds true for bending. Like in welding, CB employs a handful of bending specialists. That said, nearly every shop employee knows how to perform basic jobs on all five of the company’s Amada press brakes.

Barkdull has invested in technology to make the shop competitive, but he doesn’t want to dumb-down the operation either. He wants skilled operators, not button-pushers. A shop full of skilled, engaged people doesn’t require constant micromanaging. When Barkdull finally does step away, things shouldn’t fall apart.

Tenacity

High revenue concentration remains a common challenge throughout custom metal fabrication. According to FMA’s 2021 “Financial Ratios & Operational Benchmarking Survey,” a typical fabricator gets more than half of its revenue from about eight accounts.

Barkdull knows all about revenue concentration, but he also knows the value of the work his employees do. He doesn’t want to short-change them.

“We had one customer that had been 25% of our business. We had made more than 300,000 parts for them over seven years. They wanted me to lower my price to do business with them. I said I just couldn’t, so they pulled their business. Naturally, I was nervous. That customer kept six people busy all week. There was a lot of praying going on. But then we had three new customers come on board, and their work exceeded well beyond what that previous customer was doing with us.

“I’ve never been accused of being smart,” Barkdull continued. “Perseverance is a big part of it. I was blessed to have parents who didn’t know the meaning of ‘It can’t be done.’ That just means it hasn’t been done yet.”

CB’s customer base resembles that of many small shops, where the supply chain is less of a chain and more of a web. Several of CB’s largest customers are also competing custom fabricators. “Everyone knows who’s doing business for whom, and we know who not to call on and what toes not to step on,” Barkdull said. “We’ve all maintained these good relationships for a number of years. Companies remain loyal to me, and I remain loyal to them. That’s how relationships are built.”

Act of Trust

“This is Chris’ baby,” Groover said. “He knows how he wants to run it. But I’ve suggested a few subtle changes.” He paused, then chuckled, glancing across the room at Barkdull. “How do I put this lightly? He doesn’t agree with every suggested change, but he tries them.”

Since Groover came on board, Barkdull has been pulling back from the job ever so gradually. He arrives at 5 in the morning (instead of 3 or 4). And he’s taken more three-day weekends, largely taken up with his passion for racing. The shop sponsors several racing teams on the ARCA and Sprint Car circuits, including Tyler Roahrig, who won the 2021 Little 500 at the nearby Anderson Speedway.

Passing on the torch of a business is an act of trust, and Barkdull has no intention of doing it quickly. He has a few more years of work in him, but he’s learning to step back, knowing his baby is in good hands.

“Raising a business is kind of like raising a child,” Barkdull said. “To grow it from where we started [in 2007] with two people and 11,000 sq. ft., to where we are today at 40,000 sq. ft., it’s difficult to trust people to run it for you. But Justin has come here and proven himself. All of our co-workers like him, and our customers like him too.”