RISE OF A TITAN

"Know what you do, do what you know? is the centerpiece of basic business strategy, garnered around the area of greatest expertise that provides consumer benefits, is not easy for competitors to imitate, and can be leveraged widely to many products and markets.

That leverage is driving the innovation for one manufacturer to pursue an aggressive growth strategy during a time when many others are struggling to survive.
Hammersmith Mfg. & Sales Inc. is a 45-year-old manufacturing firm with headquarters in Horton, KS. It knows steel, especially T1 and A36 carbon steel. It has always known steel, and it knows the fabrication, machining, cutting, welding and assembly processes that are married to steel.

Over the years, HMSI leveraged this technical knowledge to evolve into a hybrid company with a keen eye on strategy. In one layer of business, it is the parent company for Vail Products, the makers of a full line of severe-duty construction equipment attachments. In another layer, Hammersmith manufactures and markets the Ergoturn, a dynamic and highly flexible welding positioner, and the FleXX-Right, a patent-pending pipeline locator for the oil, natural gas and utility market.

?Our steady year-over-year growth has been mainly organic and through targeted acquisitions,? noted President Ed Hammersmith, a third-generation member of the family that privately owns this business and has instituted a corporate culture that believes in aversion to debt, diversity of products, and internal growth. This philosophy has positioned HMSI very favorably in a tough economic climate. The company is debt-free and employs 75 people across one 90,000 sq ft plant in Horton, another 125,000 sq ft facility in Holton, KS and a remote office in Overland Park, KS, that serves clients including BMC Cranes, Ottawa Trucks, SPX/Marley, CargoTec, Global Ground Support, GE Transportation, and Caterpillar.

Last year, as the company saw clouds of the deepening economic recession that lay ahead, it became clear that HMSI would have to leverage their extensive knowledge of steel fabrication to penetrate new markets and learn how to work with new materials to continue their growth. This needed to be accomplished with the most effective use of capital investment.

Faced with the choice for the next stage of expansion for the company, after much research ?it became clear that we should invest in a waterjet,? says Production Manager Matt Hammersmith. At the IMTS tradeshow in Chicago last fall, HMSI purchased an ultra-high pressure HCW-4012 waterjet from Flow International (Kent, WA). Dubbed the ?Titan?, this system uses 87,000 psi HyperJet pumps to power dual cutting heads through a 40 ft x 15 ft work envelope.

?We originally targeted buying two 20 ft waterjet machines. But with this equipment we saw immediate advantages that size and speed brought to the table,? explains Matt. ?The cost benefits and production gains are a significant boost to the bottom line for us and our clientele. You could say this machine is ?large and in charge?.?

You can say that again. The Titan-HCW 4012 uses an Advanced PASER® Mach4? cutting head system, Dynamic Active Tolerance control and FlowMaster ECL control software to precisely cut steel, metal, stone, plastics, composites, glass, ceramics, rubber and a myriad of other materials up to 8 in thick, with no heat-affected zone. This flexibility allowed HMSI to realize an immediate and direct cycle time gain of over 500 machine hours by strategically utilizing the new waterjet.

That?s a high 5-figure positive fiscal impact in hard dollars. ?Think about it. That?s from moving only ten parts over a 9-week period to the waterjet from our traditional machines,? adds Matt. ?These are just the parts that we manufacture and finish for ourselves.? Coupled with the reduction/elimination of rework and secondary finishing operations, improvements in quality and precise tolerance control, the positive fiscal impact and production gains doesn?t stop there.

?The waterjet?s size, speed and functionality removes many of the restrictions that our engineers and designers once faced with traditional processes,? explains Matt. ?Working with the new capabilities, new materials, new sizes and better manufacturing strategies moves us into markets we did not service or solicit in the past. We?re currently in dialogue with partners in aerospace, architecture, energy, lifestyle merchandising, outdoor recreation and transportation, to name a few. And we?re now sourcing materials from poly-foam to poly-ethylene and from glass to titanium.?

That?s a true growth strategy: new market opportunities, new product additions, quantum process improvements, enhanced manufacturing capabilities, capacity gains, bottom line benefits . . . all during the tough times of a down economy. What a great position to be in when everything returns.

Just call it 'large and in charge.'

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Scott Pagenkopf is the Director of Product Management for Hammersmith Mfg. & Sales Inc., 10801 Mastin Boulevard, Suite 740, Overland Park, KS 66210, 913-338-0754, Fax: 913-338-0798, www.hammersmithmfg.com.