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work closely with both our customers and engineering team to embrace all our clients ’ ideas and potential projects .”
She continues : “ I often say to our customers , ‘ your expertise is this system or equipment , and our expertise is how to build it most efficiently .’ Our major clients particularly value the partnership we form together ; many of our customers often send me designs to review and advise on increasing quality or lowering costs , ahead of the manufacturing process .”
Embracing data
Throughout its history , the company has remained in Willits , California , now occupying a 125,000-square-foot facility in the area . “ In terms of equipment , we ’ ve got all the standard equipment such as press brakes with automatic tool changers , and we recently invested in fully automated fiber lasers ,” says Henry . “ But we don ’ t just make metal , we assemble it , so we have an extensive assembly department too , where we do sub-assembly and even some electrical mechanical assembly .”
Additionally , METALfx boasts a unique offering that sets the business further ahead of its competitors . “ You might not think it , but we even have a wood products division ,” Henry tells us . “ We don ’ t just ship standard amounts of product , so having an in-house wood division means that we can create unique , custom crates for our clients ’ orders , no matter how obscure .”
Another of the company ’ s key differentiators is its ability to contract , manufacture and carry inventory . Henry elaborates : “ To enable our true stocking agreements and supply chain management , we use data in every feasible way , shape , or form . We operate in a large-scale ERP system , for example , and use Lean manufacturing techniques .
“ Using technology , we capture all our data to enable us to estimate every step of our process . We can predict our schedule and the expected capacity of the delivery by analyzing our capacity demands , for example , meaning we can currently forecast precise delivery times for orders two-to-three months away . “ We deeply embrace data , acting as a resource for many of our customers to push Industry 4.0 within their company , and the uses of technology for us personally are endless ,” says Henry . The business uses technology to uphold safety measures , identify potential efficiencies to streamline operations , and to carry out predictive maintenance based on equipment activity .
“ Since Henry joined the business , we have become much more engaged with the use of data ,” Connie reflects . “ He ’ s done an excellent job of personalizing the data
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