We made the decision to move Richard Petrash up two years early to manage the production of the building , to ensure we would hit our 2021 move-in date . We counted steps and designed so everything flows , minimizing steps that waste time and eventually cost us money ,” he said . They designed all the wiring to be underground for a cleaner factory . Lunceford said it was always instilled in him by his father-in-law Ken Putman , who is the president , to always have a clean , organized shop . He said the employees have more pride in the facility and the product because of the cleanliness and organization of the shop . “ We take much pride in what we do , from the cleanliness to the quality of the parts ,” he said .
Lunceford oversees factory operations , sales and the order of materials for production . He also encourages department heads to come up with ideas and try new ideas with the FAIL model — “ first attempt in learning ” — instead of thinking something is a failure . He is always looking for process improvement and new ways to get the product to the customer quicker .
Longevity is critical at this company . “ There are employees who have been with the company for 30 to 40 years , and the younger ones have been here from four to ten years . Even though one-third are actually family members , everyone is treated like family because when you take care of the people , they will in return take care of the business ,” Lunceford says .
He loves taking raw materials and turning them into something with a critical application . Lunceford said that the application for tiny screws or parts could be for something that contains a liquid or a seal . He said tiny screws or parts are small enough to fit on a dime . The aerospace or medical industries can both use those products . At the end of the day , Lunceford said , “ We take on the parts no one wants to machine .”
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He explained , “ With our arsenal of screw machines , we can take on small run R & D parts for 5 to 15 pieces , while still producing over 2.5 million parts a month servicing our customers worldwide .”
Aerospace is their big area of growth . “ We are surrounded by it around here ,” Lunceford said . He noted that when they were in southern California , it was biotech and medical devices “ because that ’ s who we were surrounded by .”
He shared that they follow market trends , and their diversification has helped them stay busy “ even when a business plateaus .” They have been doing ¼ diameter or smaller plastic aerospace fasteners since 2009 , in large volume . “ As a job shop , we don ’ t dictate what materials we use . Our customers come to us with drawings , and they suggest this drawing is plastic ; this one is metal .”