We at SW plan to serve the metal fabrication market segment. Heus is charged with finding ways to improve that. Dan Davis is editor-in-chief of The FABRICATOR, the industry's most widely circulated metal fabricating and forming magazine, and its sister publications, STAMPING Journal, The Tube & Pipe Journal, and The Welder. If Amerequip wanted to keep growing, it had to make some changes. He is a 1990 Louisiana State University journalism graduate. Abfall said that, in combination with finding nearby partner companies that can assist with fabricating, welding, and finishing tasks when job orders exceed capacity, stabilizing the employee turnover has proven beneficial in allowing the company to focus on internal improvements, which ultimately leads to more efficiency on the shop floor. This “pull” demand, instead of “push” demand in which the fabricating and welding department just produce parts and send them to the finishing and assembly departments even if they may not really be ready for them, is symbolized by pallets and totes found throughout the assembly area. Since metal fabrication isn’t the usual run-of-the-mill kind of business that anyone with capital can start, it requires a thorough understanding of both the fundamentals of metal fabrication and business strategies. Here are some practical tips to help you grow your customer base. Easily access valuable industry resources now with full access to the digital edition of The Tube & Pipe Journal. An acquisition can be a great way to enter structural steel fabricators business ownership. Heus added that the CO2 laser technology really makes sense for the material mix that Amerequip cuts on a regular basis. Growing company supplies steel and metal products to a wide variety of customers, both do-it-yourselfers as well as major construction companies. In 2018 Amerequip Corp., a fabricator of custom equipment for the lawn, landscape, agricultural, and construction markets, was trying to keep up with a manufacturing economy that was red-hot. The bath allows Amerequip to cut with oxygen as the laser cutting assist gas instead of the more expensive nitrogen, which many other fabricators use to avoid the oxidized edges that come with oxygen-assisted laser cutting. The company began life as the Farm Specialty Manufacturing Co., founded in 1920 by Bruno F. Arps of New Holstein, Wis. It is a fact that you cannot successfully run any business in the United States without the proper documentations. When the local economy thrives, these boosts tend to cause consumers to loosen their purse strings and purchase bigger-ticket items such as cars, boats, and houses. Promote Your Drawing Service ; Does your company offer a Tekla drawing service, if yes, promoting it will help you to get an edge over your competition. To fill up the talent pipeline, the fabricator is looking to strengthen its partnerships with local high schools and technical schools. Then the fabricator made a major shift in its work hours. After almost a year of back and forth and finally testing, a new casting will make its debut in a 2020 backhoe product. A Metal Fabrication Shop. The fabricator couldn’t find enough workers, and retention was becoming more of an issue as some employees took advantage of the robust manufacturing economy in Wisconsin, finding other employment that may have offered more money or was closer to their homes. 2135 Point Blvd., Elgin, IL 60123 (815) 399-8700. (So focus your resources.) The company raised its starting wage to more than $15 per hour. Irrespective of the power or condition of your management, large-impact hazards can take a toll on any kind of business. Bob Heus, the company’s operations manager, said the big benefit of this automated material handling system is that no lift trucks are needed for material movement. The preliminary steps involved in starting a metal fabrication business are similar to other business startups. In the near term, Heus said the focus is on looking at automation that might be able to assist with parts sorting after skeletons are unloaded from the laser cutting bed. Now Amerequip has morning and afternoon shifts that run 10 hours each, Monday through Thursday, and a weekend shift that comprises three 12-hour days, Friday to Sunday. Marketing and Sales strategy We at SW totally understand that satisfied customers will aid our business by referring our company to other clients who need our services. The idea is that flow would be simplified on the shop floor if painted parts were exiting from one area and directly into value streams. That’s a pretty good place to be if you’re in the business of using thin metal strips, Many are delivered in a just-in-time manner; when a tote is emptied, it is returned to New Holstein for replenishment and delivered back to the Kiel facility’s assembly area. The fabricator also has a pretreatment system, installed in 2017, in which all parts are processed. Please fill out this form and we will get in touch with you shortly. The variety offered by metal fabrication businesses, brings a lot to the table when it comes to matching market supply and demand. In order to be a smart metal fabrication services business … In this case, the business is more about fabricating and building products. The challenge was a culture of always trying to fulfill customers’ wishes. Amerequip struggled to keep up with work, and if it were to continue its successful pattern of year-over-year growth, it needed to reduce employee turnover and straighten out some of its processes. “Of course, if we didn’t have the pickling system and had to go back to all manual removal of oxide, the nitrogen cutting starts to become more attractive,” Heus said. Expanding your shop may not be easy, but it’ll be well worthwhile for you and your employees committed to its growth. When they are empty, they go back to fabrication to be filled—fabrication to welding to painting to assembly. It is expected to grow at a rate of 3% annually, reaching USD $21.38 billion by 2024. Another area of focus is perhaps creating one part load-off area instead of separate ones that dot the large assembly area. The cylinders are made at the company’s New Holstein, Wis., facility. That way the shop floor is only producing parts that are destined to be used, nothing more and nothing less. With a little planning and innovation, you can drive growth and expand fabrication operations. Our specific choice of target markets at SW is based on an in-depth understanding of our prospective customer’s needs.We believe that our skills and capabilities will allow us to very well compete and develop our reputation within our business area. The system can supply material to nine lasers and be expanded to 18 towers and 250 shelves to accommodate 12 laser cutting machines. TTM May 2018 Revenue. Although fiber laser technology is not part of the mix right now, Abfall said that they are keeping an eye on it if the need is there for further expansion of the laser cutting system. In 2012, 125 people worked for Amerequip; by mid-2017 that number had grown to 300. You probably already have an idea of what type of business you want to open and how you want to incorporate. In addition to the 71,000-square-foot welding shop expansion in 2014, Amerequip added an 83,000-sq.