Indiana shop thinks big, creates jobs

All images courtesy Chesterfield Tool

Greg Julian, vice president of technical operations at Chesterfield Tool and Engineering.

Many employees dream about being their own boss and setting their own hours. For Greg Julian, vice president of technical operations at Chesterfield Tool and Engineering Inc., and Rick Ray, president, the desire to spend more time with their families led them to follow that dream. The two worked together as toolmakers at a large job shop and wished to own and run an employee-friendly shop. They wanted to create an atmosphere that enabled employees to have more family time, such as getting time off to attend a child’s school play.

The toolmakers and their wives, Luanne Julian and Nichola Ray, purchased Chesterfield Tool in 1989. The company was established in 1960 as a small job shop in Chesterfield, Ind., but was later moved to Daleville, Ind., where it retained the Chesterfield name.

Chesterfield Tool specializes in designing and building custom machines and tooling, trepanning, honing, gundrilling and remanufacturing hydraulic cylinders. Its clientele varies from small machine shops to Fortune 500 companies and their overseas subsidiaries.

Yesenia Salcedo, senior editor of CTE, checked in with Greg Julian to see how the company manages to be profitable and create jobs.

Chesterfield Tool uses this gundrilling and deep-hole boring machine renovated with a high-speed gearbox to drill small-diameter holes.

CTE: How has your team kept Chesterfield Tool successful for more than 20 years?

Julian: Diversification. We followed the compass toward the needs of the industry. For example, when the opportunity came along to make large, precision shafts for a client, we invested in a large CNC lathe and large manual OD grinder, knowing our client had trouble finding vendors capable of making these parts to their close tolerance requirements. The client said this work could only be done on an expensive CNC grinder. We begged to differ. Also, when a local honing company closed, we purchased its equipment and added contract honing. Chesterfield did not have previous honing experience, so we hired a technician. From this acquisition, we branched off into repairing and remanufacturing commercial hydraulic cylinders.

CTE: How do you keep adding jobs in this economy?