Good service leads to good business.

I have been in the business of designing and selling castings since the early 1970s. As a small jobbing shop, our business sold service with the castings, not volume.

My father was in the corrugated box business and always told everyone, "We sell boxes, not trees." I feel that is why we are still here as a small metalcasting machine shop.

We are an aluminum and brass metalcasting facility in central Nebraska and service an area about 200 miles in radius for castings. Granted, we have a product line that we invented and sell all over North America, but our customers like the fact that they can buy one part if needed and know the price, because we price by 1-2, 3-5, 10-25, 50-100 parts and up.

We agree that a lot of the metalcasting facilities that have closed in the past few years have lost all true cost controls on the per part item, which is devastating on the final cost when they can't run enough to keep the doors open. We have lost some castings to off-shore businesses quoting cheaper by the ton, as well. But most of them came back in a few years after the customers realized the service and other benefits we offered were very valuable to them. Whether it is a few bad castings with holes, or that they need six more parts to get a large order out, we help.

Bill Loutzenheiser, Engineering CTO 

Juniata, Neb.