Good news on the horizon

I’m thankful to share that our machining business has picked up and we’re running near capacity. I can’t get overly optimistic just yet, but good news nonetheless.

We haven’t required new equipment, new employees or a second shift, but that could change if business continues at this pace or improves. While this uptick has been a nice morale booster, our energy-focused market remains unpredictable. Even so, we’re getting a bit more confident with our forecasts and planning.

Our machine shop performs both primary machining, which is the driver of the current uptick, and secondary machining in support of our fabrication and tooling departments. Because we have a great staff and an aggressive sales approach, we’ve succeeded in growing the primary machining offerings to a much bigger share of the total. However, it is making the secondary machining needs more disruptive, as most of those requests come on short notice.

This situation, combined with recent market conditions that mandate a lean operation with little capital investment or new-hires, has made on-time delivery critical. Based on customer input, more work will arrive, but keeping it lean while increasing capacity in our current state is a challenge.

To tackle the issue of increasing available capacity, we’ve discussed three possible strategies: increase overtime for the existing crew, add a second shift or enhance equipment through upgrades or acquisitions. Each scenario has pluses and minuses.