-ft. addition in 2016 to house its laser cutting and bending operations. We quickly learned that in metal fabrication, … Continental Steel has established itself over the years as a company whose specialty is sourcing hard-to-find metals. Don’t Rush to Expand. That’s where Amerequip now finds itself. Megan R. Nichols. 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According to Fijek, Nu-Way has all of this, which will make this display business a key part of its growth strategy. Steel Fabrication Business. Purchasing machines that are not yet cost-efficient or enlarging facilities … Abfall said another project is investigating ways to add capacity. The first way to quickly grow your business is by building a sales funnel. To do that, it can’t afford to supply assemblies and end products that don’t meet customer expectations. Everyone at Amerequip has had a chance to catch their breath and even sit down for an interview with The FABRICATOR. (Oxidized edges act as a barrier to superior paint and powder coating adhesion on metal parts.). A recent award-winning cast part is a good example of this type of cost-saving conversation. The casting weighs 5.6 lbs. But it's important to evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of buying a business before you decide on either an acquisition or startup approach. Abfall said the brakes have been instrumental in helping the bending department keep up with the efficient delivery of laser-cut parts. Abfall said that the company’s design engineering, fabricating, assembling, painting, and testing capabilities have proven to be a winning combination, enticing its long-term customers to throw more work their way. “Those companies that are promoting their business, following the sales plan, and keeping track of where they are, are growing,” he said. Holes and mating features are now machined into the casting, instead of laser cutting them early on, which allows for tighter tolerances and more accurate assembly. This 15-tower, 200-shelf automated raw material storage and retrieval system supplies six CO2 laser cutting machines with a consistent flow of sheet metal. “Within the last year, we have become more proactive versus reactive. But the metal fabricating industry is not dominated by companies that take it easy. “This will be a $25 million-plus business,” he said. The goal is to grow the business. In the metal fabrication business, everyone would rather be busy than slow, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy. The fabricator is growing because it has figured out what makes it special and how to maintain that with expansion and new blood entering the organization. As robotics technology continues to improve, automation is one of the trends that businesses in the metal fabrication industry are set to embrace in the coming years. Most companies in the metal fabrication business work primarily to fortify their organization’s strategy in a manner that can best help them make it through changes in the global economy. The fabricator has 10 Lincoln Electric welding cells with FANUC robots. Take the … Automating critical processes like production and assembly is helping businesses to optimize their operations and reduce costs. Work continues to introduce more just-in-time programs with vendors, so more improvement in this area is likely. $1,151,279. There’s no guarantee that these and other improvements will get Amerequip to its goal of $150 million in sales by 2023, but all of these recent changes create a solid foundation from which to make a solid go of it. When one is emptied, the accompanying router card and pallet/tote goes all the way back to the front of the system, the fabrication department, and a production order is triggered. The clutch plate is an essential item in the automobile industry. The monorail takes the cartridge and inserts it into one of the open shelves. One of the first things he did was eliminate the requirement that every weldment has to be tack welded before being placed in the fixture. Heus said Amerequip has been fortunate in creating an environment where manufacturing activity is now linked closely to real demand, not unrealistic production schedules or the personal desires of machine operators. To do that, it can’t afford to supply assemblies and end products that don’t meet customer expectations. In the past two years alone, the company has made great strides to upgrade … Easily access valuable industry resources now with full access to the digital edition of The WELDER. It has about 70 welders. Accuracy and an eye for detail count when writing a business plan. Financial Performance. The company was renamed Arps Corp. in 1952 and ultimately Amerequip in 1983, following an ownership change. Enjoy full access to the digital edition of The Additive Report to learn how to use additive manufacturing technology to increase operational efficiency and improve the bottom line. They didn’t want as much free time,” Abfall said. Amerequip had made significant investments—$25 million alone in capital equipment from 2012 to 2017—to stay on top of all these new opportunities. After almost doubling the manufacturing square footage over the last four years, the company has achieved a comfortable production rhythm. It had just completed a major expansion of its welding and fabricating areas at its main manufacturing facility in Kiel, Wis., in 2017 and boosted its laser cutting capacity with a major investment in cutting machines and a huge 15-tower, 200-shelf automated raw material storage and retrieval system, but it was still having trouble handling all of the new opportunities from its customers. They joined the company’s two hydraulic press brakes. With its capital equipment investments over the last couple of years, the company won’t have to worry about laser cutting or bending being its bottleneck. Benefits & Drawbacks of a Structural Steel Fabricators Business Acquisition. Metal fabrication business planning should always include contingency measures in the event unanticipated risks arise. Also offers custom fabrication of products as subcontractor on major regional projects as well as one-off design and fabrication of products as diverse as farm and ranch, Bar BQ, trailer applications and much more. By then it had its original manufacturing facility in New Holstein and a newer facility in nearby Kiel. The rise of automationhas no doubt changed the nature of many industries including metal fabrication. However, human resources was posing a problem. The exercise is bearing some fruit after only a few months. Until then some of the fabricating and welding work took place at its 40,000-sq.-ft. New Holstein plant, which is now being used exclusively for cylinder manufacturing. That accuracy, along with the precise cuts delivered by the laser, has allowed many parts to bypass the machine shop, which was not the case about three years ago. … Working through the local technical schools’ welding boot camps, a person can become trained to take on basic welding tasks, which comes with the opportunity to make $3 an hour more than other roles in the facility. Executive Summary ; Metal Fabricators™ is a welding and fabrication business with expertise in the production of a variety of building equipment and accessories. If you are looking to grow your fabrication business over the next year, here is a practical guide to help you. It’s evolved.”. It had $55 million in sales revenue in 2016 and expects to reach $110 million in 2020. That business model still exists today as it builds familiar items, such as backhoes, and newer products such as mower decks and snow blowers for skid steers. These include doors, windows, metal cabinets, railings, and metal garden tools among others. It's foolish to make important metal fabrication services business decisions without carefully assessing the risks associated with each option. All Rights Reserved. An overhead crane moves the raw stock from trucks at the nearby dock in the rear of the building to the loading point for material storage. One of the first steps Amerequip took was to renegotiate the contract with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which represented its employees. When Amerequip was looking at rising volumes for an 11-piece steel swing frame that was used on a compact utility tractor backhoe attachment, it realized that it might be more cost-effective to have it cast instead of fabricated. Now a part can be put in the fixture, and it’s ready for the robot. “With everything that has changed over the last six months, now everybody really is being able to focus more on cost,” Abfall said. Fabrication shops could be employed by contractors, OEMs and VARs in … Alex Elzein made a bold move where he started his stone fabrication business and managed it by himself for 20 years, slowly growing his company, Graniterra, located in St. Louis, MO. Here is a sample business plan for starting an iron and metal fabrication company. When other fabricators were cutting costs and postponing investments during the Great Recession, BTD Manufacturing, Detroit Lakes, Minn., was moving forward with plans to grow the business. Clutch Plate. “People want time, and it’s even more so now than it was 15 years ago. It added a weekend shift at the Kiel facility, something that Abfall said he had never done before. Based on product volume, the number of pallets and totes that feed assembly varies. If you are starting a one-person metal fabrication shop, you might be fine with a 3G MIG and stick certification. Email * Phone * City * State * For this opportunity our client is asking for a little … Change is a constant in the steel and metals industry and fabrication businesses need to be able to keep up or risk becoming obsolete. Abfall said that the company has committed to doing a better job in internal posting of jobs and communicating about opportunities. It’s also giving thought to how might be the best way to stage product for shipping to customers. When a company is making end products, fabricating large assemblies, and preparing kits for major OEM customers, it has to have its assembly process down. Know your customers is the basic rule for any or all business. I'm Interested! Enjoy full access to the digital edition of STAMPING Journal, which serves the metal stamping market with the latest technology advancements, best practices, and industry news. Amerequip is taking the same approach with its vendors, encouraging them to more actively manage their delivery of products. Degree/Diploma in Welding, Fabrication and Metal Work; List of Legal Documents You Need to Run a Welding and Fabrication Company . In this process a metal part is dipped into a tank containing a water-based solution mixed with a paint emulsion. If you hope to thrive, balance investments in skills with selecting emerging technologies and implementing flawless customer service. When it comes to the metal fabrication sector, the good news is that things are currently experiencing a growth spurt. Inquire today about this profitable and growing steel fabrication business for sale! Employees that work the weekend shift get paid for 40 hours. Before coming to The FABRICATOR he has covered appliance manufacturing, the finishing industry, and manufacturing and business software development. Easily access valuable industry resources now with full access to the digital edition of The FABRICATOR. Construction companies require steel in various shapes for their work which means that there is almost always a steady demand for a specialist in the steel fabrication business. I need a partner to setup a welding & steel fabrication business. 1. These totes are at the heart of Amerequip’s approach to manufacturing flow. Starting wages for welders topped $18. © 2020 FMA Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. No lift trucks are used to move material. In 2018 Abfall said he knew something had to change. However, it can sometimes be very challenging. It enables the rotary … A quick glance of the monitor can give machine operators an idea of how laser cutting is going. Understand your customer's needs and develop products and services that meet those needs. (E-coat, short for electrophoretic coating, is known for its corrosion-resistance abilities. 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